The Curse of Love with NO Balance

“God is Love”...But God is also Truth…..

Deuteronomy 32:4
He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgement: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.

I watched a series on YouTube last week entitled "War on Truth" by The Fuel Project. The series was a complete confirmation for me in many areas that I see brewing in our modern society. It sparked me to want to start blogging again and so, here I am.

Have you noticed lately how things are really spiraling out of control? In this day and time, people have exalted love over truth when they are meant to balance each other out. No one wants anyone to be uncomfortable or have their feelings hurt - which sometimes telling the truth does. As the video says, people are more apt to side with the "underdog" even if they are wrong because no one wants anyone to feel marginalized. Some call it having grace and mercy or being “nice” and “kind”. On the other spectrum, you have others who feel you have to fight for love, and stand strong for those long time held traditions of what love is. But without truth to balance it, all love becomes... is an idol.

Society is willingly bypassing what it knows to be intrinsically true to let other people do, feel, believe and fight for what they want - even if what they want goes completely against truth and reason. This leads them to turn on others who do not agree even if they point out true logic, hypocrisies and dangers. This is why grown men are allowed to believe they can be a non-uterus having, non-milk-making, non-XX chromosome baring woman and women can be a non-testicle having, non-semen-making, non-XY chromosome baring man. And in some cases neither man or woman, but animals  or a man who believes he's a woman who believes he's furniture  for that matter! As an aside, I find it very odd that people are not batting an eye at the fact this man thinks he's a woman, but they are trying to get him help because he also think he's furniture. But, I digress...This is also why people will argue with, discredit, disconnect from, and in some cases out right assault and kill those who do not "love their country/flag/anthem" the way they do. And let's not just limit the examples to these few - there are several other examples where love presides high above truth - we see it in churches as members protect their pastors, families, relationships, and friendships. Oh yes, people are willing to turn a blind eye because of the idol worship of the god “love”. This becomes a curse.

Exodus 20:3-5King James Version (KJV)
3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

The truth is we have replaced Yahweh-God for one of His attributes. We have gone from "God is love" taken from 1 John 4 beginning at verse 7, to "OUR god is Love", taken from people's twisted meaning of that scripture. Here is how you can tell something is someone's idol - if you take it away, they become volatile, combative, depressed, unwilling to reason, restless, hurt....you get the picture.

See, Yahweh-God is not just "love", because in His love, He is the God of truth. He hates lies (Proverbs 6:16-17 , Proverbs 12:22 , Ephesians 4:22-25 ). It is not loving to lie to someone to make them feel better. Lies are meant to control. If you can control the information the person receives (or doesn’t) you can then control the outcomes skewed in your favor. Because in His love He requires truth, He is the perfect example of what balance looks like. He loves us enough to tell us the truth. Are you an adulterer? He loves you enough to tell you the truth: through His Son He tells you to leave that behind, and SIN no more, or face the consequences of eternal separation from Him. And if you don’t “believe”, that doesn’t make what He says any less true. He doesn’t want you to be comfortable and therefore ignore unrighteousness (wrong-doing). No! He wants you to have life abundantly. He wants you to be whole. He wants you to be holy. He wants you to have all of the information so that you can make an informed decision with no pieces missing.

So yes, God is love…..but He also demands that there be truth. We can unite through truth which leads to perfect love and balance. Without them both we will continue to create an unbalanced world where things that are wrong (unrighteous), relative morals, confusion, and chaos will abound. This will be the inheritance of our children.

2 Thessalonians 2:10-13
....because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.

The "Hushed" Side of ED·I·FI·CA·TION

Edification ed·i·fi·ca·tion

edəfiˈkāSHən/

by biblical definition is the Greek word oikodomē (pronounced oi-ko-do-mā'). The meanings of this word are:

• (the act of) building, building up
•  metaph. edifying, edification
•  the act of one who promotes another's growth in Christian wisdom, piety, happiness, holiness
• a building (i.e. the thing built, edifice)

You hear this word quite often in “Christian circles” – most commonly used in conjunction with Ephesians 4 in reference to our brother in Christ, Paul’s descriptions of various “jobs” or “offices” given to those in the Kingdom. Those particular offices were to be used for the edification and “perfecting” of the body of Christ. This can also be found in 1 Corinthians 13, where Paul once again speaks of using certain spiritual gifts for “the Body’s” edification.

I want to look at this word closely. I think many bypass its true meaning. Often times, many look at “edifying” or "edification" just to mean “make me happy” or "encourage me". In other words, “building up” has become synonymous with only coming together to make each other feel good, boost our morale, and to encourage our Christian walk. To be edifying has a connotation of positive feelings to help us “weather the storm”.

But, this is not the full meaning of what it is to “edify” or to “build” or even grow. What do I mean? Well let’s use a parable (I’m making this up, walk with me on this lol)

You have a home you want to build, so you ask around and get a suggestion for a general contractor from a friend. You trust your friend’s judgment and hire the contractor. The contractor comes in and never checks the land – instead he says, “WOW! Look at all this land you have. I know the market around here is tough, but you did a great job in getting this deal. You were wise in your decision making.” You beam with happiness and it bolstered your self-esteem. You now know if you should ever need to buy land again, you have the “know how”.

The next time you meet with the contractor, you bring a friend along. You see the contractor laying the foundation. Your friend notices and tries to point out something isn't quite right. Your friend has had experience in home-building, he just did the same thing a few years ago. He knows the contractor never checked the land, and while your friend is no expert, he is almost sure the foundation doesn’t look exactly level. You aren’t sure of the ins and outs of contracting, so you just continue with the process believing that this contractor knows what he is doing. When the contractor notices you two in discussion, and finally comes to speak. He says, “So, we are laying your foundation today. This is going to be the BEST laid foundation. It will make your home so sturdy. Trust and believe, with this foundation, all will be well!” Your friend still feels a little uneasy, not quite sure. But you leave with your hope and trust bolstered – the foundation will be well.

You meet with the contractor again. It has been about three weeks since your last meeting. The contractor has half the home done. From what you can tell, the house looks great. The contractor lauds over the state of the art materials used. He speaks highly of your floor plan choices. But what he fails to do is point out that there were faults with the support beams. He chose to overlook that and continued building.

Fast forward three years. There is a terrible rainstorm passing by. All homes are withstanding the rain and the battering wind, but something is happening to your home. The dirt around your home begins to shift; the foundation begins to crack; the ceiling of your home begins to sag. What’s wrong? What happened? You were told how great this home was, how sturdy it was, and all would be well.

All along the edification/building process, you the buyer were getting the “good side” of things. One the one hand, your friend tried to point out the weak spots - and had you listened, could have saved yourself heartache, pain, and thousands of dollars. On the other hand, the contractor was constantly building your confidence, assuring you all will be well. What that contractor failed to do during the building process was to point out the faults – the areas that needed correcting, fixing, or strengthening. This too was a very important part of building your home. Choosing to ignore that caused the whole home to become unstable and even possibly crumble to the ground when the storm came.

This is the same that happens when we choose to ignore the whole “building/edification process” in our lives. We cannot choose to ignore faults just to keep to building. We must be willing to see them. We must also be willing to be told about them. In order to edify, we not only have to see the "good" and encourage, but we have to see weaknesses, point them out and shore them up. Edification can’t be seen as a “feel good” festival – that is not the way to become “perfected” – for if we are already “good” how would we become better?

Edification requires balance. It also requires us all to be honest and truthful, both with ourselves and those around us. Edification must also give way for those who see faults to be able to point them out, for the strengthening of the person and/or the body. If that atmosphere is not provided, the very thing that has been carefully built will not only be able to stand, but it will crumble into a heap of ruins.

Proverbs 28:23 ESV
Whoever rebukes a man will afterward find more favor than he who flatters with his tongue.