Proverbs 3.3-4
“Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.”
The Christian life is lived at the intersection of love + truth truth, where truth defines and directs love, and where love is motivated and directed by truth. The strategy of the kingdom of God is not striking the balance between love and truth; rather, it is the powerful combination of these two virtues lived out day-to-day in response to the realities of life.
That is our calling. That is how we fight the good fight. That is what it means to be an agent of the kingdom of God in the midst of a watching world. We must never lose sight of the reality that truth without love is not God’s strategy. Nor is love without truth. Consider what happens when Christians in a company or team or family bring this powerful combination of love + truth to bear every day.
The combination of truth and love is taught throughout scripture. The theme of the entire book of First John is light (truth) and love. In his epistle to the Ephesians, the apostle Paul famously admonishes us to “speak the truth in love.”
The Proverbs 3 passage quoted at the top tells us to hold fast to “love and faithfulness.” The word for love is the Hebrew hesed, which is similar to the Greek agape. It means uncommon commitment to serving others. The word for “faithfulness” is the Hebrew emet, which means truth … and more specifically, faithfulness to the truth.
The Proverbs passage gives us two wonderful metaphors for how to make love and truth a constant part of the way we live and work:
First, bind them around your neck. Wear love and truth like a necklace or scarf. The picture that Solomon paints is a person getting dressed in preparation for the day. In the same way that you choose the clothes that you will wear every day, so should you choose the virtues that you will “wear.” Make love and truth a part of your daily attire.
Second, write them on the tablet of your heart. This is the daily act of intentionally inscribing the virtues of love and truth in your inner most being. This tracks with the English word “character,” which derives from a Greek word which means “to stamp or engrave.” You are the author of your character. You are the person who decides if love and truth are engraved and inscribed on your heart.
The benefit you receive is “favor and good success in the sight of God and man.” When you live a life of love and truth, God will bless you and people will trust you. As a result, you will have success in what you do.
This is not a promise that love and truth will always lead to success in everything. It is a classic Proverbs description of the “physics” of life. Most of the time in most situations, a life of truth and love will be much more successful than a life of deceitfulness and indifference.
In the authentic Christian life, truth and love work together. The authentic Christian withholds neither truth nor love. If we speak the truth without love, we are not being truthful. If we love without speaking the truth, we are not being loving. Love is weak and distorting if not directed by truth. Truth is harsh and damaging if not tempered by love.
Truth is the “what” of our lives; love is the “why and how.” The combination of real truth and real love should be our guide at work, at home, in the fellowship, and in the community. Not the fake stuff the world promotes, but the real stuff the Lord gives.
Again, love is weak and distorting if not directed by truth, and truth is harsh and damaging if not tempered by love.
