I often joke that I have the spiritual gift of sarcasm. A Florida teacher, years ago, did not find that funny at all. “Sarcasm is NOT a spiritual gift,” she wrote to me. I read her comment and thought to myself, “well, no duh.”

Not only does that story point clearly to my sin nature, it reflects the struggle for Christians in this cultural moment. George Orwell famously said, “In an age of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” For Christians who understand that this time and place is determined by God, and therefore the moment to which they’ve been called, truth telling is non-negotiable. In other words, it is every Christian’s calling be truth tellers in a moment that has abandoned the very idea of truth.

The struggle is how to do this. Father Robert Sirico, co-founder of the Acton Institute, offered this as a guide: “We must be ruthless with ideas but gentle with people.” Helpful, but the struggle is in the trying, especially when so many identify with the ideas they hold. Some of these ideas are especially damnable, and also reinforced by those in position of influence, even political power.

Still, Scripture is clear. Truth is to be spoken in love. At the recent Great Lakes Symposium, entitled “Truth, Love and Humor,” Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family ,talked about what that means:

I believe in the fruit of the Spirit. I believe in the love of God. And so often I’ll ask the audience, ‘Who came to Christ this way: Those Christians were so mean to me. They treated me so poorly. I decided to become one of them.’ Does anybody have that testimony? No. That’s why the love of God is so important, because we have to allow the Holy Spirit to use the way we engage people to crack their hearts open.

Let’s look at 2 Timothy 2:24-26. I love this scripture, and it’s kind of the scripture I meditate on before I go into a battle like that. It says, ‘And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone . . .’ Not kind to most people, to everyone; able to teach patiently, enduring evil, and correcting opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, ‘. . . and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will.’

Isn’t that awesome? This is our job description, everybody.

Joining Daly and myself on stage was Seth Dillon, CEO of the Christian satire site Babylon Bee, whose tagline is “Fake News You Can Trust.” The Bee targets bad ideas both inside and outside of the church with humor, often biting humor. I asked him whether that approach conflicts with the biblical command to speak the truth in love. Dillon responded this way:

I think that it’s a misinterpretation of the purpose of what we’re doing with satire to suggest that what we’re doing isn’t gentle or respectful or loving. It’s speaking the truth in love and using humor to do it. And I think that’s necessary. I think it’s very necessary because—this is back to that Chesterton quote I said before—humor can get in under the door. It’s one of the most effective ways to push back on these bad ideas. So, if we don’t use that, and we don’t recognize the biblical precedent for that, you know, Elijah engaged in mockery; he used that to great effect. So, there are examples in the Bible of hyperbolic language. You know, Jesus used a lot of hyperbolic language in his rebukes. I think it can be extremely forceful and effective. And again, the purpose of it is not to put people down and make them feel bad about themselves. It’s not about bullying.

In fact, the Bee has been forceful and effective. Their story is featured in the upcoming documentary Truth Rising. Like many others within the last several years, the Bee was pressured to accommodate the terrible idea that a male can be a woman. However, they refused and, as a result, were banned from Twitter. In the end, God used their decision as an important impetus for the cultural pushback against transgender ideology.

Certainly, the line between sharp wit and cruelty is thin, especially for fallen people. A surgeon can harm or heal, and our sinful nature makes the former as likely as the latter. However, the call to love should not be confused with nice. That confusion is common and has led many to capitulate to ideas that victimize people.

As Paul told Timothy, the goal of Christian truth-telling should be to free the victims of bad ideas. To do so is an act of love. It won’t always be seen that way, but we should do it anyway, even if we are perceived as being “not nice.”

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