“God
wants us to grow up,
to know the whole truth and tell it in love
—like Christ in everything” (Ephesians 4:15Msg)
to know the whole truth and tell it in love
—like Christ in everything” (Ephesians 4:15Msg)
Introduction
My friend bought me an ice-cream. Vanilla Chocolate chip
Ice-cream. She knew that I’m a poor guy, so she bought it out of her friendly-sympathy
and to cover-up her own craving desire to indulge herself over her favorite;
Mint Chocolate chip ice-cream. To shut my mouth from judging her. And I felt
into her cunning trap. “Enjoy it!”
she said. I do.
As I licked that sweet expensive dessert, I thought: ‘What make ice-cream, ice-cream? What if it’s
hot, would we still call it ice-cream? What if it’s bitter, would we still call
it ice-cream? Hmmm… maybe not’. After I went back home, I remember reading
the Scripture that says, “…speaking the truth in love”. Cold and
Sweet. Love and Truth. What a good illustration! Ice-cream is ice-cream if it’s
cold and sweet; so it is with being God’s people, Christian is Christian if “we love
each other” and “show the truth by our actions” (1 John
3:18NLT).
Cold
and Sweet. Love and Truth.
Love makes truth pleasant to ‘taste’, acceptable, satisfactory to the mind and feelings; while
truth make love practical. Truth without love breeds legalism, while love
without truth breeds insincerity. Truth without love kills, love without truth
lies. Truth without love is powerless to change lives, while love without truth
could change them in a wrong direction. Warren W. Wiersbe writes, “Truth
without love is brutality, and love without truth is hypocrisy.” Love and Truth is inseparable – they are One.
You must love one another because Jesus is Love and
deeply loves us, for the Scripture says, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is
love” (1 John 4:8NLT); and “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one
and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have
eternal life” (John 3:16NLT). And you must know and tell the Truth because Jesus is the
Truth, for Jesus says in the Scripture, “I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me”
(John 14:6NLT); and He tells the Truth for the Scripture also describes him as
the "faithful and true witness" (Rev.
3:14). Love and Truth is inseparable – they are One.
Conclusion
Ice-cream is ice-cream if it’s cold and sweet. Christian
is Christian if they follow the Master who is Love and the Truth. Therefore, let
us love each other and show the truth by our actions. THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.
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