Must we choose?
As I wrote in my last post, any fair reading of Scripture demonstrates that righteousness is not equal to being nice. Godly men, from Jesus to the prophets, said many offensive things. When they spoke this way it was not only acceptable but praiseworthy. Since being nice isn’t the ultimate standard in the Bible, the only way for us to make it so is through legalism—by adding additional standards to Scripture. In essence, we are saying we know better than God. When Christians improperly elevate niceness, it always comes at the cost of some other Christian imperatives.
This was displayed yet again as SBC President JD Greear suggested that compassion and love direct us to use the preferred pronouns of transgender people. He argues Christians should employ pronoun hospitality out of compassion and love for transgender people. Of course, Christians must love transgender people, but does this include affirming falsehoods? While Greear has offered some qualifications to this statement, his original argument demonstrates how Christians have elevated compassion, love, and being nice over and against truth. Such a dichotomy does not exist in Scripture. Christians are commanded to speak the truth in love, but we are never commanded to lie out of our love. If we speak truth in an unloving way, it is still true, but love can never be the alibi for evil.
This confusion stems not only from misunderstanding scripture but also from the pressures of our day. It is well documented that we live in a postmodern, relativistic age. As a people, we hate truth. In the place of truth, compassion and inclusion have taken over. But without a foundation built on truth, our compassion isn’t very compassionate as mercy is demanded and coerced, and vitriol flows from one identity group to the other.
In the same way, our inclusion isn’t very inclusive as we are fragmented into endless aggrieved classes. If anyone questions the gospel of intersectionality, we exile them to never be included among civilized people again. For all our bluster about acceptance, understanding, compassion, and tolerance we are a rage-filled and self-righteous mob. As D.A. Carson noted, we live in a time marked by the intolerance of tolerance. Behind all of this is the gaping hole created by rejecting the idea of truth, especially when it comes to moral and ethical issues. Sadly, the American church has fallen prey to this ideology as it often pits truth against compassion, love, and being nice. When we do this, truth is the first thing to go because the one sin Christians must avoid today is being mean.
This is not the example we see in the life of Christ. He gives us compassion by revealing the truth. Biblically, lies harm and enslave people, but the truth frees (John 8:31-32). If we think lying will help others, or that lying is compassionate, then we are at odds with the eternal Son who reveals both grace and truth (John 1:18). The two are not at odds.
There are many examples of this in the life of Christ. For example, in Mark 6:30-44 we have the famous story of Christ feeding the five thousand. Before he performs this miracle, we are told that Christ had compassion on the people because they were shepherdless (6:34). What does his compassion lead him to do? In Mark, his compassion isn’t primarily revealed by feeding them, but by teaching them (8:34). Compassion leads Christ to reveal truth to the crowd. This should not surprise us because Christ, as the light of the world, is the embodiment of truth (John 14:6). The incarnation of the Son was motivated by love, and one of its primary purposes was to reveal truth to those enslaved to lies. Love and truth go together.
John 6 tells us the rest of the story surrounding the feeding of the five thousand. The crowd pursues Jesus and demands more food, yet he refuses. Instead, he tells them what they need is to eat his flesh. This is an extremely offensive thing to say to a group of Jews, and yet Christ repeats it again and again in their exchange. He tells them the miracle itself is worthless unless they come to see it rightly as a picture of their need for him. Christ is the bread of life. Even the act of providing the bread was meant to teach them a deeper truth—they needed Christ. Christ’s compassion confronts error and reveals truth.
Another example is found in John 8:39-47. Jesus is talking with some Jews, and they identify as being children of Abraham. Now, ethnically speaking they were correct. They have a stronger claim to being Abraham’s children than transgender people have claiming to be the opposite sex. If Greear’s ethic is correct, then one would expect Christ to show some identity generosity toward these Jews, but he doesn’t. Instead, Jesus tells them that their self-identification is worthless because it isn’t true. He tells them they are not sons of Abraham, but sons of the Devil (8:44). Why are they sons of the Devil? Because they lie just as their father, Satan, does. They reject Christ precisely because he tells the truth. Jesus was demonstrating that the true sons of Abraham are born by faith (Gal. 3:27-29). No matter how these Jews identified, Christ spoke truthfully by calling them sons of the Devil. This surely offended them, hurt their feelings, and made them harder to reach.
Throughout Scripture, truth and love go together. Paul reminds us that love “rejoices with the truth” (1 Cor. 13:6). This is something Christians need to come to terms with, truth and love are not opposed to one another. If we ever pit them against each other, then we will lose both. It is the job of the church to put forward both love and truth as complementary. In an age that rejects truth, it is more tempting to minimize truth and magnify love, but without truth, there is no genuine love.
In The Great Evangelical Disaster, Francis Schaeffer reminds Christians that we must hold onto both truth and love. By doing this that we offer a clear testimony in our confused age. Standing firm and doing so out of love confounds the rage-driven masses of our day. In this way, we display the wonderful character of our savior and the glory of his gospel. There is no way to speak lies and claim to be motivated by love because lies find their root in the father of lies (John 8:44). Lies have nothing to do with the work of Christ and are in themselves unloving. As we model the one who embodies truth, Christians must speak the truth in love.
Levi J. Secord