Fearless to speak truth, yes. But fearless to love, also.
When I was somewhere around 10, I put on a tie, grabbed my Bible, and stood in front of a small pulpit my dad had made for me. I preached my first sermon. My Dad was a preacher and a pastor. I guess that’s what I wanted to be back then. Some 30 years later that is what I am.
Along the way certain gifts and skills have developed. A knowledge and experience of ministry has grown. An understanding of theology, the Bible, and other and wider fields of study has deepened. But all of that, I think, would be lost if not for the heart that God has shaped and formed within me.
It’s hard, of course, to be objective when looking at oneself. But this I know: All the knowledge, expertise, and skill in the world couldn’t make up for a love for God and for those He’s called me to serve.
I could preach an excellent sermon, but without love “I am a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal”. I could skillfully pastor a church, but without love “I am nothing”. I could be of great influence in my community, but without love “I gain nothing”. (1 Corinthians 13)
I notice that Paul doesn’t speak of the excellence or praiseworthiness of what is done. He doesn’t say, “What I do is a clanging cymbal,” nor “What I do is nothing.” He says, “I am”. Love comes down to the heart, to the person I am, not what I do. “I am” comes down to love. I am or I am not.
God is love. We know this not only because of what God did in His Son, Jesus, but because of who Jesus was and is. “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Hebrews 1:3). He is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). Yes, that “radiance” and “image” includes everything Jesus says and does, but it includes everything He says and does because He is who He is. “I am who I am.”
In all our efforts to say and to do, whether in preaching and pastoring, or in marriage and parenting, or in any field of life, work, and study, God is after our heart. Man looks on the outside, but God looks on the heart. He is wanting to shape and conform a heart after His, to be like His. In His image.
To love God and to love others, to be filled with God’s love and to live, work, and serve out of that love, is what counts first and last. To dare reverse Paul’s words and thought, “If I preach neither with words of eloquent wisdom nor superiority of speech, but have love, I am not a noisy gong or clanging cymbal.”
All of that to say, as a preacher, it is my mission and calling to speak the truth of God. To be fearless to do so, but not as a bully and antagonistic critic. To be wise to do so, yet neither ignorant of the times I live in nor the people I’m a part of. I am to speak the truth in love.
To speak the truth in love, I must not only speak the truth that Jesus spoke and is. But I must also know and possess the love that Jesus spoke with and is. The heart behind the words. For it is out of the heart that the mouth speaks.
Jesus came to save the lost. He came for the sick. He came to show mercy. As a preacher and pastor, I understand a component of that mission/calling to be the proclamation and demonstration of the gospel, which involves speaking truth to the human condition. But an equally essential part involves a love for the people to whom you are proclaiming and serving with the gospel.
Too many Christians speak against this or that and call it “the truth”. But my question is: Do you personally know anyone that falls within the “group” to whom you are speaking truth? Are they the kind of friend you would gladly invite into your home? Are you the kind of friend they would gladly invite into theirs?
Jesus sat, welcomed, and ate with “tax collectors and sinners” (Matthew 9:9-13). My guess is that though He offended many of them, they could not deny that He loved them and wanted to be with them, and they could not deny that for some strange reason they wanted to be with Him and even loved Him. Why? Because He spoke truth to them? Yes. But also, I think, it was because they knew Him, that He loved and cared for them.
Perhaps we should put the truth on hold and learn first what it means to have mercy on, to show grace towards, to care for, and to love “your neighbor”. Love doesn’t alter the truth or change the truth. But love alters the heart and changes the way you speak the truth. Be fearless to speak the truth, yes. But be fearless to love, also. I’m not arguing for a watering down of the truth or the gospel, but for a washing of the heart in love first—in Love Himself. In fact, like an empty cup, submerge your heart into His. Let your heart be filled and let truth AND love spill over from your life.