True Love Not Tolerance

By lovingkindness and truth iniquity is atoned for,
And by the fear of the Lord one keeps away from evil.
(Proverbs 16:6)

“Love.” America, indeed, as all of Western civilization in the late 20th, now early 21st century has an interesting view of the word. Notice I didn’t use the word, “definition”. To try to define “love” by this culture would truly be an endeavor akin to nailing Jello to a wall. Since we live in such a relativistic framework, everyone would have there own idea of what “love” would mean and believe their definition to be the most accurate.

However, in reference to a view of “love”, we have been programmed to believe that the word is actually a synonym for “tolerance”. Since Political Correctness has become the dominant religion in our governmental agencies, bureaucracies and educational institutions as well as in the Third Estate (i.e. the media), it is now assumed that if we truly love our fellow man (oops, human being, pardon-moi, since we have to be gender-neutral in our choice of terms), then we will gladly tolerate his/her choice of behaviors. Thus, with the PC mindset in place, we are comfortable with an “anything goes”, “live and let live” lifestyle. As long as what someone else does in their life does not effect me personally or prevents me from fulfilling my dreams, I can live my life peaceably and love them unconditionally...or so it seems.

On the surface the PC perspective sounds harmless enough. It even appears to be have great merit. However, when placed against the standard of God’s Word, it comes up greatly lacking because it fails to deal with the one issue that keeps us from understanding and experiencing the true and unbounded love that God wants for us, the key to which is found in a specific three-letter word—sin.

In the passage provided above, it is apparent that, prior to the atonement of iniquity or sin, there are two things that must be in place: love and truth. Love and truth are joined at the hip. In God’s economy they are never apart from one another. The Apostle Paul in Ephesians 4:15 tells us that we are to speak “the truth in love...”. Only when do so can we hope to share with each other the honesty necessary to keep each other right with God and in our own hearts. As Jeremiah 17:9-10 states:

The heart is more deceitful than all else
And is desperately sick;
Who can understand it?
I, the Lord, search the heart,
I test the mind,
Even to give to each man according to his ways,
According to the results of his deeds.

He gives us both truth and love to keep us on the path of what is right because God alone knows all to well how easily we can fall into sin. He wants us to follow His ways. Only by trusting Him and His Word, lovingly shared, can we ever hope to have our “iniquity atoned for.”

Political Correctness runs from sin even as it denies personal accountability. Those with this view want only the love without the truth. They want to practice their sin without any consequences. Unfortunately such “love” is empty of true meaning, such “tolerance” is short-sighted, proving to be a cover for a deeper self-centered protectionism than can ever be imagined.

May we who know the Lord personally be diligent in our truth-telling. But may we likewise never cease to be as loving as our Lord in our dealing with people. Even as this year begins, Lord, help us to see afresh Your use of us as Your instruments of grace, touching people around us with a healthy balance of truth and love so that their sins, their iniquities, like our own may be atoned for and forgiven. In Christ Jesus, we pray. Amen.