One of the most remarkable things people believed about Jesus very early on was that he was the purest reflection of what God is really like.  Believe it or not, thousands of years ago, people had divergent and conflicting ideas of what God was like.  Even among the Jewish people, from whom Jesus came.  For them, their varied and contrasting views of God came from their very Scriptures.

And so the earliest followers of Jesus believed that he brought clarity as to how they should understand, approach, and follow the One True God.

This is how they articulated that, “The Word (Jesus) became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father…”

Let’s pause a minute.  Notice that for the earliest Christians, the final Word was not the Scriptures, but rather Jesus himself.  Truth was not ultimately something on a page or an idea in the ether, but a living Person navigating his way through the actual world.

In other words, truth was not a doctrine, or a statement of faith, but rather an interaction with a tax collector, a meal with a religious leader, a hand laid on an untouchable leper.  It wasn’t that words or teachings weren’t important.  It was that they weren’t really true unless they could be seen.

All of which is vital to understand when we read the climax of this passage in the ancient book of John, “…who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Notice that it is not only important that Jesus came; it is vitally important how Jesus came.

Full of grace and truth.

In that order.

Grace is embrace.  It is forgiveness on the front end of everything.  It is love without strings attached.  It is trusting the other is your brother before they think like you, believe like you, vote like you, love like you.

It was only within this context of kinship that Jesus came as truth.  It wasn’t that Jesus said everything we did or thought or said was good or okay.  No.  Jesus calls out people left and right in the ancient Greek Scriptures.  It was that Jesus only did this within the safety and love and space of grace.

And then Jesus says this, twice, “As you(the Father) sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.”

Those who follow Jesus are to go into the world in the same way he did, full of grace and then truth.

In that order.

Notice, now, how the earliest followers of Jesus talked about having conversations with those among them who were spreading fake news, “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow…”

Miroslav Volf has pointed out that there is no word in the ancient Greek for speaking here.  The word for truth, aletheuein, is in a verbal form.  It is literally ‘truthing’ in love.

Truth is not a post or a meme or a statement or a position.  It is a way of being, of living, of approaching someone else.  It includes words, but not out of the context of a life.  And it can only be done in love.  It can only be done well if the other person feels we value them, respect them, care about them, aren’t going to let go of them.

Truth becomes so much more powerful in the context of love.

For me, this means closing the distance with those I disagree with.

If the disagreement is in a post, there needs to be an email.  If in an email, then on to a phone call.  If in a phone call, then over lunch.

I usually just like to skip to the lunch.

I think we need to be closing the distance more.  Sitting face to face.  Giving people the opportunity to read our body language and facial expressions and eye contact attached to our words.  

And then giving ourselves the opportunity to read theirs.

And we know the difference—they will know the difference—between whether we care more about our truth or more about them.

Miroslav Volf has said that the way to true peace will involve two things:

1. The truth must matter more than our own selves.
2. The other self must matter more than our truth.

Which means that we are going to have to double down on this sacred work of truthing in love.