Daily 333 Devotional: “Truthing In Love”

Paul tells us not to be like little children in our understanding being tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, but rather we need to be “Speaking the truth in love.” (Ephesians 4:15a)

The kindest thing we can do is to tell people the truth, which is the sign of a true friend. A true friend will tell us when you have something stuck between our teeth, or they’ll tell us the truth before we make a dumb mistake.

If they don’t tell us, then they aren’t a true friend. Jeremiah calls them deceivers, and their tongues are like deadly arrows (Jeremiah 9:5, 8).

Unfortunately, a lot of people really don’t want to hear the truth because it’s so painful. But when we go to a doctor the last thing we want is for them to sing, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” If we’re sick you want the doctor to tell us what’s wrong, and how you can get well.

But Paul doesn’t just tell us to speak the truth, but to speak it in love. Showing kindness isn’t only in what we say, but also in how we say it. So, before we speak, let’s check our motives.
• Are we correcting others to put them down, or to build them up?
• Are we correcting others for their benefit, or ours?
• Are we correcting others to condemn, or to protect?
• Are we correcting others to get in another jab, or to put soothing salve on the problem?

In the Amplified version of the Bible this verse reads, “Rather, let our lives lovingly express truth [in all things, speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly].” (Ephesians 4:15a)

What Paul is literally saying is that we need to be “truthing in love.”

Not only are we to speak the truth, but we are to do the truth as well. Our lives need to be lived truthfully.

Truth and love need to then be working hand in hand for us to be effective.