Real Love Hurts

Paul wrote a tough letter in 1 Corinthians. He wrote it to straighten out a church gone awry. It was truthful, it was brutal. It was honest, it was necessary... and most of all, it was real love.

The world sells us on this sappy, touchy feely love that means nothing. Christian love, Christ-centered love is not sappy, it is saturated with truth and honesty. That's what it really means to love.

Paul expresses his anguish in love for writing the first Corinthian epistle in the second cahpter of the second Corinthian epistle:
2 Corinthians 2:4 (ESV) For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.

It takes real love to confront someone. That's what the Bible does for us. It touches on our weakness and exposes the soft underbelly of our sinfulness. It cuts and it ultimately heals. 

We need some Pauls in our lives. People who will tell us the truth even when we don't want to hear it and don't like it. But what a joy to be challenged in our blind spots when we know the challenge comes from someone who truly cares for us. They aren't trying to control or manipulate, they are truly trying to help and sometimes, it hurts.

Real love hurts. It's so hard to find honest and genuine relationships like this in the world. That is why a church body where the truth of God is preached is so healthy for your life. Imagine never asking a surgeon to take out the cancer because you were afraid of the knife! Or hoping a workout was as pain free as possible? The old adage is true in discipleship as well: "No pain - no gain!"

Find a church where people are honest. If you want to settle for sloppy sentimentality in Christianity, fine, but understand, not much will change in your life and you'll still be suffering from severe blind spots years from now. We all have them and by truth spoken in love will help deal with them.

Secondly, be a truth-telling Christian brother/sister. Don't pretend like you didn't notice or it doesn't matter. That does no good for anyone. You need a Paul and you need to be someone else's Paul. 

Proverbs 27:6 (ESV) Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.

PRAYER:

Father, help me to listen and submit to truthful speech spoken in love. And help me to be a person with loving truthful speech on my tongue. Forgive me for going through the motions so many times. Help me to be Christlike in speech - even when it wounds. In Jesus' Name. Amen.