Truth vs Love
Today I went to my first ever presbytery meeting. Or, rather, half of my first ever presbytery meeting - I was supposed to come under care, but there was a mistake somewhere so that won't be happening for another several months. Ahh, well..
While there, I did have the opportunity to hear a speaker from Harvest USA. What stuck with me was the speaker's ability to speak in an up-front manner on controversial subjects coupled with his ability to not be a jerk while doing so. Increasingly, I think this is something I value highly in speakers, writers, and preachers. It's one of the chief characteristics I appreciate of CCEF, for example.
This has had me thinking throughout the day about the relationship between truth and love. Frequently, the two are presented as being, at best, in a sort of tension with each other or, at worse, as being diametrically opposed to each other. However, I'm wondering if the two are, in a sense, "perspectivally related", as John Frame might say. Perhaps the two are sometimes different but equally still valid ways of looking at the same thing. That is, "true truth" is ultimately loving, while "loving love" is always truthful. The converse might apply as well: truth without love is a lie, while love without truth is nothing more than insincere selfishness.
A simple, non-controversial example would be telling a man he needs to stop beating his wife. Doing so is "true", because the man really does need to stop beating his wife. And it is also loving, as the cessation of wife-beating is not only (obviously) in the best interests of the wife, but of the husband as well as doing so will remove guilt, shame and broken relationships from him.
There's much more I could say on this, and much more thinking that I need to do before this is cogent. It's been a long day, however, and I need to do something non-computer related. So the above will have to suffice for the time being.
May 18, 2004 09:20 PMWhile I agree with what you're saying, many people I've run into who take the time to slice n' dice truth & love in this manner are usually concerned with maintaining some twisted sense of objectivism/enlightenment rationalism/i.e. continue to be a theological prick.
now I know that YOU'RE not doing this, but, my concerns with the former got me thinking:
I really think that a bad conception of truth is messing up the truth/love discussion. I think the statement "you can't have truth without love" assumes that love itself is something truth-ish and proximally propositional, and I don't think it is. Further, I think it also assumes a correspondence definition of truth, so I think this issue becomes really unhelpfully complicated and divorced from moral subjects engaged in very real action.
So my suggestion is a much more "lower level" interpersonal approach to thinking about both truth and love, i.e., introduce motivation, the moving of the Holy Spirit, loyalty, trust, and numerous other factors into the entire discussion of truth & love.
Jesus tells us to care about our brothers and sisters. He calls us to love them. Because of Christ's love for us and our subsequent love for our brothers and sisters, we care about the sister in Christ and therefor don't want her to be beaten by her husband anymore. Whether or not its "true" that its wrong to beat your wife is "the issue" insofar as its just, well, assumed. What seems to be the really important thing is that we actively love.
Anyways, I'm trying ot make this comment while at work juggling 8 million things...so its probably incoherent. I hope I made sense. Basically I just feel the whole debate is misframed.
Pondered by JosiahQ at May 19, 2004 10:10 AMHmmm ....
I actually think we're talking about the same thing. I didn't have time to define my terms better, but I was speaking of truth and love in two senses - first as outworking of the divine simplicitas and second, specifically in the ethical-personal realm, as you mentioned.
Roughly put, to speak "truth" to someone without simultaneously being loving is to, in fact, lie, since you are reflecting falsely upon the divine character. And to act in a "loving" manner towards someone without being truthful is to be un-loving, since you are not reflecting divine love.
I hope that helps a little. As I said, I'm still thinking this out.
