Unfailing love and truth have met together.
Righteousness and peace have kissed!  (Psalms 85:10 NLT)

Jesus always moved in lovingkindness and truth.  When you elevate either love or truth above the other, you always distort the character of God.

In July of 1967, the Beatles released the song “All You Need is Love.”

It had a very catchy title and became the rallying cry for the counterculture movement of the 1960s.  Unfortunately, especially for Christians, the message in this song is just not valid.

As a missionary, I trained young people for mission trips.  We once had a young lady in one of our training schools. She had experienced a very hurtful past. God extended his lovingkindness to her, and the wounds of her past started to be healed.

As time passed, along with his lovingkindness, God started to confront her with the truth.  Though wrongfully treated, her response to those actions, were not always right eighter.  She continually resisted forgiving those who had hurt her and taking responsibility for her actions.  Her healing was never really consummated, and her discipleship stunted.

We never become fully functioning Christians unless we embrace the full counsel of God, which includes his lovingkindness and his truth.  Love is the balm of Gilead that starts our healing process, but it is embracing the truth that sets us free (John 8:32).

People who are unwilling to accept God’s truth and love seem to develop a dependent personality.  They acquire a leak in their love bucket.  The more love deposited in it, the more they seem to need.

You can go along in life singing, as the Beatles did; all I need is love, but if you do, you will never grow into the fullness of Christ.

I worked for seventeen years as a missionary with Youth With A Mission.  My missionary work has taken me to Mexico, Canada, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Spain, and Ukraine.  I hold a Masters of Education in curriculum and instruction from Virginia Commonwealth University.  [email protected]