In his book, Love matters more, Jared Byas takes great exception to the way Christians use the phrase to “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15). Quoting many examples where Christians have clearly been less than loving in the way they have used the truth.
Byas writes in an easy-to-read, down-to-earth style. He uses illustrations, biblical instruction and personal examples to explain why he believes it’s more important to be loving than speaking the truth to people. Some of his reasons are: we may not actually be speaking God’s truth but rather stating our own opinions, our relationship with the person may not be sufficiently mature enough to share challenging truth, telling people the truth isn’t an effective way of changing behaviour, and we aren’t sufficiently clear about what Paul meant when he wrote these words.
If we genuinely want to change people’s behaviour the best way to do so, is to first accept them as they are because it’s love and acceptance that change behaviour, not policing people’s actions.
Jared stresses the difference between speaking truth and actually living out what we believe. He asks, “What does it matter to the world and the people around me if I check off ‘belief in Jesus’ resurrection’ as a fact but it doesn’t inform how I live my life?”
At times I felt Byas overstated the problem, but overall, he makes a good point. A thought-provoking read.
More reviews of this book can be found on Goodreads. More reviews of other Christian Non-fiction books that I have read can be found here.
