Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: “the person who loves their dream of community will destroy community [even if their intentions are ever so earnest], but the person who loves those around them will create community.”
Issues, even right issues, can become more important than people and the truth-teller an executioner instead of a deliverer. We can easily become so driven by our vision for issues like helping the homeless, right to life, church growth, building a “church,” or social justice that we forget the little things, like caring for those around us. (See Jn. 8:1-19.)
“Church” can become a machine that crushes the very people it was meant to serve. The truth-teller, if not careful, can become a destroyer instead of a means to freedom. For example, there is the anti-abortionist who justifies killing the abortionist doctor and his two nurses. In doing so, he becomes what he is against.
The Truth came with grace (Jn. 1:14) and grace is the only context in which truth can be handled. Truth cannot be compromised, but it is to be spoken in love or it becomes the letter that kills. When truth itself becomes the issue, then the people we are called to tell it to no longer matter.
Jesus didn’t die for truth or building programs or religion. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, who died for those dead in trespasses and sins, so that they might be reconciled to God. That should be the end objective of truth and those who tell the truth should do so with tear stained cheeks.
