Handle With Care

Every Wednesday we’ll post something to do with doctrine and recovery. 

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Handle With Care

There has been grave error. I do not mean so much error of doctrine as error of emphasis. A.W. Tozer

Let’s not be too quick to say how much we love the truth.

People avoid standing on their bathroom scales because they’re not at all sure they want the hard facts. Checkbook registers are ignored, along with ATM receipts, because plenty of consumers prefer not knowing how low their balance really is. Medical checkups get put off for years because many a man prefers an ignorance of his vital signs. Yes, truth is liberating – Jesus said it would set us free, after all – and often it’s comforting to consider the truth of heaven, God’s love, and our security in Him. But truth can be inconvenient, divisive, and scandalous as well. (Ask anyone who’s been part of a denominational split.) Still, we’re nowhere without it, and God Himself requires that we know it, live it, and express it. Holding to truth, then, is a mandate to anyone calling himself or herself God’s servant:

“And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.” (II Timothy 2:24-25)

Handling the truth through preaching, teaching and personal communication is one of our highest and most sobering honors.

It’s possible, though, to hold to the truth, and still be in error in our attitude or approach, while being right in our beliefs. And let me say this plainly as someone who is convinced of the need for sound doctrine and Biblical literacy: One of the greatest weaknesses I see in those committed to Scriptural fluency is a wrong attitude sullying the right teaching.Damage has certainly been done by the revision or watering down of truth, and that’s damnable damage indeed. But immeasurable damage has also been done when truth’s promoters have been accurate but cold, judgmental, unloving.

I’m reminded that Paul gives a two-fold command to truth tellers: “Speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15) It is good, but never enough, to say the right thing. It has to be said in the right way, from the right heart. To neglect this part of truth telling is to make the truth more of a weapon than a tool, and even the best tool, when misused, can be destructive.

Jonah was a prophet called to speak truth to the Ninevites, a people he feared and loathed. While the most widely known part of his story has to do with God’s intervention when Jonah tried to get out of preaching to Ninevah (having been thrown overboard during a storm, he found himself swallowed by a whale, from whose stomach he prayed and was amazingly delivered) a noteworthy part of his story has to do with what happened after he was expelled from the whale.

His message was one-dimensional: “Destruction’s coming!” And having delivered that one-line sermon, he waited and watched, anticipating Ninevah’s destruction. To his surprise and evident disappointment, Ninevah repented; God’s judgment was averted. And Jonah, the prophet sent to preach to a people who had turned to God, seemed to resent their redemption. Here was a man eager to see a people judged, but loathe to see them saved.

When truth is mishandled, it’s easily ignored. Worse, the credibility of the church is crippled when we speak truth, but without love, reducing our message to a series of clangs and clashes from bells that were meant to ring, but instead, just omit sounds that are offensive and utterly ineffective.

All of which gives me real pause today. In my own work I’m trying to know and hold to God’s truth revealed in Scripture, and my wife and I often talk about our alarm over the widespread departure from Biblical orthodoxy that’s so evident, and so discouraging. In response I’m tempted to judge, look down on, and disdain people who are sloppy in their handling of sacred precepts. Now, I make no apologies for being grieved, even angry, at how little regard is often shown for sound doctrine. But I’ll confess here and now that my attitude today needs more than a little help. It’s sometimes tough, this business of speaking truth in love, tricky and demanding, requiring earnest and prayerful wisdom. Maybe you’ve got it down, but maybe, like me, you’re still workin’ on it.

If so, then join me, please, in a commitment to hold to truth, cling to love, and never error by thinking one can be chosen over the other.