It's Been Said Before

We are told to speak the truth in love. Why? Love separated from truth does not destroy truth, as truth cannot be destroyed. However, love separated from truth opens the soul to confusion over the nature of authority, superstition about spiritual matters and licentiousness of the body. What the world needs, as it has needed, is love. The church in America purports to offer the Truth. When the rank and file of the church – not its high-sounding rhetoric or social justice or political activism -- manifests the love that offers truth without condemnation, hospitality over tradition, and water for one's enemies, then the spoken message of truth will be credible.

The modern American experience in and out of the Body of Christ is an emphasis on the intellect. The result is that we are in the midst of a culture which has benefited us all by any prosperity measure one cares to examine, but which has also failed us humans emotionally.  That failure is the cut off from understanding and fostering healthy emotional growth. We feel our hearts but are cut off from factoring in this component of ourselves effectively in every day life. We either are over the top with passions we insist make life meaningful (an over emphasis on "loves" that are of the earth and not of the Kingdom), or some manifest a coldness of demeanor that would frighten a statue in the park (an over emphasis on strict adherence to words of truth). Most of us are a pile of emotional confusion that survives by coping mechanisms intended to control our heart. We cannot fathom how to release our hearts without fear of the consequences. Aside: the general population regards such coping as emotional maturity.

This is a spiritual issue, of course. Moving from the general population to the Kingdom of Our Father and Creator is the remedy. Praise His name forever for the love, compassion and grace that has enabled such a rebirth! However, the church generally is a mixture of the falsehoods of coping clothed in Christianese and the Truth of wholeness between heart and mind found in spirit life. This unfortunate circumstance is not to be condemned, as it is part of the path. However, it can be remedied. 

The individual Christian must be encouraged and supported through fellowship in the growth of the heart and a walk with and by the Holy Spirit. Such a walk both eliminates the dangerous passions we mistakenly think are an expression of life and brings forth a warmth from heaven resulting in powerful actions reflecting the wholeness of Jesus.