Love and Truth

24 August 2025

By Pastor John Macindoe - Senior Pastor

‘We stand upon God’s truth!’ says one church. And so members are urged not to associate with other ‘so called’ Christians lest they be tainted by unbelief. In reality, their self-righteous stand for the truth ineffectively masks a bitter, divisive and unloving spirit. Unfortunately they are the only people fooled.

‘We rest in God’s love!’ says another church. And so members are urged to drown doctrinal differences in the ocean of brotherly love. They forget that there is one God, and one Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Truth does matter. Just as black isn’t white, so all the good intention in the world doesn’t make falsehood truth.

Despite our frequent failings in this area, the Bible sees no conflict between love and truth. A church committed to truth should be a church committed to love. After all, God is love. The gospel is a megaphone proclaiming God’s gracious love for sinners. The truth (the gospel) tells us that there is no place for self-righteousness, only a commitment to emulate God’s love. Similarly, a church committed to love must be committed to truth. It is unloving to let someone swim in a crocodile infested river in Northern Australia, no matter how much they complain about the heat. They need to know the truth.

John Stott writes, ‘Love becomes sentimental if it is not strengthened by truth, and truth becomes hard if it is not softened by love. Pray that ‘speaking the truth in love, we (Central Baptist Church) will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ’ (Eph 4:15).