TRUTH

" . . . But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ" (Ephesians 4:15).

 

It's difficult to speak, "the truth in love".  We tend to either speak the truth without love or else we speak love without sharing the truth.  God's plan is that we saturate our truth-telling in an ocean of love.  In the old days, when I was young, my mom would put sugar in my medicine in order to make it easier to take.  It helped!  My counselor taught me that to "speak the truth in love" means to own the impact of what I say.  It is to empathize with the one I'm speaking to--to feel what they are feeling.  We are to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth--but we are to do so lovingly.  Remember that it is God's kindness that leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4).

 

Today, let's check our motives before we speak.  Is it love?  Or is it something else?  And while we're at it, maybe we can practice hearing the truth in love as well.