1 John 3:18
¹⁸ Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. (NIV)

Love is interlaced with truth. There is truth in love. And love without truth is not love at all, but as Pilate said, “What is truth?”

Our passage warns us not simply to speak in a façade of love but to truly love. The evidence of love is action done in truth. We live in a day when truth has become personal, immanent, and relative to the moment. Authenticity is the new truth. The world calls us to ‘live out our authentic selves’ and ‘live in our own truth.’ ‘You be you’ is the Great Commission of secularism. Aton Lavey, founder of the Church of Satan wrote in the Satanic Bible, “Do as thou wilt.” This is the truth of authenticity established in our modern age.

Authenticity is to live out one’s own true self. On a very low level, this thought has merit. It is not good to pretend to be something we are not to please others. However, this philosophy breaks down when we consider the effects of the sinful nature on humanity. The sinful nature reduced man to a state inferior to that of our original creation. To live out our personal authenticity is to lean into, even celebrate, this flawed version of self. To purport this will lead to a beautiful life is to disseminate deceit.

Jesus said, “Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

Jesus is the true way to the fullness of life. However, Christ does not call us to pursue human authenticity. Instead, we aspire to a higher calling to the authenticity of Christ. Embracing the desires and affections of my corrupt state without Christ leads to emptiness. Pursuing the desires and affections of God will overflow our life with meaning and purpose. To love, we must act toward others in a way that encourages them to pursue the life God has prescribed for an abundant life.

Imagine a world that wholly pursues its natural affections corrupted by the sinful nature. It would be a world of hedonistic narcissism. Perhaps we are already there. But in this world, to love others is to act in a way that redirects their authentic affections in a loving way to the true path of fulfillment found only in Christ.

Prayer: Lord, help me to love not only with words but with action. Reveal to me what action to take to stay on the path of truth and help others find it. Amen.