Truth Spoken in Love

“In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the
living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this
charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke
and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men
will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they
will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears
want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths”
(2 Timothy 4:1-4).

It looks as if the time has come.

The sound doctrine that cannot be endured is simple, basic,
true, and shows up in verses like the following:

“In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands
all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world
with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men
by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:30-31).

“The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands.
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not
see life, for God’s wrath remains on him” (John 3:35-36).

“He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel
of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out
from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power on the day he comes
to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have
believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you” (2 Thessalonians
1:8-10).

People who like to have their ears tickled do not call pastors
who will dwell on these truths.

Because more and more people want soft teaching, more and more people
are willing to give it. We see it in “Christian” books.

There have always been true books and false books. It was easy to
tell the difference. Now there is a multitude of “true books” that are “soft” books.
They do not appear to be false. The truth in them is presented so that no one will take offense. When that successfully happens, “truth”
has just become false.

Truth spoken in love both attracts and offends.

“Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still
being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished” (Galatians
5:11).

As the river of Christian books gets wider, it seems to get
shallower.

We in our ministry have diligently endeavored to present sound doctrine.
As the river gets wider, we channel it so in our section it is narrower and deeper.
Find out more about the books we publish at ccmbooks.org/bookstore.

This post coordinates with today’s reading in the To
the Word! Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading plan,
please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with us.