Often churchgoers today find themselves exposed to everything but ‘the truth once delivered to the saints,’ and as MLJ puts it, instead of exposition of Scripture, they hear ethical addresses, political speeches, and sentimental appeals about doing one’s duty. It is then of great importance that we understand just what is TRUTH. When we say ‘we hold the truth,’ what does that really mean? Lloyd-Jones says this:
Every one of us is to understand, to believe, and to expound it . . . [we are] not to speculate philosophically about life and its meaning and its problems . . . but rather [to say] ‘Thus saith the Lord’ . . . .
The Christian message is precise truth, consisting of propositions about God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, His Person and His Work, about the Holy Ghost and His work, the only way of salvation, the Church, and all necessary truth about life.
Having said that, however, Lloyd-Jones adds the caveat that we must ‘watch our spirits,’ and be especially aware of how we “speak to one another as believers in the Church when correcting errors that may appear among us.” The Doctor provides this guideline:
While we must emphasize the absolute necessity of definitions and creeds, we must never be hard and rigid, we must never be legalistic or self-righteous. We must never behave in such a manner as to give the impression that our one concern is to prove that we are right and everyone else is wrong. We must never do so merely to win an argument or a dispute. Many of us may have to plead guilty to this.
Finally, Lloyd-Jones provides a list of do’s and don’ts to help remind us of how to be successful in speaking truth in a charitable, loving manner. The following are some of those things MLJ feels we need to remember when “speaking the truth in love.”
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A party spirit is ALWAYS wrong; labels are always wrong; a censorious spirit is always wrong.
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The truth must never be approached with the intellect only. If my heart is not moved by the truth, if I do not feel it and its power, my spirit is wrong. Truth must produce passion, and in a truly Christian profession, there is emotion and feeling.
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We are to state the truth strongly ONLY in order to make it clear, in order to help others, in order to win men . . . [not to] show that they are wrong and we are right, but in order to bring them to the truth. We should do so, therefore, with humility, and recognize our own fallibility, that we all may make mistakes, and that we all may fall into error.
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We must never start by denouncing; we must start by explaining and expounding. If I believe another man’s view is wrong, I must not attack immediately.
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This does not mean we compromise the truth: we are to hold the truth at all costs.
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Above all, we must realize that love is not sentimental and weak; love is strong, love is true, love is pure. To love a person truly is to desire the very best possible for that person . . . To that end, we may have to speak very severely to them at times, and chastise with all the strength we have.
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‘Speaking the truth in love’ is illustrated perfectly in [Galatians 4]. Having written very strongly to them, and having reprimanded them severely, [Paul] suddenly says, ‘Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?’. . . He assures them that he had nothing but love for them . . . he loved them as a mother loves her children . . . .
In things essential, unity; in things indifferent (things which are not essential, and concerning which there is no absolute certainty) liberty;
in all things charity.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Christian Unity: An Exposition of Ephesians 4:1-16, “Speaking the Truth in Love, Baker Books, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1980, chapter 20, pp. 249-253.
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