HOW SHOULD I RESPOND TO THOSE ENTRAPPED IN CATHOLICISM?
No one likes confrontation. Even those who like to confront others don’t like being confronted themselves. It’s awkward, unpleasant, and nerve-racking. The proud can feel attacked and the humble discouraged. Only self-righteous confronters feel good about it.
That’s why us Christians who confront those entrapped in Catholicism, the religious lost, and pagan lost with biblical truth, are regularly labelled as unloving. Since the popular notion of love is whatever feels good, confrontation cannot be loving. Too often when churches claim the motto, “Love God, Love People,” what they mean is they go out of their way to avoid making people feel bad about their sin.
John affirmed that love for Christ is authenticated by obedience to Christ (John14:14-23). He also pointed out that love for fellow Christians is the defining mark of true Christianity (John 13:34-37), and the dividing line between God’s children and Satan’s children (1John 3:4-10). But John’s theology of love never softened his zeal for truth—it actually brought balance into the life of this Son of Thunder.
John seems to have been committed to truth very early in life. From the beginning we see him as a spiritually aware man who sought to know and follow the truth. When we first encounter John (John1:35-37), both he and Andrew are disciples of John the Baptist. But like Andrew, John without hesitation began following Jesus as soon as John the Baptist singled Him out as the true Messiah.
John’s love of truth is evident in all his writings. He uses the Greek word for truth twenty-five times in his gospel and twenty more times in his epistles. He wrote, “I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in truth” (3John 4) His strongest epithet for someone who claimed to be a believer while walking in darkness was to describe the person as “a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1john2:4). No one in all of Scripture, except the Lord Himself, had more to say extolling the very concept of truth.
Many of us place too much emphasis on the love side of the fulcrum whilst ignoring the truth. Some are merely ignorant; others are deceived; still others simply do not care about what is true. In each case, truth is missing, and all they are left with is error, clothed in a shallow, tolerant sentimentality which is a poor substitute for genuine love.
They talk a lot about love and tolerance, but they utterly lack any concern for the truth. Therefore even the “love” they speak of is a tainted love. Real love “does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth(1corinthians13:6).
The truly godly person must cultivate both virtues in equal proportions. If you could wish for anything in your sanctification, wish for that. If you pursue anything in the spiritual realm, pursue a perfect balance of truth and love. Know the truth, and uphold it in love.
Finally, love and truth must be maintained in perfect balance. Truth is never to be abandoned in the name of love. But love is not to be deposed in the name of truth. That is what John learned from Christ, and it provides for us the balance we so desperately need as we approach, those entrapped in Catholicism, the religious lost, and the pagan lost!
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