Jump Start # 2429

Psalms 85:10 “Lovingkindness and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.”

   Our verse today brings together and joins powerful concepts. There are certain things that just seem to go together in life. Peanut butter and jelly; popcorn at the movies; Batman and Robin; grandchildren and giggles; friends and good times—these things are just made for each other and they fit so well.

In our verse, we find four powerful principles: lovingkindness, truth, righteousness and peace. What our verse does is link them together. They fit and they work together. But somehow through the years, some have scrambled these concepts up in their theology and see them as opposites. If these four words were on a table and we had to pair them up, most would lean towards lovingkindness and peace being on one side and truth and righteousness on the other side. The very word “righteousness” means to be right. How can you be right without truth. Seems logical and sensible. But this is not how the verse is constructed.

Lovingkindness meets truth. It’s as if these principles were people. They are walking towards each other and they pause and have a conversation. They meet. And, the flow of the passage is that they like each other and they stay together. Now, this is hard, especially in our culture of tolerance. To love someone, it is thought today, is to accept them as they are. Truth must be changed or ignored or there won’t be an atmosphere for love. But in our verse lovingkindness meets truth. They go together. They do fit well.

Without truth, one accepts error. Without lovingkindness, one becomes harsh and judgmental. The two words work together. They balance each other. Stand for truth, but do so in a spirit of love. Correct, but do so with gentleness. So, when love and truth meet, the right things will be done.

Love will keep us from running people off because they are different or we do not agree with them. Too many have walked into a church building with the fear of being judged as if they were walking down the runway of a fashion show. All eyes are on them and the critics are looking at every detail, from the way they dress, to where they sit, to what they are doing in worship. If one can pass the test, they may come back. Many don’t. Wrong outfit. Wrong version of the Bible. Wrong place to be sitting. Wrong hair style. Some are even bold enough to say something out loud. Feelings are hurt. Some never return. What’s missing is love. We ought to be thankful that folks are concerned enough about their souls that they came. Give them some slack. Give them some space. Put down the radar gun and put a smile on your face and invite them to sit with you.

But with love, comes truth. There’s the balance. All love and no truth, leads us to opening the barn doors to any and every idea. Make the people happy is what happens when truth is forgotten. Truth compels us to honor God first. Truth makes us seek answers in the Bible. Truth makes us be honest, first with ourselves and then with others. We must follow God. We must do things God’s way. That’s the voice of truth. Without truth, as contemporary churches illustrate, everything and anything goes. Truth keeps the kite from flying away. But truth is bound and presented in love. We don’t beat people over the head with truth, we open the door of salvation and show them a better way. With kindness, we help. Love and truth meet.

The other combination is righteousness and peace. They do more than meet. They kiss. Now, one doesn’t kiss strangers, at least not in this country. Implied is a relationship. It moves as if righteousness and peace not only know each other, but they now have a fondness and a love for each other. They want to be together. Righteousness is determined by God. He is the one that forgives and declares that one is now right or not guilty. Righteousness is a relationship term and a fellowship concept built around God. Peace follows righteousness. Without being right with God, there can be no peace. Without being right, we are guilty and in trouble. But righteousness brings peace. We are God’s children and we enjoy the relationship with God. All is well because we are with God.

These are not the only balance concepts in the Bible. Faith and works is one. Grace and doing our part is another. Bearing one another’s burdens and carrying our own burdens is another balance concept. Mercy and justice, both belong to God, and both go together. God’s love and God’s wrath, not opposites, but linked together. Heaven and Hell, while opposite eternal outcomes, they go together. To have one is to have the other.

What this passage shows us on a larger scale is the idea of balance. It is easy to lean too much one way. When we do, we tend to fall over. We need to be balanced in our preaching. We need to be balanced in our thinking. We need to be balanced in our attitudes. We need to be balanced in our talking to others. One sided religion usually becomes a lopsided religion. It’s easy to talk so much about baptism that we rarely mention grace. It’s easy to over emphasize works that we forget about faith. It’s easy to talk so much about “church” that we don’t talk about our personal walk with the Lord.

We understand this at home. If mom and dad are always critical and always complaining about the kids, they will grow up thinking that they can never do anything right and that home-life was tough, serious and without any joy. But the opposite can be just as true. Kids grow up thinking life is a perpetual summer camp, then they enter adulthood with that same unbalanced idea. There ought to be a balance between husband and wife. If he always gets his way, or she always gets her way, then things become tense after awhile.

Balance. The principles of God are not choices that we get to pick out which ones we want. We need them all. We must have them all. We must learn to balance them. This will keep us from leaning too far one way or the other.

Roger

Jump Start # 1912

Psalms 85:10 “Lovingkindness and truth have met together; righteousness and peace kissed each other.”

In this very poetic passage written by the sons of Korah, we find the principles of lovingkindness, truth, righteousness and peace. These four principles are characteristics of God and are need to be found in the people of God. It seems, especially the way moderns present things, that these principles have little in common with each other and can even be portrayed as opposites. To be loving, it seems that a person must back off the strictness, especially around truth. Love and grace go together, that’s for certain. Love and forgiveness. But lovingkindness and truth? Righteousness and peace also seem hard to fit together. These four principles seem like square pegs that we try to fit into round holes. It’s not smooth, easy or comfortable. To have peace, it seems one must compromise. How can one compromise and be right? It is easier to understand be right or be at peace, but not both. Not together. Not at the same time.

These four principles are personified. They appear as people. Lovingness meets truth, just like two people meet. The flow of this sentence is that the meeting is good. They have joined together. A friendship has formed. Two grand principles of God meet. They do not square off against each other. They do not walk away from each other. Rather, because of what follows, it seems that lovingkindness and truth hit it off. They become friends. The legendary singer Glen Campbell recently passed away. I watched a video about one of his dear friends. They golfed almost daily. They lived in the same town. They respected each other’s abilities. Their wives were good friends. Their kids grew up together. Who was this friend of Glen Campbell? It was the hard rocker Alice Cooper. Talk about opposites. But he shared how much they had in common. He explained why there were such great friends. Lovingkindness and truth meet.

The next expression brings in affection. Righteousness and peace do more than meet. They become more than just friends. They kiss. There is a bond between them. A romance. A love. Boy meets girl. All of us who are married started with a first date. There was that first kiss. That romance grew into a marriage. After many years, it’s hard to imagine one without the other. Righteousness and peace, together, just as they ought to be. The platform in which peace can exist and survive is righteousness. The opposite of being right is being wrong. Wrong with God. Wrong with each other. When we have been wronged, peace evaporates. Someone talks about us in a bad way. Someone lies. Someone has been dishonest towards us. This does more than hurt our feelings, it breaks the trust we had in them. Peace no longer remains. So, for righteousness and peace to kiss, makes perfect sense from Heaven’s side of things.

All of this brings us to some greater observations:

First, the principles of God are not counter to each other. It’s not a cafeteria, where we pick out certain qualities and leave others untouched. We are not to pick out lovingkindness but leave out truth. God wants us to manifest all the characteristics that He reveals. This would be true of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5. This would be true of the virtues found in 2 Peter. This would be true of the last verse of Ephesians 4. To be whole in Christ, we must grow and develop all of these. Without being right, we cannot have peace. To love, is to stand with truth. Many make sure that the church is standing true and pure yet they haven’t done the same thing with their own hearts. While they would never deviate one inch away from what God says the church is to do, they don’t see the same with their attitudes, tongue or heart.

Second, some qualities are easier than others. Because some qualities do not come naturally to us, or they challenges us, is no means to avoid them or ignore them. In Titus we find, “Our people must learn to engage in good deeds.” In Timothy we read, “they must learn to practice piety in regard to their own family.” Paul told the Philippians, “I have learned to be content.” Learn. Just as a student in school must learn, so must we. We must be shown how to develop the heart and characteristics of God. We must put forth some effort to learn. Every school year, some kids do well and get on the honor roll. Others flunk out and must take classes over. Some learned. Some learned well. Some didn’t.

Third, some excel in these more easily than others do. Some, because of their background, thinking, and internal wiring, are more likely to develop these qualities much easier and faster than others. Some are loving. They have grown up seeing the love of God and the love of neighbor. Their thought process is to think the best of others. They have learned to be kind in word and respectful in attitude. But for others, their journey has not been this way. They may have grown up with prejudice and hatred. Their world may have been surrounded with those who were bigots. Lovingkindness is tough. They have a lot of history to overcome. They have to change how they view people. I expect for some Pharisees who became Christians, it was hard to love Samaritans. Even among the apostles, there was a Jewish zealot and a tax collector. The dynamics for disaster were all there. Yet with Christ, we can learn. With Christ we can change. We can overcome our background. Prejudice people can love. People who agitate by nature can become peaceable and get along. Truth and righteousness can be a part of our lives.

Fourth, when these qualities are present, it makes the home and the church much better. The foundations that bring about love, truth, righteousness and peace is grace, fellowship and the love of God and His word. A home or a church that doesn’t stand upon truth will not be righteous. And if love isn’t present, there won’t be any peace. We can pick at each other until we get so upset that we leave and never come back or we can get along. I’ve noticed some folks are just like a mosquito. That pesky bug will buzz and buzz around you. You know he’s going to land on you and bite you. But he’s a nuisance in the process. Just like some people. You know they are going to find something negative to say. They buzz and buzz around, and you feel like swatting them but peace, lovingkindness, truth and righteousness keeps you from doing that. You can get annoyed by some. Some can really get under your skin. You could scream. But you don’t. You could smack them. But you won’t. The reason is that lovingkindness and truth have met. And, righteousness and peace have kissed. And, where did all of this take place? First in Heaven. Then, throughout the Bible. But lately, and most importantly to you, in your heart. You have brought lovingkindness and truth together. You have arranged for righteousness and peace to meet. These bonds have taken place in your heart.

Just as someone arranges for a boy to meet a girl, this arrangement was made by you in your heart. My sweet wife and I met on a blind date. A mutual friend, who knew her and knew me, introduced us together.

Lovingkindness and truth…righteousness and peace. Best friends. Companions. Together. And they are found in your heart and because of that, they have changed you. You walk in truth and righteousness. You manifest lovingkindness. You are a person of peace. It shows in your choices. It’s seen in your attitude. It’s a part of you now. It’s your spiritual DNA. Your family notices it. Your church benefits because of it.

Together, just as God intended. Lovingkindness, truth, righteousness and peace—found in God. Found in the Bible. And found in you. This is just one of the many differences God makes in our lives.

Roger