Kind is Not Lying to People

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.” (John 15:12-17 ESV)

When Jesus commanded his disciples to love one another as he has loved us, he wasn’t speaking of human love based in our emotions, but he was speaking of divine love, which is centered in moral preference. For the believer in Jesus Christ this means to prefer to live through Christ, embracing God’s will, choosing his choices, and obeying them through his power. For the word means to prefer what God prefers, which is what is holy, godly, morally pure, upright, honest, faithful, and obedient to our Lord (1).

So, when we love one another with this kind of love, it is going to engage us living through Christ, embracing God’s will, choosing his choices, and obeying them through his power. So we will not lie to people just to make them feel good. We will not dilute and alter the truth or cut the truth short in order to not offend people. And we won’t immerse ourselves in our culture just so we can connect with the people of the world and so that they will like us. For we need to stand firm on the truth of God’s word always.

But we should be kind, but kind is not lying to people. It is not compromising truth and righteousness and holiness just so they will think we are being kind. The kindest thing we can do is to tell people the truth that will save their souls from hell and which will give them life everlasting with God if they will choose to be believing in Christ, forsaking their sins, and following him in obedience to his commands, which is all part of God-persuaded faith in our Lord which we must all have if we want eternal life with God.

For how did Jesus love us, and how does he continue to love us? Well, he came to the earth, took on human form, suffered as we suffer and was tempted as we are tempted, but without sin. And then he suffered a horrible death on a cross so that in his death he might put our sins to death so that, by faith in him, we might now die with him to sin and be raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. And he empowers us to do so, too!

If we are going to love one another as Christ loved us, we are going to care about one another’s spiritual condition. And this was exemplified to us in the writings of the NT apostles, for this is mostly what they wrote about. So we are going to be sharing with others the truth of the gospel which Jesus and his NT apostles taught, not the lies being spread today. And we are going to be exhorting and encouraging one another so that we don’t buy into the lies, and so we walk according to the truth, and so we have eternal life.

[Romans 12:1-8; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31; Galatians 6:1; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:1-16; Ephesians 5:15-21; Philippians 2:1-8; Colossians 3:16; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:13; Hebrews 10:23-25; James 5:19-20]

So, what is the truth of the gospel we should be sharing? Jesus said that if anyone would come after him, he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin) and follow (obey) him. For when Jesus took up his cross it was to put our sins to death with him so that we would now walk free from slavery to sin. But if we hold on to our old lives of living in sin and for self, we will lose them for eternity. Yet if for Jesus’ sake we deny self, die daily to sin, and follow him in obedience, we have eternal life (Luke 9:23-26).

Jesus also said that not everyone who says to him, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING the will of God the Father in heaven. For many will stand before him on the day of judgment claiming him as Lord and claiming all the things they believed they did in his name, and he is going to say to them, “I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness,” for they would not obey the Lord (Mattew 7:21-23). So, we need to take this to heart, for not everyone professing faith goes to heaven.

And when we speak the truth in love to one another, that is laying down our lives for others. For not too many people are speaking the truth these days. And so many are speaking against the truth and they are convincing people by the masses to also reject the truth of the gospel and of the word of God, and to embrace the lies of false teachers who are saying to people what makes them feel good in order to tickle their itching ears. So if you are one who speaks the truth, you are likely to be largely rejected.

And the truth is that we are not saved from our sins just so we can escape hell and so we can go to heaven when we die. Jesus died to deliver us out of our slavery (addiction) to sin so we will now walk in obedience to his commands in holy living, walking in moral purity, honesty, and faithfulness. And this is what it means to bear fruit for the kingdom of heaven. It means that we are walking the walk and not just talking it and we are living the kind of lives God in his word has called us to live for his praise and glory.

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15] 

Come, Thou Fount 

By Robert Robinson / John Wyeth

Come Thou fount of every blessing

Tune my heart to sing Thy grace

Streams of mercy never ceasing

Call for songs of loudest praise

Teach me some melodious sonnet

Sung by flaming tongues above.

Praise the mount – I’m fixed upon it –

Mount of Thy redeeming love.

Hitherto Thy love has blessed me

Thou has brought me to this place

And I know Thy hand will bring me

Safely home by Thy good grace

Jesus sought me when a stranger,

Wandering from the fold of God;

He, to rescue me from danger,

Bought me with His precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor

Daily I'm constrained to be!

Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,

Bind my wandering heart to Thee:

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

Prone to leave the God I love;

Here's my heart, O take and seal it;

Seal it for Thy courts above.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylNnG5bxnsE

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(1) https://biblehub.com/greek/25.htm