I just read the verse at the top of this blog and thought, "How do you do it"?...speak the truth to one another. That sounds rather odd. Why wouldn't we desire to speak the truth? But think about it a little. Do the people you relate to on a daily, weekly basis REALLY want to hear the "truth"? No one wants to be lied to, do they? or do they?!
TRUTH is a funny thing. People "like" it only when it goes along with what they're doing. They desire to hear it IF it doesn't rebuke them or stifle their actions or call them to face something they don't want to face. I know this because I see it in myself at times. I have this issue with the truth...I LOVE it and I have some disdain for it because it reveals things inside my heart that need attended to, worked on, weeded out, etc.
AND, face it, the TRUTH, the real TRUTH is hard. Jesus said, "I am the way the truth and the life..." So Jesus embodied truth, was truth. How does that affect us? How should it affect us?
Do we love people enough to tell them the truth?
"...speaking the truth in love.." that is Paul's admonition in his letter to the church people in Ephesus. So the manner in which we speak is key to how we speak the truth. So, as in every case, motive is everything. Why do we desire to "speak the truth"? Is it from a heart of love for that person? Is it to expose something that will hurt them or is it to expose the truth that will "set them free"? Sometimes those two things are synonymous!! The truth that will set you free is painful.
Do we love them enough to risk hurting them in an effort
to help them find freedom?
The title of this little blog reflects the heart of the blogger...to tell the truth
the truth about THE TRUTH (Jesus)
the truth about myself
and the truth about and to others.
