Do you like to speak the truth? Do you like to rub it in peoples’ faces? Do you speak the truth abrasively? Or do you speak the truth with hesitation? Do you speak it as if you are almost ashamed of it? Are you willing to speak the truth in love while loving the person you are speaking to?
Speaking the truth can be a challenge. Sometimes, we just want to rub peoples’ noses in it. We want to say, “I told you so.” Other times we aren’t sure we want to speak the truth. We are afraid of how people will react. Or maybe we simply want people to find out on their own.
Paul encouraged the church in Ephesus, and us, to speak the truth in love. We are to confidently, yet in a caring way, tell people the truth of the gospel. If we speak the truth harshly, we will turn people away. If we do not speak it confidently, people won’t believe us. It is a balancing act. We can only do it as we lean on the Holy Spirit for guidance.
Paul continues his encouragement by stating the purpose for speaking the truth. We are to speak it for growth in Jesus and uniting as one body. We are to remember we are one body of Christ. No body, or organization, or nation can be at war with itself without destroying itself. But when we speak truth to grow in Christ in a loving way, the body is healthy and grows.
As the body of Christ, we are to be about building up one another in love. Anything else is not from God. Building one another up makes the body of Christ attractive to others and grows the kingdom of God. That should be the goal for each one of us.
I pray we all speak the truth in love. I pray we are encouraged to speak the gospel to others. I pray each one of us seek build up one another and by doing so build the body of Christ. Speak the truth. Love one another. Tell others the gospel. Build one another up. Strengthen the body of Christ.
Ephesians 4:15-16 But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.
Marty Pressey 