Truth And Love

Last updated on: August 23, 2022 at 2:49 am by Henry Karlson

Truth And Love 2022-08-23T02:49:49-05:00 Henry Karlson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Scott Hess: Truth By John Parulis / flickr

The truth is good. This is why the knowing and willing violation of the truth is said to be “intrinsically evil.” Those who willingly seek to deceive others, that is, those who knowingly state some falsehood, or encourage others to believe it, without being forced to do so by someone else, are culpable for their lie. If someone were forced to make a statement under torture, one which they do not agree with and believe to be false, they cannot be said to desire to deceive anyone, and so they are not to be held culpable for what they say. This is not to say, objectively, no evil had been committed, for certainly, some evil had been done; the one who is culpable for it is not the one who was compelled to act contrary to their own desire, but the one who did the compulsion.[1]

Not every lie is equal. The gravity of the evil involved depends upon many factors. Many lies are slight, and so the evil done is also slight. Other lies, however, are far more grave, because they are used to promote and engage some great evil, such as if someone were to lie in order to have some innocent person unjustly harmed or killed.

We should seek to preserve the truth by speaking of it the best we can, “Not deceiving but remaining sincere to all living beings.” [2] Moreover, we should make sure how we speak the truth is such that we speak the truth in love (cf. Eph. 4:25), and not in a matter of fact way that ignores the impact our words might have upon those around us. If we ignore the role love should have in our speech, then our speech is not as good as it should, and insofar as we act contrary to such good, we act contrary to the truth itself, leading us to realize that a factually correct statement said in a cruel fashion, without love, represent some kind of falsehood. “So one who pursues this truth and that truth, separated from the highest truth, without doubt does not light upon truth but upon falsehood.” [3] When we willingly ignore love and disassociate it from our engagement of the truth, we have embraced the partial good over the fullness of the good, and so the partial truth over the fullness of the truth. This is why many who proclaim they only speak the truth, but ignore how they should speak it, are often far from the truth itself, offering only a perversion of it.

Christians have been told that they should worship God with love, showing the relationship love has with the truth. “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (Jn. 4:24 RSV). They should love all that is good, which means, they should love the truth, realizing that such a love for the truth can only be had if they embrace the truth in love. They should be open to and seek after greater and greater truths, allowing themselves to be corrected when they have been mistaken. They should, likewise, desire to share with others the truth they have come to recognize while accepting the fact that they must not unjustly impose their understanding upon others. For, as Solovyov said, based upon his own pursuit of the truth, the truth is not recognized by such compulsion, but by one’s encounter with it:

And as for paths, only honest experience can show which of them is true and which is mistaken. I am always ready to reject directly and decisively any opinion of mine as soon as its falsehood is disclosed in actual fact. Prohibition is not disclosing, and force is not evidence of truth. [4]

To be sure, this does not mean we should embrace anarchy, allowing everyone to be free to do whatever they want to do based upon their own understanding of the truth. What must be embraced is the common good, and with it, a love for each other, a love which seeks the good for everyone; if someone’s “truth” would have them unjustly impose themselves and harm others, they can and should be stopped, though of course, stopping them does not prove them to be in error (although, to be sure, their lack of demonstrates that somewhere, they certainly have strayed from the fullness of the truth).

For Christians, Christ is the truth, the truth which is just, and so the truth which is love. This is why those who conform themselves to the truth of Christ will conform themselves to the truth of justice found in the realization of love; they will show forth that love in what they do, making their speech and actions radiate with the truth they have come to know through their relationship with Christ:

The Lord Jesus Christ is justice. No one who acts unjustly is subordinate to Christ, justice. The Lord Christ is truth. No one is subordinate to Christ, the truth, who lies or holds false teaching. The Lord Christ is sanctification. No one is subordinate to Christ, sanctification, when he himself is profane and defiled. The Lord Christ is peace. No one is subordinate to Christ who is hostile or bellicose, unable to say, “I was peaceful with those who hate peace.” [5]

The love for truth, must, therefore, recognize that the truth itself is one with love, for God is the ultimate truth and God is love. “The truth is that by nature every appetite chooses and pursues the good, while it shuns and drives away evil.” [6] Indeed, the truth is so grounded upon love, that love more than various facts serves as the basis of truth. This is why, those who are mistaken about facts can still embrace the truth while those who do not embrace love have already lost the truth. To willfully lie, to counter the truth, requires one to reject such love, while those who speak and act out of love, show they are embracing the truth by their embrace of love. If we want to stand for the truth, if we want to worship God in spirit and truth, we must therefore embrace love; if we don’t, we will find ourselves standing far from the truth, and if we claim to love it and embrace it, all we do is lie to ourselves.

[1] Obviously, we can recognize heroic levels of virtue which are not expected for everyone to follow. Thus, if someone, even under compulsion, did not act contrary to their will, but rather suffered or was killed for what they would not do, they might be seen as acting with heroic virtue if the reason why they didn’t act was for the sake of some greater good. Because these are exceptional cases, and are not to be expected from everyone, we marvel when we hear of such situations. Nonetheless, the point that has been made, that one is only culpable for lying if one wills to deceive, is important because it can open us up to understand difficult moral situations. Not all compulsion necessarily is of the same kind. The compulsion one can be engaging is the protection of some innocent person, so that a person might feel compelled to lie because they want to protect someone else from the one who unjustly questions them. This might be the way we should approach the question of what someone should have done if they were approached by a Nazi officer who asked them if they knew where any Jews were being hid. Knowing that Nazi officer would have the Jews killed if their hiding place was uncovered, the person can be said to be compelled to make a response when they would normally be silent, and so, being forced to speak, they are not culpable for what they say if they act in accordance to what they think the greater good entails in such a situation. The person who was put in such a situation might be said to be justified for saying something which was not factually correct, and the culpability of their words, if it is to be placed upon anyone, would be upon the officer who put them in that situation. This shows that the lie is still a problem, still an evil, but the one who is guilty of it is not necessarily the one who spoke it, but the one who put them in such a situation that they had to speak because whatever they said, some evil would come about as a result. The fact that protecting such an innocent life is the greater good of the two, and so is what is willed by the one who lies, also verifies this.

[2] Tsong-kha-pa, The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment. Volume Two. Trans. Lamrin Chenmo Translation Committee. Ed. Joshua W.C. Cutler and Guy Newland (Ithaca: NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2004), 79.

[3] Marsilio Ficino, The Letters of Marsilio Ficino. Volume 4 (Liber v). trans. by members of the Language Department of the School of Economic Science, London (London: Shepheard-Walwyn, 1988), 23 [Letter 15: To Angelo Manetti].

[4] Vladimir Soloviev, The Karamazov Correspondence. Letters of Vladimir S. Soloviev. Trans. and ed. Vladimir Wozniuk (Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2019), 162 [Letter to Tertii Filippov, July 30, 1889].

[5] Origen, Homilies on the Psalms: Codex Monacensis Graecus 314. Trans. Joseph W. Trigg (Washington, DC: CUA Press, 2020), 90 [Homily 2 on Psalm 36].

[6] Marsilio Ficino, The Letters of Marsilio Ficino. Volume 4 (Liber V), 49 [Letter 34 to Cardinal Raffaele Riario and Francesco Salviati].

Stay in touch! Like A Little Bit of Nothing on Facebook.
If you liked what you read, please consider sharing it with your friends and family!

General Christian

Relationships and Religion

Previous Post

August 21, 2022

We Should Not Put Obstacles In The Way Of Spreading Of The Gospel

Next Post

August 24, 2022 We Should Make The World A Better Place

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Abortion Abraham abuse Aesthetics AI Aliens Ambrose Ancestors and Everything Andrew Angels Animals Anne Anthony Antisemitism apologetics Apophatic Apostle John Aquinas Artificial Intelligence Asanga Ascension Asceticism Assumption Atheism Attachment Augustine Authority Avarice Balthasar Baptism Beauty Biden birthright citizenship Bishops Black History Books Buddhism Bulgakov Byzantine Calendar C.S. Lewis Calcidius Catholic Catholicism Catholicism Celibacy Charity Chastity children Chrismation Christ Christmas Christology Church Climate Change Common Good Communion Confession Confirmation Conscience Constantine conventions conversion councils Covid Creation Cross Dead Death Death Penalty Debate Deception Demagogues Demons Desert Monks Desert Mothers Desire destruction development Dialogue Dignity Dionsyius Dionysius Discipline Diversity Division Doctor Who doctrine dogma Dormition Dualism Easter Easter Series Ecumenical Councils Ecumenism Education Election Empathy Environment Error Eschatology eschaton Eternity Ethics Eucharist Evangelism Eve Evil evolution Faeries Faith Fear femininity Ficino Florence Florensky Folktale Fools Forgiveness Freedom Future gender Gentile Gentiles Glory Gnostic God gods Good Samaritan Goodness Gospel Government Grace Great Fast Guns Hate healing Health Heaven Hell Hellenism Heresy Hierarchy Hildegard Hinduism History Holiness Holy Spirit Holy Week Hope Horror Human rights humanity Humility hypocrisy ICE icon icons Identification Identity Idol II Nicea Immigration incarnation Individualism Informal Reflections Inklings Intention Inter-Religious Interfaith Internet Interpretation Intrinsic evil Irenaeus Islam Israel Jacob Jerome Jesus Jews John Chrysostom John of Damascus John the Baptist Joseph Judaism justice Justification kenosis Kindnesss Kingdom of God Kingdom of Heaven Law Law of Moses Lazarus Leaf by Niggle Lent Lenten Reflection Liberation Theology Lies Life Listen Literature Liturgy locutions Logic Logos Love Marriage Martyrs Mary Mass Maximos The Confessor Meanness Meditation Mercy Middle Path Migrants Mind Miracles Miriam Morals Moses Movies Music Muslims Myths Names Nationalism Native Americans New Year Nicea Nicholas Nothing Novatian Obedience Occam's Razor Ordination Origen Original Sin Orthodox orthopraxis Pagans Palamas Palm Sunday Paradise Paschaltide Paul Peace Pentecost person Peter piety PKD Plato pluralism Plurality Poem Poetry Poiltics Politics Poor Pope Pope Francis Pope Leo XIV Post Office Prayer Pride Pro-life Prodigal Son propaganda Prophecy Prophets Providence Putin Racism Reading Reason Reflection Refugees Relationships Religion Religion Series Religious Liberty Repent Republicans Rest Resurrection Rich Rites Russia Sacraments Saints Salvation Salvian Santa Science Scripture Self-Giving Sexuality Sibyl Sick Silence Sin Singlehood Social Justice Society Sodom Solovyov Speculations Spiritual Reflection St. Cyril of Alexandria St. Justin Martyr Suffering Sunday of the Paralytic Man Sunday of the Samaritan Woman Superhero Supreme Court Teaching Technology Thanksgiving The Father the Universe Theological Reflection Theology Theosis Theotokos Thomas Timaeus Time Tolerenace Tolkien Tradition Transfiguration Trinity Trump Truth Uncategorized Unity Universities USCCB Value Vatican II Vegetarian Vices Violence Virtue Vocations War Water Welcome Wisdom Womanhood Women Work World View Worship Writing Zacchaeus

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz