You've no doubt known people who have an artificial smile plastered on their face and say - "I'm fine!" or "That's OK by me!" or other pleasantries and niceties, while deep down inside they are angry or depressed or hate you. In my previous essay I quoted Romans 12:9 - "Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good." At times we need to stop pretending that everything is just fine, and say - "Enough of this phony inclusivism!"
In Ephesians 4:15 we read - "...but speaking the truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, Christ." Often people take this to mean we should be kind and gentle when telling another person the truth that might be hard to hear. Of course, that's part of the meaning, but we should look at the whole context of that verse. St. Paul begins by reminding the believers in Ephesus to preserve the unity of the faith (v. 3). Then he continues:
"Shouldn't love simply be the rule? Some old saint said we can just love God and do as we please." There is a kernel of truth in that saying, because if we truly love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, we will most likely also love our neighbor as ourselves. But some people might be taking this as an excuse to just "do as we please." They may understand "love" as an unstructured, warm and gooey feeling, or just an emotion of sexual attraction.
This kind of thinking often limits our decision to "either-or" - either we love everybody, or we're hard-nosed legalists. But that is called "antinomianism" - "against law-ism" - because it opposes setting rules of behavior. It's simplistic thinking, because at times the emphasis should be on love, and at other times the emphasis should be on truth, doing what is right. And the two are not mutually exclusive, opposed to each other. "Speaking the truth in love" means that the two can be combined.
The Apostle John recorded the words of Christ (John 14:15): "If you love Me, keep My commandments." Christ didn't teach that love and rules are opposed to each other. If we really love Him, we will keep His commandments. There are several commands in the Ten Commandments that we shouldn't forget: don't steal, don't lie, don't commit sexual immorality, don't covet. Christ continued this emphasis on love being combined with obedience: "If a man loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our home with him. He who doesn't love Me doesn't keep My words. The word which you hear isn't Mine, but the Father's who sent Me." (John 14:23-24)
So let's not practice "Sloppy Agape," being sloppy in our "either-or" thinking. Sometimes it should be "both-and" or perhaps "some of this and a little of that." If we really love Christ, we will obey Him too!
In Ephesians 4:15 we read - "...but speaking the truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, Christ." Often people take this to mean we should be kind and gentle when telling another person the truth that might be hard to hear. Of course, that's part of the meaning, but we should look at the whole context of that verse. St. Paul begins by reminding the believers in Ephesus to preserve the unity of the faith (v. 3). Then he continues:
"He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers to equip the saints to do the work of ministering to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error; but speaking the truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, Christ; from whom all the Body, being fitted and knit together through that which every joint supplies, according to the working in measure of each individual part, makes the Body increase to the building up of itself in love." (Eph. 4:11-16)We see here that apostles (and bishops, their successors), evangelists, pastors and teachers are agents of truth, to pass on the unity of the faith, true doctrines, to the next generation. They do this by equipping the saints to do the work of ministering. That is, they don't try to "run the whole show" all by themselves, but rather they are to train others and delegate responsibility to them to build up the Body of Christ, the Church. So in this context, the laypeople in the Church also become agents of truth, speaking the truth in love, so that the Body of Christ, the Christian community, is built up in love. This shows the societal impact that our words and actions should have. But some will object...
"Shouldn't love simply be the rule? Some old saint said we can just love God and do as we please." There is a kernel of truth in that saying, because if we truly love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, we will most likely also love our neighbor as ourselves. But some people might be taking this as an excuse to just "do as we please." They may understand "love" as an unstructured, warm and gooey feeling, or just an emotion of sexual attraction.
This kind of thinking often limits our decision to "either-or" - either we love everybody, or we're hard-nosed legalists. But that is called "antinomianism" - "against law-ism" - because it opposes setting rules of behavior. It's simplistic thinking, because at times the emphasis should be on love, and at other times the emphasis should be on truth, doing what is right. And the two are not mutually exclusive, opposed to each other. "Speaking the truth in love" means that the two can be combined.
The Apostle John recorded the words of Christ (John 14:15): "If you love Me, keep My commandments." Christ didn't teach that love and rules are opposed to each other. If we really love Him, we will keep His commandments. There are several commands in the Ten Commandments that we shouldn't forget: don't steal, don't lie, don't commit sexual immorality, don't covet. Christ continued this emphasis on love being combined with obedience: "If a man loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our home with him. He who doesn't love Me doesn't keep My words. The word which you hear isn't Mine, but the Father's who sent Me." (John 14:23-24)
So let's not practice "Sloppy Agape," being sloppy in our "either-or" thinking. Sometimes it should be "both-and" or perhaps "some of this and a little of that." If we really love Christ, we will obey Him too!
(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 16 Jul. 2016.)
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