Love…Rejoices With The Truth
Love and truth are not casual connections; they are entwined almost as if that are one. As Paul would put it, “Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth.” Love, if it is true love, is never satisfied with half-light, nor does it lend itself to deception, however kindly meant. Love is not indulgent sentiment; it does not smile upon falsehoods to preserve comfort. To love is to delight in what is real, for God Himself is truth, and to love in God’s way is to stand in glad agreement with His reality.
This stands in sharp contrast to the counterfeit forms of love we so often mistake for the real thing. There is a kind of affection that soothes rather than heals, that conceals rather than frees. It pities rather than redeems. Such a love, however tender it appears, is no love at all; it is a subtle cruelty. To tell a comforting lie, or to quietly let a falsehood stand for the sake of keeping peace is to imprison one in darkness. Love that is unwilling to speak or receive truth is not love, that is anything but love.
But Paul does not speak of mere duty, he chooses a word of joy, “love rejoices with the truth.” Love does not merely endure truth as an unpleasant necessity; it sings when truth is revealed. Even when truth pierces, love is glad, for truth is the way where one can grow. Love rejoices when light exposes the hidden things, for exposure is not humiliation in the Kingdom of God, it is the first act of redemption.
There is also a humbling demand in that, love must learn to rejoice even when truth unmasks our own illusions. It is one thing to delight when others walk in truth; it is another to welcome truth’s rebuke in our own hearts. But love that shrinks from the truth has not yet learned its deepest joy. When we are glad for the truth, even when it costs us something dear, love has found its true freedom.
In this way love mirrors Christ himself. He did not flatter us with pleasant falsehoods; he told the truth in such a way that it brought life, not despair. In Him, love and truth were never at odds. Where we love truthfully, we walk in His way; where we rejoice in truth, we taste the joy of Christ himself.
To love without truth is to deceive; to proclaim truth without love is to wound. But when love and truth embrace, there is a quiet triumph, as if the very life of God were breaking into the world.
There is another kind of truth, one that speaks for itself. It is not proven by reason, nor argued by logic. It is a truth seen only through faith, a self-evident knowing. When this truth is revealed, it does not arrive through external evidence but through the inward light that awakens in surrender. It is the truth that Jesus Christ is the One through whom all must be saved. This truth does not persuade, it simply appears, suddenly, profoundly, like light breaking into darkness. It comes when we yield, when we allow even the desire for God to become its own testimony, and we see that Christ alone is the Way.
Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”[1]
This is truth which needs not evidence, no logic, it is self-evident.
Think of such things.
Jim Varsos
[1] John 14:5-7 NIV