Yesterday I read a bristling article by a Christian blogger/journalist/news figure who proclaimed himself a “professional truth-teller.” He gleefully excoriated another Christian writer as likes and loves poured into his site.
Listen. If a Twitter handle or author bio includes the phrase “professional truth-teller” there is a good chance they are not.
When truth–and we’re talking spiritual truth, here–is detached from grace, the soul of truth dies in the same way that a corpse looks like a human body but is no longer a person. The thing that made it living, active, true, has left, and what remains is an empty husk fit only for the grave.
The same hubris that gives a self-professed truth expert chills when they think of their ice-cold discernment is the very same trait that prevents them from listening well to varying views or offering grace to the broken reed and flickering candle. Their massive platform doesn’t mean they have lots of discernment; it just means their followers have little. Their “truth” has lost its soul of grace. It is dead. Just as faith without works is dead. And because it is dead, it is not really true. Jesus came with both truth and grace. Truth without grace is dead.
A word of advice to Christian leaders: avoid calling yourself a “professional truth sayer.” Actual truth tellers are too busy gaining wisdom from the painful experiences of a gray world and opening their hearts and homes to people outside their caste to bother with such self-congratulatory dairy whip. I suffered for 25 years under a self-proclaimed master of discernment and can count my scars like stars. The world is a beautiful and terrible place, full of paradoxes and mysteries. It calls for wisdom and a great deal of humility.
Truth without grace is dead.
Liberty for Captives 
“The same hubris that gives a self-professed truth expert chills when they think of their ice-cold discernment is the very same trait that prevents them from listening well to varying views or offering grace to the broken reed and flickering candle.”
Like you, I’ve encountered those who are so enamoured of their own “truth” that they simply won’t hear anything beyond it. And in that place there is no room for grace, or compassion, or mercy, or any other expression of love. Which probably means that in our attempts to follow Jesus, we’ve lost sight of him and taken a wrong turn 😦
Just a heads up, I get pretty psyched any time that I see that you have posted something new here.
I love this. It reminds me of this memes in Facebook calling for a “return” of those fire and brimstone preachers who tell it like it is. The self professed truth teller is the one who lives and dies not with the truth, but by telling people that they are wrong. They feed on cutting people down whereas the person who is full of grace can carry both truth and restoration with them.
Thanks Dallas 🙂
Yes and amen! I have learned that usually the people who actually have a good grasp of the truth are humble enough to admit that maybe they don’t, that there is room for them to learn and grow- rather than touting what they believe as the gospel.
I’ve been following you since you began your blog and wrote about the Church of Wells. I enjoy your writing style and perspective. Keep up the good work!
Thanks so much for your encouragement 🙂
People who revel in dropping “truth bombs” of “ultimate wisdom and discernment” have failed to read 1 Corinthians 13. Even if what they say is true, it is said for self-gratification rather than edification. Without love, even ‘true’ words are just so much noise.