Different Things God is teaching Me

The Need for a Unified Distinction; Part 1

The Need for a unified distinction; Part 1~ On Mercy & Truth

"Let not mercy and truth forsake you; bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart. And so find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man." ~Proverbs 3:3-4

"...no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head--Christ--from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love." ~Ephesians 3:14a-16

We are called by God to preach and live out His truth and light in this darkened world. And there are many of us within the family-body of Christ that have the incomplete understanding that "truth" can be equated or lumped up with "love" (or mercy) without distinction. When God lays out distinct commands, we should not seek to lump up what He has made distinct. Jesus did sum up all the commandments into two foundational commands: 1) Love the Lord God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind and 2) Love your neighbor as yourself... yet He did not erase, lump up, or do away with what He had laid out and made distinct.
Why is it important to make "truth" distinct from "love"? Can't speaking "truth" be considered as "love"? To a certain degree, yes. A relative passage on this is Proverbs 27:5-6, "Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful." But we are imbalanced when we concentrate and lean to either side: "truth" as opposed to "love" or "holiness" as opposed to "humility".  In these two parts, hopefully I will learn that there is both a distinction and a oneness in these virtues; that both need each other (interdependent) and one cannot live or be done properly without the other (independent).

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So is it really a big deal that some of us within the family of Christ find it okay to lump "truth" together with "love"? It is loving to speak the truth, isn't it?
Well, if God considered that the two should be equated, then He wouldn't have taken the time to state both. Why not inspire Paul to say: "Speaking the truth...may grow up in all things, etc etc." ? Why not have Solomon write, "Let not truth forsake you" ? If God should take the time (through Paul & Solomon) to state both "mercy" ("love") and "truth", then we ought to carefully meditate and understand, and not be hasty in ourselves to equate the two.
"Truth" and "love" (or "mercy") are equal in the sense that they are both important, yet they are not equal in the sense that they can be considered the same. God made a distinction and we are bound to recognize the distinction/differentiation while recognizing the unity of living by both and not doing one without the other. 

"All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, to such as keep His covenant and His testimonies." ~Psalm 25:10

"Do they not go astray who devise evil? But mercy and truth belong to those who devise good." ~Proverbs 14:22

"Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; mercy and truth go before Your face." ~Psalm 89:14

It is not only important to recognize the distinction because God has made them distinct, but also because of how God works in us and relates toward us. If the character of God was only made of "truth", then we would be left with the cry of the Psalmist, "Who could stand, O Lord, if You should mark iniquities?" If God left us only "truth" it would devastate us and not give us hope. Our prayers would only go up to the first three quarters of Psalm 139:23-24, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxieties. And see if there is any wicked way in me." Truth. Amen

...And lead me in the way everlasting." Mercy. Hallelujah.

This is not to say that God's "mercy" is not His "truth", they are one and dependent and yet also distinct from each other.

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The need for distinction is also important to how we relate to each other. I often forget that I am called by God to love Him AND my neighbor. The whole first letter of John makes a clear, unified distinction that we cannot live one of the commandments (love God...) without the other (...and love your neighbor).
Consider the example of telling an obese person the obvious fact that they are fat and that there's a responsibility they have in resolving that. "To everything there is a season" as Scripture makes clear (see Ecclesiastes 3:1-8), yet far too often we redeemed sinners think that we can strike with words of rebuke and the rod of correction at all times, in all seasons. There's a time and place, Proverbs makes that clear, for direct confrontation of a fellow human's foolishness, immaturity, and sin. Yet, it is not all the time. As I hope to see and learn in Part 2, there's a relation/connection to speaking truth yet tainting ourselves with arrogance and pride rather than cultivating humility.
There is a principle and a way (a time and a place) God has designed things to be done, decently and in order. (1 Corinthians 10:40) That is why He has called (and provided) discernment for us to know when to speak and when to be silent. (Ecclesiastes 3:7) In the example of a person who struggles (or relaxes) in obesity, there is a way to deal with their problem (if it is your's to deal with), to speak the "truth" IN "love" and not without it or without unified distinction.

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On the flip side, there is just as much a need for "truth" to be married and work together with "mercy" ("love") as it is for mercy to be married and work together with "truth". As in any 3-legged race, it is not just one partner who is required to move; the other is has to move as well. "Mercy" ("love") performed without "truth" has its own unique set of negative consequences. In another way, you could say that, although the two are distinct, one cannot really exist without the other. Just as much as one cannot really call marriage a marriage if either partner are not living and doing life together. God's mercy and love makes no sense apart from His truth (and justice).  So also His truth is incomplete, and therefore makes no sense, apart from His mercy and love. Both must be distinct, unified, and lived out together.