Truth is the Foundation of Love

I have been asked to take over an Adult Bible Fellowship at my church, and my preparations are in earnest for the first series in January. The overall series will be entitled "Big Things Come in Little Packages." In a sense, I will take some of the smaller books of the Old and New Testament to show how mighty those minute books are -- Haggai, Habakkuk, Obadiah, 2nd John, 3rd John, Jude, and Philemon. The problem is that we neglect the time and effort in those small writings. The doctrine is there, but American Christians are lazy (self-included).

2nd John is just such a book. Reading through it should take no more than 5 minutes; but as you read through this epistle, notice the focus on truth and love. You can subdivide the book into three sections: Welcome (v1-3), Walk (v4-6), and Warning (v7-13). Clearly, John is hammering the point that truth is of absolute importance as a foundation for love and fellowship. Sometimes, scholars will debate the truth and love in a similar fashion about which came first -- the chicken or the egg?

The answer is simple: truth.

Truth underscores love. Five times in the first four verses, we see that powerful focus on truth. The author says truth is alive, available, and always. We know that Christ is the truth (John 14:6), and since He is alive, truth lives too. We know that truth is available because Jesus stands at the door and knocks (Revelation 3:20). Finally, we know that God's Word is always (Psalm 119 and John 1).

Admittedly, I struggle with love and mercy because I often get hung up on truth. However, we must balance our stance upon truth with love. This does NOT mean that we compromise doctrine for fellowship, but it does indicate that truth has a loving side. How do I know? Look at what John said in this introduction. He offers salutations of grace, mercy and peace. I like these acronyms to explain these terms:

God's
Riches
At
Christ's
Expense

Messiah's
Extraordinary
Redemption that
Changes
You

Providence
Exemplified
As
Contentment
Ensues

Grace puts us in a restored relationship with our Creator God. Mercy is backed by tremendous love that, once understood, produces a change in our daily lives. Those two items -- grace and mercy -- produce peace that the world cannot understand. We see the truth of those terms, but God enacts them because of his love.

Truth is the foundation of love, but love is behind all truth.