Love is not Rude
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. Now one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” John 14:6-7
We like to use the phrase “brutally honest” when we are about to say something we know is going to cut to the heart and probably be hurtful to people. Or “no offense, but…” and then say something incredibly offensive. Those of us who call ourselves Christians can be the worst offenders, arrogantly spouting off judgements and opinions in a tone of superiority, wanting to win arguments more than we want to win people, justifying the hurt we cause with “I was just speaking the truth.”
The opposite can be true as well. We can be so set on pleasing others and avoiding confrontation that we don’t have the uncomfortable, truthful conversations we need to have. In a culture bent on creating their own morality, inventing their own truth, it is seen as a hostile act to point out any behavior that is contrary to God’s Word.
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). We cannot be truth-seekers without following the example Jesus set in how He presented truth and confronted sin. In the early church, Christians were referred to as people of “the Way” (Acts 9:2). As Christ followers, nothing is simply a means to an end, the way we do things, say things, and how we act matters. Jesus was never rude, callous, self-seeking, or arrogant. Knowing that Jesus was perfect in everything He said and did, we can study His interactions and see what love is and what it isn’t, regardless of what the culture around us is dictating, or how our sinful flesh may be motivating us.
There are so many more examples, the more time we spend with Jesus, the more attuned we will become into how God can use us to best share His love with those around us.
We like to use the phrase “brutally honest” when we are about to say something we know is going to cut to the heart and probably be hurtful to people. Or “no offense, but…” and then say something incredibly offensive. Those of us who call ourselves Christians can be the worst offenders, arrogantly spouting off judgements and opinions in a tone of superiority, wanting to win arguments more than we want to win people, justifying the hurt we cause with “I was just speaking the truth.”
The opposite can be true as well. We can be so set on pleasing others and avoiding confrontation that we don’t have the uncomfortable, truthful conversations we need to have. In a culture bent on creating their own morality, inventing their own truth, it is seen as a hostile act to point out any behavior that is contrary to God’s Word.
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). We cannot be truth-seekers without following the example Jesus set in how He presented truth and confronted sin. In the early church, Christians were referred to as people of “the Way” (Acts 9:2). As Christ followers, nothing is simply a means to an end, the way we do things, say things, and how we act matters. Jesus was never rude, callous, self-seeking, or arrogant. Knowing that Jesus was perfect in everything He said and did, we can study His interactions and see what love is and what it isn’t, regardless of what the culture around us is dictating, or how our sinful flesh may be motivating us.
- Jesus was direct in confronting sin while calling people into relationship with Himself.
- Consider the woman at the well (John 4). Surely she got that sinking feeling in her stomach when Jesus pointed out that she had been through 5 husbands and was currently living with a man she was not married to. Jesus isn’t saying this to condemn her, but so she knows He sees into her heart. He then reveals Himself to her as the Messiah, He calls her to put her faith in Him and have a new life. Her immediate response is to go evangelize and spread the news. We follow Jesus’ example by having these hard conversations with the heart to bring people into loving relationship with God, not to shame them and condemn them.
- Jesus was always about His Father’s business, led and empowered by the Holy Spirit. “So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.” (John 5:19–20). We follow Jesus when we check our own hearts for sinful motivation, which can be jealousy, ambition, insecurity, all kinds of reasons we want to confront people which are not of God. The goal in speaking truth in hard situations is always to bring people into relationship with God, whether they are hearing the Gospel for the first time, or being reminded of it for the 1000th time, we are ministers of reconciliation.
- Jesus turned tables (Matthew 21:12-13). There are wolves and charlatans in the church that abuse their position. They prey upon God’s people for their own dishonest gain, whether for money, power, or influence. It is not unbecoming to be passionately opposed to those who do so.
- Jesus was never motivated by self-preservation. Jesus’ truth speaking got Him killed by those who didn’t like what He had to say. He never denied His purpose or ministry or His identity in spite of great opposition and risk to His life.
There are so many more examples, the more time we spend with Jesus, the more attuned we will become into how God can use us to best share His love with those around us.
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