love and truth are inseparable - 32nd week friday 2014

Today we read the second letter of John.  It is addressed to the Chosen Lady or Electa who is a metaphor of the church.  It was written at a difficult time for the community when false teachers were misleading the children of the chosen Lady, the members of the church.  There was division in the community because of false teachers spreading another set of doctrine, and not everything is well in many Christian communities.  There were divisions because of false teachings.  However the elder was thankful that the children of the chosen lady were all following the truth and have not succumbed to lies. 

Because of this the letter affirms that love and truth go hand in hand.  Lies and deceptions can destroy the community.  We cannot love when we are not in the truth.  We cannot love when all around us are pretensions.  In the presence of untruth and deception the unity of the community is suffers and brothers and sisters will be divided and turn against each other.  Truth and love are connected.  Why? because the foundation of love is trust. Destroy trust, lie to each other, pretend to each other, and slowly you erode the basic structure that nourishes love and permits it to grow.  Love and truth go hand in hand.