Love @ Work Rejoices with the Truth

“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32).
“There are few nudities so objectionable as the naked truth.” (Agnes Repplier).
Discuss.

The Truth is a tricky beast. Yes I know I’m supposed to love it, but there are times when (a) I’d rather not know, or (b) I’d rather nobody else knew. Whether it’s truth about me or you, both apply.

Of course Jesus was talking about a different kind of Truth wasn’t he? Wasn’t he? Well at least it was Truth about God, about life, and about reality. His Truth goes so much deeper than factual stuff. But it is hard to deny that the factual stuff is a part of Truth.

OK so let’s explore this idea that “love … rejoices with the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:6). First it is in opposition to last week’s phrase “love does not delight in evil”. In a sense it is like one of those proverbs that uses poetic parallelism to give a positive and a negative way of saying the same thing, like “A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish son grief to his mother” (Proverbs 10:1). It emphasizes the point, just as our present clause does.

We should expect, therefore, that this is the flip side of the coin from not delighting in evil, and so I believe it proves to be. Not only do we not have little internal parties when our rival falls flat on his or her face, but we DO have such a party when our rival has pulls off something that improves their position. OK it was hard enough damping down our enthusiasm for the other person’s failure, but surely we don’t need to get all pumped up because they did something well do we? Or do we? Well of course we know the answer.

I don’t know about you, but I often draw the line when their success impacts me negatively. It would be like a soccer team all jumping for joy when the other team scores on them! I mean, come on – have you ever seen that?

The other aspect of this is in our truth-telling. I’m not sure about “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth” (I have some sympathy for the “naked truth” quote at the beginning) but truth without embroidery, exaggeration, or avoidance. There are times the truth, particularly about someone else, is unnecessary. If it is necessary there are ways to tell it – compassionate, confidential and constructive would be good words to apply. Without these, the truth easily becomes the “evil” of the previous phrase.

Underlying all these, though, is Jesus quote – “you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”. His Truth shows us the reality of who we and others are, how much we are valued and loved, how rich are God’s plans for us (both together and individually), and just Who is really in charge. Now that is truly Truth we can rejoice in, Truth that transforms every action, word and even thought in the workplace.