Truthful Speech
Recently I went to a prayer breakfast where they read a scripture from 2 Corinthians. In the reading there was a list of ways that God calls his servants to commend themselves. In that list was: purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God. It was truthful speech that stuck out for me. So I decided to take a look at that one. I started with the contemplation of truthful speech and thought of ways that I have had problems with doing this, which lead me to Ephesians 4:11-15
Ephesians 4:11-15
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.
How do we build up the body of Christ? We grow together learning what each other's gifts are. We learn how to use our gifts along with how to access the other's gifts. We must learn to do this without manipulation, cunning or deceit. Yet we must be able to talk the truth in love, so that all things grow up into him who is the head of the Church, Christ.
What does God want from us? For us to love our God and to love our neighbor! If we speak the truth to hurt or control our neighbors we are not loving our God or our neighbor. For to tell someone that their new haircut does not suit your liking, is not what we are being called to do. We are called to tell the truth in a God pleasing way, to build up the Church. One God pleasing way to interpret truthful speech is to prepare God's people for works of service. One way to tell if this is being done is for the truth teller to try to do this in a humble, gentle way, bearing with the other, out of love for that person. One question to ask would be to ask oneself if what I have to say glorifies God.
Before we speak we could also ask ourselves "Should I say what I am about to say? Will this truth help or harm the person and is it the right time for me to say it?" Ultimately one can ask themselves will I be speaking the truth in love and will it build up this person? Unfortunately there will be times where telling the truth is going to hurt the other. So we must go back to the question of what does God want from us?
In our times a great deal of what we believe about God is skewed and distorted by meddling imaginations of sinful humans. In fact I believe that the human race's perception of who God is, is influenced by the presence of sin and people's desire to do what they feel is right in their own eyes, and create a God of their own liking.
We must remember that God is God. He has revealed to us who He is through the Holy Scripture. In those same scriptures He has also revealed to us what he wants from us. There is one Lord, one Body of Christ, and only one truth. For Christ is the way, the truth, and the light.
To speak the truth in love necessitates the use of both the persons gifts and limitations, so that spiritual growth can be realized. Why else would God ask us to do this. Certainly not to hurt each other, but to love, care and to guide each other.
For Christ after dying for your sins, did not leave you alone, He left you the Holy Spirit, and His Church. He left you the people within the Church to love each other, to serve each other and to speak the truth in love. To be His hands, His feet, and yes His mouth. He has promised to always be with you. Always
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