Through The Bible in a Year - September 14, 2026

“Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us… for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.” - Ephesians 5:1-2, 8-9

Christian philosopher, Francis Schaeffer, made an observation that became one of the most quoted statements in modern Christian thought: “We need not only an orthodoxy of doctrine—what we believe—we need an orthodoxy of community—rightness in the way that we treat one another.”

He had fought for decades for the truth of Scripture. And he was right to fight. The Bible is true. The resurrection is real. Biblical doctrine matters.

But Schaeffer came to see that doctrine without love produces a church that is, in his words, “a dead, ugly orthodoxy—sub-Christian.” Truth that does not produce beauty in human relationships is not functioning the way Christ intended.

“True Christianity produces beauty as well as truth, especially in the specific areas of human relationships. If we do not show beauty in the way that we treat each other, then in the eyes of the world—and in the eyes of our children—we are denying the truth we proclaim.”

The fruit that Scripture’s light produces, the Apostle Paul says, is found in all that is good and right and true. Not just in correct belief—in actual goodness in how we treat one another. Actual rightness in how we respond to hurt or disdain. Actual truth in the way that we seek and secure relationships.

The question that nearly broke Schaeffer’s faith was: “If Christ is really indwelling His people, where is the evidence?” Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control—the fruit of the Spirit. Where is it?

That same question is being asked by a watching world right now. Not “do Christians believe the right things?” but “does it make them different? Does it make them better to be around? Does Christ seem real in the way they treat people?”

If the church holds up its doctrine and then speaks spitefully of others, the world wins and Christ’s witness loses. If the church holds up its love and sets aside its doctrine, Christ’s truth loses. Only when both are held together does the witness of Jesus advance his kingdom’s purposes.

Respond: Where is your church or Christian community showing the fruit of light—goodness, rightness, truth in relationships? And where is the orthodoxy of doctrine present but the orthodoxy of community absent?

This is not primarily a question about others in your church or community. It’s a question about you. Where in your own relationships—with your spouse, your children, your coworkers, your church family—is the fruit of light visible? And where is it absent?

Ask God to produce through you what Francis Schaeffer said is the revolutionary witness of the gospel of Jesus: not just right belief but “biblical love for the unlovely.”

Prayer: Lord Jesus, I want to hold doctrine and love together—not one without the other. Where I’ve been orthodox in belief but ugly in community, forgive me. Where I’ve been kind but untethered from truth, correct me. Produce in me the fruit of light—all that is good and right and true—so that my life becomes evidence that You are real and living and present. In Your name, Amen.