The Material for Building a Church (2)

Ephesians 4:15-16—But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love—provide us with three principles concerning the material we use for building a church. The first is the command to [speak] the truth.

Second, lest our speaking be harsh, mean spirited, insensitive, or arrogant, Paul adds a principle that will control our speaking—love. No one in Corinth could have accused Paul of being unkind or unloving in his rebuke. Likewise, we are never to be rude, unkind, arrogant, or overbearing when we speak the truth. We are to always do it “in love.” A pastor must never “brow beat” God’s people; neither should any believer be arrogant, overbearing, or use “high pressure techniques” in personal witnessing. Our goal is to humbly and lovingly draw people to the Lord. Further, love is the balancing agent of conviction and courage. When the child of God has convictions and courageously stands on them, he will be called “closed minded,” “intolerant,” “hard-nosed,” and many other things. But when love is the balancing agent, people will take notice.

One commentator ably demonstrates the comparison of love and truth by pointing out that speaking the truth without love makes us ungracious, while speaking only love with no truth makes us unfaithful. “Raw truth” can alienate the very people we are trying to reach, while “uncontrolled love” can suppress the very truth we need to share.

A skilful physician, having to treat an abscess but finding the person to be afraid of lancing, privately wrapped up his knife in a sponge and then while gently smoothing the affected area, lanced it. Likewise, when we encounter an offender, we must not openly carry the dagger in our hand, but with words of sweetness administer our reproof, and so affect the cure.

May we understand that this love does not constitute some syrupy sentimentality that sets aside doctrine for the sake of unity. This is the common notion and practice in our day, when love is viewed as supreme over all else. But this is not what Paul is saying in this phrase or the context. Such a view makes a mockery of verse 14. This challenge from the great expositor Martyn Lloyd-Jones, preached several decades ago, should be heeded by every evangelical of our day: “To put life or ‘spirit,’ or niceness, or anything else, before truth is to deny essential New Testament teaching; and in addition is to contradict directly the Apostle’s solemn warning in verse 14. It is to set up ourselves, and the modern world, and the 20^th-century man, as the authority rather than the ‘called apostle’ Paul and all others whom the Lord has set in the Church to warn us against, and to save us from, this attitude which dislikes discrimination and judgment. Never was it more important to assert that friendliness or niceness or sentimental notions of brotherliness do not constitute Christianity. You can have all such qualities without and apart from Christianity, and even in men who deny it, but you cannot have Christianity without ‘truth.’ So that, whatever else it may mean, ‘holding the truth in love’ does not mean a vague, flabby, sentimental notion of niceness and fellowship and brotherhood.”

Later Lloyd-Jones touches on another matter that is very common in our day and is one of my own pet peeves about modern ministry: “Obviously we must know exactly what the truth is. We are not to spend the whole of our time arguing about preliminaries and presuppositions; we are to start with the revealed truth and expound it. Every one of us to understand, to believe, and the ‘hold the truth,’ not to speculate philosophically about life and its meaning and its problems. It is not for any preacher to stand in a pulpit and say, ‘I think this,’ or ‘I have come to this conclusion,’ but rather ‘Thus saith the Lord.’”

Oh, how true this is today! “Preaching” is filled with opinion and psycho-babble, but Truth is absent. May we never hesitate to speak the Truth, but may we never fail to speak it in love. To reverse the emphasis, may we always be loving, but may we never compromise the Truth.