As we have been studying through 1 John, you’ve hopefully noticed two key themes that have arisen. The first of those is truth. I named the series “Truth” because of how significant it is. Love is also a crucial aspect to the message of 1 John. While these seem like disconnected ideas, they are in reality like two pieces of a puzzle. Yes, we can separate truth and love, but they only find fulfillment when we use them together.
Truth
Truth is the first topic that we will look at today. This is a controversial subject today. Many people think that there is no truth, that truth is relative. However, we know that biblically that is simply not true. Crucial to our worldview and our epistemology (the study of knowing) is realizing that the Bible is the only standard of absolute truth that we have. How do we know that we exist? Well let’s ask, does that fit into a biblical worldview? The answer to that, obviously, is yes. Thus, we know it’s true because of our infallible standard, God’s Word.
As with all beliefs, believing in God’s Word as the only standard of absolute truth takes faith. But so does believing that there is no truth. Faith must be exercised at some point because we as humans cannot know everything. When we realize that God’s Word is the absolute standard for truth, then and only then can we start effectively loving people.
Love
Love is one of the most interesting topics in Scripture. The Bible never gives us a pure definition, rather it describes it for us.. To find out what love means, we have to look at how the Bible describes love. One of the most famous descriptions of love is found in 1 Corinthians 13. I would encourage reading that chapter, but for the sake of space I’m not going to list it here.
Love is something that requires action. While it is nice to talk about love, John in his letter demands that we use love and show it to our brothers and sisters in Christ. Love in the biblical sense makes sacrifices. And most important to our understanding of love is that it stems from God. 1 John 4:7 says that “love is from God” (ESV). We absolutely cannot love apart from God. Love apart from God is not true love.
Truth and Love
Now let’s look at how these two go together. We cannot love rightly if we do not know how to biblically love. As we study God’s Word, we understand more and more the world around us and the people around us. We see how God wants us to interact with the people in our lives. Then, knowing who God is, we are motivated to serve Him and to love Him.
We cannot love rightly if we do not know how to biblically love.
As believers, we must not separate truth and love. We must seek to understand how we are to love others, and then act it out! Theology is often scary to people, but when we invest in the Scriptures and spend time reading wise people, we find motivation to love! On the flip side, love can be scary to people, but when we invest in others and reflect to them Christ’s love, then and only then do we give our theology purpose.