Tough love is a valid, necessary, and biblical love. We need to speak the truth even when it cuts and hurts. Tough love is quite often painful, but, sometimes we can harm people when we don't tell them the truth.
Ephesian 4: 14-16 addresses three elements of our faith and speaking the truth in love.
1. It is a sign of maturity. Rather than being easily manipulated and swayed by false teaching, we are able to articulate the truth of our faith. Our roots are deep, and we know where we stand.
2. Speaking the truth helps us grow in our relationship with Jesus because He is truth. When we are willing to stand on the truth even when it hurts, we deepen our faith and our relationship with Jesus.
3. Strength in the body of Christ comes when we walk in the truth. This means we learn to express tough love as well as tender love. The church is strengthened when we reflect honest love, which includes both tenderness and toughness.
God built some of us with tougher hearts and others with more tender hearts. But we all need to learn about tough love. Tender hearted people say 'peace at any price' (they don't deal with the problem), but sometimes the price is the relationship they are trying to save. Tender hearted people need to trust God and take a risk. If you only have tender love in a relationship that relationship is headed for trouble. The tender love will eventually mean very little
Sometimes there comes a point in a relationship where tough love is called for. Tough love can bring up some big issues as well as put a strain on relationships. Tough love can either make or break a relationship.
Michelle Cozins
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