Truth and Love
Date: January, 14th 2024
(Not For Sale)
Scripture: Matthew 18:15-17
Doug spoke today about the importance and complexity of resolving conflict between siblings in Christ’s family, and how Jesus taught us to do this, but stressed an important caveat: the Bible never instructs us to reconcile with people who are dangerous, abusive, and only intend to harm us. Doug made the analogy that we ought to come to a sister/brother with two arms–the arm of truth and the arm of love–fully stating our perspective on the problem, while being humble and working to understand the other person. Christians, however, typically move quickly to self-protection via anger and passivity, but end up bitter.
As I prayed for inspiration on this painting, I remembered my son, Daniel, wrestling at a dual the week prior. I am always so impressed by the combination of aggression and good will I witness when I see my son wrestle. Daniel exemplifies this two-armed approach. For nine blistering minutes Daniel and his opponent will push, grab, choke, bend, and slam each other down to the mat, again and again. Then at the end, his custom is to help up his opponent, who Daniel has just been blasting with a punishing force, and then give him a ‘good-game’ embrace. God did this very same thing when God wrestled Jacob through the night. Even after God put his hip out of joint, Jacob still would not give up the fight unless God would bless him. So, God blessed Jacob and gave him a new name–Israel, which means “One Who Wrestles with God.” This grit-honest struggle is therefore a vital part of becoming a family.
So, let’s do the same…let’s be full-hearted with each other…let’s be real…let's collide and coalesce with each other…let’s go at it with both arms of truth and love!