This article is based on a spiritual reflection I shared as part of my ongoing unorthodox perspectives—raw thoughts from my daily walk that reveal how we navigate the tension between love and truth.
What you’re about to read is a refined version of that reflection. The full recording contains all the spontaneous insights, the moment I first articulated the verse on truth, and the organic process of wrestling with whether we should continue writing biblical scripture for our time.
If you want the complete experience—the unfiltered spiritual exploration, the pauses where divine inspiration met careful reasoning, my complete thought process on balancing reverence with prophetic expression—become a paid subscriber to access the full audio archive.
But the article below will give you the core framework: How love without truth fails us, why we need a biblical verse on truth for an age of deception, and what it means to walk in love while living the truth in your daily life.
Introduction
Greetings and welcome to another Unorthodox Perspectives. As always, I’m your host, Franklin O’Kanu, and this topic builds off previous discussions—something I’ve touched on way earlier that I never had a chance to fully elaborate until now.
The question is: should we still continue to write books of the Bible?
The question has lingered in my mind for years, surfacing in previous discussions but never fully explored until now.
From the Orthodox Christian perspective, we were given 66 books written 2,000 years ago. The standard argument goes: “This book is timeless, it’s here to stay.” But as Christians who still listen to the voice of God via the Holy Spirit, we know that divine intervention occurs.
If the faith has evolved over two millennia, and another thousand or two thousand years stretch before us, should that not prompt change?
The Verse Nobody Talks About
We all know the famous passage on love, 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. Most can recite it by heart.
We talk endlessly about love. We romanticize it, celebrate it, and build entire theologies around it. But we rarely talk about truth with the same reverence, the same careful attention to its character and demands.
Two years ago, in my office, I wrote the verse on love. And as I wrote it, I also started thinking about truth. The idea here is that, as Christians, to do what Jesus commanded us to do, there’s a fine balance.
So I wrote a companion verse. Here’s what emerged—the original verse on love:
Love (1 Corinthians 13:4-8):
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It does not dishonor others. It is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
Then—here are my thoughts on Truth:
Truth:
Truth is just. It does not fear. It walks by faith, not by sight. It presumes and does not easily assume. Truth can defend itself. It is calm and patient in every circumstance. It never doubts, never fears, never panics, and never gives in to distress. Truth is brave and walks in love. It is unrelenting. It can stand on its own. Truth always prevails.
Navigating the Daily Battle
Most days, I trryyyy to do this: Walk in love, but live the truth.
It’s challenging. It requires constant attention. But it clarifies everything.
Our culture has sold us a romanticized version of love—unchecked, unbalanced, divorced from truth. We’re told that love means unconditional acceptance, that boundaries are unloving, that speaking hard truths is harsh or judgmental.
But that’s not biblical love. Biblical love “rejoices with the truth.” It doesn’t exist in opposition to truth—it walks hand in hand with it.
Unbalanced love, unchecked love, is not true love at all.
In my recent article on using your body as a temple, I explored how we’re constantly navigating sensations—thoughts, energies, hormones, feelings—without any real instruction on how to organize and traverse them. We’re bombarded daily by a society that pushes narratives, demands responses, and creates chaos.
Your Body Is a Temple—Here’s How to Actually Use It
One of the questions I’ve pondered at different times throughout my life is this: in all the education I’ve had, I don’t necessarily remember anyone telling me how to use my body.
This is where the framework matters: walking in love while living the truth becomes 80% of the battle.
When you understand not only the character of Jesus but the fullness of the walk—when you internalize both love and truth as complementary forces—you gain the ability to stay in heart coherence. From the moment you wake up through every interaction, you can maintain that balance.
Learning to interact with a loving perspective and with truth creates a beautiful tapestry woven fresh each day.
Who Was Jesus?
I love discussing the faith. It reveals just how much what we know today has escaped from the original intent. What we have here in our modern translation is a disconnect—and one of the greatest inversions of all time.
Scripture for an Age of Deception
Yes, the Bible doesn’t explicitly contain this verse on truth. But it’s deeply biblical in its understanding.
Which raises the question: Should we have conversations about expanding scripture for new times?
The biggest threat 2,000 years ago was persecution, physical death, and the collapse of temple systems. The biggest threat today is fundamentally different.
The biggest threat in our time is deception.
Deception by far eclipses other dangers. We’re living through an information war, a battle for reality itself, a systematic assault on our ability to discern truth from lies.
This realization comes from studying the Bible in today’s world rather than merely studying the times that gave rise to the Bible. Context matters. The threats change. The spiritual warfare evolves.
Divine inspiration didn’t stop. The Spirit still moves, still speaks, still calls us to articulate eternal truths in contemporary language. Read my article, The Black Man’s Guide To Reality, to see how The Spirit moved before the written Word.
An Invitation to Dialogue
This verse on truth—this framework of walking in love while living the truth—is my offering to that ongoing conversation.
An elaboration, as the continuation of a living faith in dialogue with a living God.
I’m putting this out here to get feedback, to invite discussion, to see what resonates and what challenges emerge.
Because if we’re going to face an age of deception with anything resembling spiritual integrity, we need both love and truth. Not one or the other. Both, in balance, in harmony, in daily practice.
Walk in love. Live the truth.
As always, thanks for the time and attention. Have a great and wonderful day.
—Ashe,
Franklin O’Kanu
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