Love Is Truth In Action, Acted Out Lovingly

"Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth."
- 1 John 3:18 (NIV, 2011)

WHAT is love? An age-old question. My thought here is love is truth in action, acted out lovingly. Let me attempt to convince you, by making the following statements, and by supporting those statements with my understanding of what love truly is - love in and among the common people, as a communicated reality of divine delight in relationship.

1. Love wrestles with the truth. When 'truth' is presented it's to be wrestled with; this is the antecedent to growth. Many times we shirk the wrestling to be done. We shrink in fear of exposure. That we don't have the mettle. But just a little more fortitude brings a ton of blessing of, "I can do this!" Love wrestles with the truth because it cannot rest until justice is done.

2. Love must act on the truth. It cannot sit on by and let the truth meander, pretending that falsity will do. It cannot. Love is courage to speak the truth as well as the courage to face the truth. These are both potentially scary concepts, but they're never scary when they're lovingly deployed. But such crucial conversations require great skill; great heart; great empathy and understanding. Truth never damages, only when it's haphazardly delivered without love.

3. Truth acts lovingly. For truth to be harsh would make truth untrue in character. It would be truth missing the mark: a fatal dichotomy. Truth is lovingly deployed. The hardest of hits, then, so far as truth is concerned, is received well. So truth can be relied upon to deliver in trustworthy ways without undue angst; the ripples of anxiety, shockwaves of harm - that damage trust and respect in a relationship.

Love is truth in action, acted out lovingly. In truth and love there are no losers, only winners. These two, united and resolved, build up and inspire growth, joy, and hope.

In truth and love is both safety and growth.

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