This is my regular post for Every Square Inch. Our topic for discussion is “how do truth and love relate?” This led me to the famous passage on “love,” I Corinthians 13.
At first glance, it’s difficult to see how love and truth relate in this passage. “Love is patient; love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.” (I. Cor. 13:4-5.) Doesn’t this tell us to ingore the truth sometimes for the sake of love? I can think of many wrongs that have been done to me over the years, often by friends and family, some of which continue to have lasting consequences. In a few cases, the perpetrator has never acknowledged the harm he or she did. The “truth” is that there is, in a sense, a “record” of these wrongs written into my life, whether I like it or not. Anyone who has lived more than a few years in this broken world could say the same.
So if love compels me to release the anger caused by these wounds, to purge the record, isn’t that the same as denying the truth?
There’s no easy, trite answer to this question, but I think another aspect of love mentioned in verses 6-7 help move us towards something profound: “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” What does it mean for love to “rejoice in the truth?”
The word for “truth,” aletheia, can have the meaning of “reality,” “correct doctrine,” “sincerity,” and “integrity.” As used in this passage, it stands in contrast to adikia, translated “evil” in the NIV. The root meaning of adikia is “injustice” — “a,” meaning opposed to (as in our words “amoral” or “atypical”)”dike,” meaning “justice” (in fact, Dike is the Greek goddess of Justice).
With this understanding, the concept of “truth” in the famous “love” passage takes on a richer meaning. The “truth” in which love rejoices is more than merely “true statements.” It is “justice” in its fullest sense, the sense of the “shalom” of the Old Testament. It is “everything made right,” “things as they should be,” life lived with patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self control, a world without malice and oppression, a world of fellowship and peace.
This, then, is a window on how “love” and “truth” come together. Only through love can I know when to defer making true statements about wrongs others have done to me. Only through the patience that comes through love can I see that God continually seeks to reconcile the person who wronged me to Himself. Only through the other-centeredness of love can I pray that God will complete His work in the wrongdoer’s heart, even when it seems that will never happen. Only through the trust and perseverence of love can I hope that by reconciling the wrongdoer to Himself — and by reconciling me despite my anger and bitterness — He can make it possible for that person and myself to speak truth to each other, and forgive each other, so that things can be “as they should be” between us. Love desires the fullness and harmony, the “truth,” the shalom, of the Kingdom of God.