June 15, 2014 Key Passage: Philippians 1:1-11
“Walking the Fine Line between Love and Truth”
Admittedly, one of the most challenging hurdles facing today’s Christian is how to balance our love (heart) with discernment (head). Swing too far to the head side, and you’ll come across as cold and legalistic. A great example of this is the Christian who’s so busy telling homosexuals they’re going to Hell that they neglect to show them through love how to get to Heaven. However, simply leading with your heart often times ends in muddled theology and acquiescing our beliefs to the culture’s changes. Witness the growing number of churches who’ll “welcome all” (a great idea!), yet compromise the Gospel in doing so (a horrendous idea!). Biblical Christianity means loving God and others with passion, from the heart; but also, such love is in line with God’s truth as revealed in His Word. Love for God or others that’s not based on truth is just deluded emotionalism. But truth devoid of love leads to arrogance. The #1 problem facing Christians today is the inability to walk the fine line between both.
Philippians 1:3-8 Leading with the heart (love)
- As we’ve often stated, the number one reason people reject Christ is Followers who profess Him with their lips but deny him with their lack of love (lifestyle). “Walking the walk” means loving others because Christ first loved us … period. Viewing ourselves and other Christians as fellow partakers of God’s grace humbles us and puts us all on the same level playing field. To begin our Christian life we must commit ourselves to Jesus – to grow in maturity we must commit ourselves to other Christians. So the million dollar question is this: what does our commitment to fellowship say about our spiritual walk? Are we committed to this class? Each other?
- Philippians 1:6 – I want to park on this verse for a moment, because it’s the answer to loving each other the way Christ does. Verse 6 means I’m not responsible to change others. I’m responsible to minister God’s love and truth to others in a sensitive manner. It means that I can trust God to work in the lives of my brothers and sisters. God began our salvation; He’ll finish the job. Which begs the question: Where is there an instance of God beginning any work and leaving it incomplete? Think about and really ponder that question … God always finishes!
Philippians 1:9-11 Balancing love (heart) with truth (head)
- Love acts like hate when it refuses to use discernment. Think about that … of course, Jesus perfectly combined love and truth. In John 17 Jesus prayed that his Followers would be united in love – and then turned around and prayed that they may be sanctified by God’s Truth. Consider:
*discern what is best – life can be boiled down to perspective and priorities, and priorities determine our perspective.
*pure and blameless – to live openly before God, judging sin on the thought level…to not lead a double life.
*fruits of righteousness – harkening back to Galatians 5:22 – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Q: Why must love be rooted in truth? What happens when it isn’t? Q: Why is it essential to determine what love is from Scripture rather than from our culture?
Bottom Line: As a class and as individuals, let’s commit to the foundations of biblical fellowship: we will share our true feelings (authenticity), encourage each other (mutuality), support each other (sympathy), forgive each other (mercy), speak the truth in love (honesty), admit our weaknesses (humility), respect our differences (courtesy), not gossip (confidentiality), and make faithful attendance a priority. When you consider these characteristics, it’s obvious why genuine fellowship is so rare. It requires giving up our self-centeredness and independence in order to become interdependent. But the benefits of sharing life together far outweigh the costs, and it prepares us for Heaven. | 
