It doesn’t really matter which side of the horse the drunk guy falls off of, does it? He’s muddy and miserable regardless. Likewise, our enemy doesn’t really care which side of error we fall into—so long as we fall.
I appreciate these words of Os Guinness. Speaking as an operative trying to destroy Christianity he says this:
What happens when one strand of reality is singled out and stretched too far is hardly surprising. Wider reality springs back and has the last laugh. Pressed too far, for example, reason becomes rationalism and rebounds into mysticism; or freedom becomes anarchy and rebounds into authoritarianism. We thus become masters of irony, connoisseurs of the art of the unintended consequence. Reality rebounds, and things turn out the opposite of what they seem and what people expect. Strength becomes weakness, love pornography, pleasure boredom and so on. (Guinness, 22)
Those words were written in 1983. And they are, in my opinion, quite prophetic. “Connoisseurs of the art of the unintended consequence”. Is that what we bloggers have become? I’ve been blogging for over a decade now and I’ve watched this spring bounce back and forth.
Discernment ministry was once done well—or at least better. Blogging was helpful in fighting against a shallow Christianity which could never survive the days ahead. But discernment quickly turned into rage. A culture of fear, suspicion, oppression, and infighting soon emerged. Everybody but our own little section of the internet became rank heretics. Nuance was lost.
So what’s the unintended consequence? Likely, the idea that love matters more than truth. The very watered-down truth-light Christianity that discernment ministries were created to combat will now run amok.
But love doesn’t matter more than truth. And truth isn’t faithful unless it’s also walking in love. This is the argument of 2 John.
4 I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father. 5 And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another. 6 And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.
It’s impossible to grow in love outside of the context of truth. We think that if we will go easy on truth that some how we’ll be able to love one another more deeply. But this isn’t the case. If it isn’t in truth then it’s a sham. And fake love isn’t deep enough to hold the weight of our sinful and community-destroying tendencies. But real love, grounded in truth love, is big enough to bear this weight.
The answer to angry discerning bloggers isn’t to minimize truth. They are correct that truth matters. But they hang themselves on their own petard when they do discernment without love. You don’t discover wolves in sheep’s clothing by living in fear and suspicion. Because fear and suspicion don’t flow out of the character of Christ. You discover wolves by love—rooted and grounded, flowing out of contentment in Christ, love.
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