One of the best parts about teaching your kids about Jesus is that it often compels you to think more clearly about what you profess. Children don’t come programed with “Christian-ize” and so when you are tempted to use that language, their probing questions can prove clarifying – for you and them.
I was reminded of this recently when I was attempting to impress upon one of my children the importance of telling the truth. As I reiterated again that it is imperative that we are truth-tellers and that we should love the truth, I asked, as I often do, why it was important that we follow this directive. I imagine that I thought my child would answer with something along the lines of “because God tells us to” or even “because we want others to tell the truth to us.” Instead, my offspring responded with “I don’t know.” They were able to dutifully recite the need for truth telling, but could not figure out why Mom was so insistent on this instruction.
As I sought to explain it to my kid, I considered the explanations noted above. Obviously, it is important to tell the truth because God tells us to do so. It is also important to tell the truth because that it is how we would want others to treat us, and this too, follows God’s commands (see Luke 6:31). But as I mentally went through these explanations, I realized that there was one more reason that I should desire to be known as a truth-teller. If I love the truth, I will tell the truth. And if I love Jesus, I should love the truth. After all, it was Jesus who declared that not only was He was the way of salvation and that life is found in Him, He also said that He is the truth (John 14:6). Loving the truth and loving Him are synonymous. He is truly true – all truth is found in Him and in Him there is no “shadow of turning” (James 1:17). As one who desires to love Him well and represent Him to a loss and hurting world, the same should be increasingly characteristic of me.
Professing this reality made it clear to me that loving the truth is more than just truth telling. Of course, not lying is an important component of this commitment and keeping it helps show my love for Jesus. But loving truth means that I should I seek to avoid false flattery – even when doing so might be considered the “polite” or “strategic” thing to do. It should mean that I am true in my actions – that I do things because of a desire to serve God and not to make myself look good. It means that I understand that “true love” is not a feeling – but a commitment to put others before myself because I truly recognize that they are creations of God, beloved by Him and bearing His image. My love for Jesus means that I should love truth – in word, deed, and spirit – because that is how I am called to show my love for Him.
The challenge with this way of thinking is that someone could read this and think, “well that means if I don’t feel loving towards someone else, I shouldn’t be kind to them because that wouldn’t be true.” Please do not think this! First, as mentioned above, love is a commitment not a feeling. Secondly, this recognition should prompt our hearts to align with Jesus’; not to use the divergence between His character and ours as an excuse to not do what He says. In other words – if you don’t have love in your heart for someone else that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t serve them. It means that you should grow in your love for them and seek to do good to them.
God was gracious to use what I thought was a teaching moment in my kid’s life to grow my understanding of what it means to love and serve Him. Now when my children and I have discussions about truth-telling, we say “Loving Jesus means loving the truth.” My prayer is that their lives, and mine, will increasingly reflect this recognition.
