Speaking the truth in love

but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— - Ephesians 4.15

I have always been challenged by this verse. And, I have to say, I am challenged by both aspects of it.

First, I am challenged by the instruction to speak the truth. Not necessarily simply by not telling a lie, but by really and truly speaking the truth. Truth is so much more than non-lying. Speaking truth means first of all that we speak. Sometimes speaking the truth means that we have to speak instead of staying quiet when something is wrong. Sometimes we remain silent when we should speak. It is easy to think that we can just not say anything and everything will just be okay.

We can do great damage by staying silent when we need to speak.

But we must speak sometimes, and it must be the truth. As they say in court it must be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

And then there are a couple of key words to go with speaking the truth. When we speak the truth we must speak it in love.

It seems like some people relish in 'speaking the truth.' They can even take delight in a sanctimonious spirit of superiority based on speaking the truth - but totally miss the love part.

It is easiest not to speak at all. It is even somewhat easy to speak the truth. But it can be much more difficult to speak the truth in God's love.

Isn’t it amazing how often love is as the root of all we are supposed to do?