“Love without truth is sentimentality; it supports and affirms us but keeps us in denial about our flaws. Truth without love is harshness; it gives us information but in such a way that we cannot really hear it.”
Timothy Keller wrote these words in his book, The Meaning of Marriage, but the principle they express is universal, particularly when engaging difficult or controversial issues such as MAID, or Medical Assistance in Dying.
During a cultural moment fraught with polarization and outrage, people of faith may be tempted toward one or the other polar extreme: downplaying unpopular teachings of Scripture to avoid offence (love without truth) or else doubling down on their convictions with little regard for the feelings of others (truth without love).
When addressing MAID, as with all things, followers of Jesus are called to be compassionate, faithful ambassadors of our Lord – who is full of grace and truth – to a broken humanity. To do that well, it’s essential to keep several scriptural perspectives in view.
Made in the image of God
The most foundational truth about humanity is that we were created by God, in his image, to be his representatives within his creation. From this basic truth flows every other facet of our nature and purpose as human beings. We belong to God, and not to ourselves; in the words of the psalmist, “It is he who made us, and we are his” (Psalm 100:3). As God’s image bearers, we are to reflect his character, live according to his will, and fulfill his purposes for us. This includes compassionate care for everything in his creation, especially for human life, our own as well as others’.
This central truth of our existence makes human life unique in the created order, sacred and valuable beyond estimation. The pages of Scripture are soaked with expressions of God’s care and concern for human beings. His heart is especially tender toward the poor, the powerless, the sick, and the aged, and his strictest judgments are against those who harm or take another’s life. As our sovereign creator, God has the sole prerogative to determine the length of our days, and how and when they will end.
When it comes to speaking the truth in love about the sanctity of human life, the fact that we bear God’s image cuts in both directions. We are to be bold and clear in defending this core truth in the face of cultural opposition. At the same time, we must treat with respect our fellow image bearers who oppose us and show compassion toward those who are suffering.
A theology of suffering
Suffering and death entered the world because of the sin of our first parents, leaving our world and ourselves in a state of brokenness which we can’t fix. As C.S. Lewis observed, “All that we call human history – money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery – is the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.”
Even so, our gracious creator God has not abandoned us to our dreadful state. Before we had ever sinned, before he even created the cosmos, God had determined to send his Son into the world to redeem us, together with his entire creation, from the destructive effects and presence of sin. Although he accomplished this redemption at the Cross, it won’t be fully realized until the new creation. At that time, “[God] will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4).
In the meantime, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time” (Romans 8:22). Through it all, God has told us there would be suffering and pain – sometimes to a terrible degree – but he has also promised he’d be with us through it all, carrying us to the end: “I will be the same until your old age, and I will bear you up when you turn grey. I have made you, and I will carry you; I will bear and rescue you” (Isaiah 46:4).
From first breath to last, our lives are in God’s hands, and he has not given us leave to take our lives into our own hands due to suffering – whether it’s our own or someone else’s. Instead, we’re to trust God’s goodness and wisdom, and to reflect his compassion by caring for those in pain and anguish.
This is a difficult truth, which our culture finds hard to accept. However, as Tim Keller pointed out, “If you have a God great and transcendent enough to be mad at because he hasn’t stopped evil and suffering in the world, then you have (at the same moment) a God great and transcendent enough to have good reasons for allowing it to continue that you can’t know.”
Historical impact of the Gospel
Our Western culture has come to believe that equal human rights, the value of human life, and caring for the sick and suffering are universal, self-evident truths. However, history paints a far different picture. Throughout the ancient world, these truths were anything but universal or self-evident, and the same holds true in much of the world today.
To the ancients, the idea that all people bear God’s image and are thus infinitely valuable, entitled to equal rights and dignity, would have been utterly alien. They viewed women, children, slaves, the sick, and the poor either as property or as a blight on society, to be used and discarded as necessity or convenience dictated.
The truths about humanity which the West has come to embrace did not evolve naturally, but came into the world through God’s revealed Word, perfectly embodied in the life and teachings of Jesus.
As apologist Rebecca McLaughlin elaborates, “Into this world stepped a first-century Jewish rabbi who elevated women, valued children, loved the poor, and embraced the sick. The early Christian insistence on brotherhood across racial and ethnic boundaries, even across the dichotomy of slave and free, became a spark to ignite a new moral imagination. Values that many of us in the West today consider to be universal and independent of religious thought turn out not to have sprung from the ground during the Enlightenment but to have grown from the gradual spread and influence of Christian beliefs.”
Following in the footsteps of Jesus, early Christians grew into a countercultural influence for life in their often-brutal Greco-Roman world. They brought children who’d been exposed and left to die into their homes and raised them as their own. Churches became a haven of care for widows, orphans, and the poor. Christians took in the sick and disabled who’d been cast off by society and created the first hospitals to care for the suffering, even to the end of life.
These early Christian endeavours have grown over time into our network of modern hospitals, hospices, care homes, palliative services, and other healthcare providers, most of which were begun and many of which are still run by Christians or Christian organizations.
Speaking the truth in love
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
“But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head – Christ” (Ephesians 4:15).
As followers of Jesus, we’re called to be like our Lord, showing kindness and compassion to everyone, while also standing boldly and firmly for the truth. While we may delight in this high calling in principle, we will often find it difficult to put into practice. Our natural inclination will pull us either toward truth or love at the expense of the other, as if the two were mutually exclusive.
This tendency can be intensified when we’re faced with a controversial issue such as MAID. Cultural pressure comes into play, as does the fact that questions about end-of-life care don’t always come with easy answers. At what point, if any, is it permissible to withhold life-extending treatment to a terminally ill patient? Is it all right to passively allow such a patient to die? What if they request no exceptional measures be taken to prolong their life? To what extent are we responsible for persuading a suffering person and their family not to end their life? How do we approach, legally and ethically, the person who isn’t terminally ill but desires to die?
These are all hard and valid questions that should not be dismissed with simple answers but rather engaged thoughtfully through the wisdom and discernment of the Holy Spirit. As the Scripture tells us, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him” (James 1:5).
That being said, there are some things we can know for certain. Nowhere in Scripture does God permit us to take our own life, nor does Jesus ever advocate ending a life to relieve suffering, and neither can we. Much less can we approve taking the life of a person who isn’t dying but doesn’t wish to go on living. Such a person may be depressed or struggling with other mental health issues, and they need our compassion and hope through Christ, as well as practical help to recover their desire for life. For the terminally ill and their loved ones, they need the same kindness and compassion, along with alternative options such as palliative care or home care, if their relatives are able to provide it.
When it comes to laws and institutions promoting MAID, we need the courage to speak truth to power, but with grace and respect. As ambassadors of Jesus, we have a mandate to confront harmful ideas and embrace people who are suffering with kindness and care. Relying on the power of the Holy Spirit, we can be conduits of God’s truth, love, and shalom to a broken and suffering world.
If you are struggling with feelings of grief, anxiety, and/or depression around this topic and would like to speak to someone, please reach out for help. Focus on the Family Canada’s counsellors offer a free, one-time phone consultation to help you begin to sort through complex emotions. They can also refer you to a counsellor in your area. Call 1.800.661.9800 Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Pacific time, to get help.
Sources
Timothy Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, Dutton, 2008.
Timothy Keller and Kathy Keller, The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God, Viking, 2011.
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, HarperOne, 2015.
Rebecca McLaughlin, Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World’s Largest Religion, Crossway, 2019.
Further reading on MAID
“Unpacking the EFC euthanasia brochure that's going viral,” The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, May 23, 2025.
“Sixth annual report on medical assistance in dying in Canada,” Government of Canada, November 28, 2025.
Alexander Raikin, “From exceptional to routine: The rise of euthanasia in Canada,” August 7, 2024.
Alexander Raikin, “In contrast to Carter: Assisted dying's impact on Canadians with disabilities,” September 16, 2025.
Rebecca Vachon, “Policy brief: The risks of advance requests for medical assistance in dying (MAiD),” December 16, 2024.
More resources on end-of-life decisions
“End-of-life decisions: Biblically based help for navigating the difficult topic of end-of-life care and decisions,” Focus on the Family Canada, accessed January 27, 2026.
