Today’s 333 Devotional: “Love Traffics in Truth”

Love traffics in truth and doesn’t deal in deception.

Many people approach life as if it were a game needing to be won no matter what. To get the upper hand, to get the better job, to establish or continue in a relationship, they practice the art of deception. They disguise their feelings; they put on masks and wear garments of deception to maintain a false image.

After a while lying becomes easy and it’s just another way to play others in order to win this game of life. The only problem is when looking for love they never really find it, because they’ve forgotten an important truth about what is love.

This is what the Apostle Paul deals with in his description of love in 1 Corinthians 13. As it deals with these false images Paul writes, “(Love) does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.” (1 Corinthians 13:6)

To say this another way, “Love doesn’t deal in deception, but rather love traffics in truth.”

If we deal in deception eventually, we’re going to get caught, because love cares about the means and not just the end. In other words, the end doesn’t justify the means.

Love not only cares about the destination, but also it cares about the route we choose to get there.

We look for shortcuts, but many of them take us down a road that God’s word warns us against. We lie to get our way, but in the end, it will come back to bite us.

So, if we truly love God with the whole of our being, as the Great Commandment tells us, and love others as an outpouring of that love, then we will live and speak truth to others and to God even when it hurts.

Psalm 15 says that those who want to dwell with God, who wants to walk uprightly and do works of righteousness, will speak the truth from their heart, even if it hurts.