Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ. – Ephesians 4:15
You have seen the news of the devastating wildfires in Southern California. Whenever a disaster such as those fires occurs, rumors abound about how they started. Were they set intentionally by arsonists? Did power lines experience a failure in the high Santa Ana winds? Were children playing with firecrackers left over from New Year’s Eve? Even now, investigators are combing through ruins and charred hillsides seeking to discover the cause and origins of the fires. Investigators, one news account states, have had “more than 234 leads in their search for answers.” Even so, it may be that the truth will never be known.
The Apostle James says, “The tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire. And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness” (James 3:5-6). Yet today’s verse from Ephesians says that speaking the truth will work to enlighten, edify, and enrich one another, but only if it is done in love.
“Speaking the truth” is a single word in the original Greek. It not only connotes one’s speech, but provides the idea of a lifestyle that includes walking in the truth. One commentary says, “Believers are to have a great love of the truth, a great (spirit enabled desire) to do the truth, but do the truth in love, also enabled by the Holy Spirit Who manifests His fruit in our lives. Truth without love is brutality, but love without truth is hypocrisy.”
You can be a fire starter or a fire quencher. It depends upon how you speak… and how you live your life as a follower of Christ. As you speak the truth in love you “grow up,” the Apostle Paul says, you become more like Jesus. Scottish theologian Stewart Salmond said, “Our growth is to be according to His example.” It is the grace of Jesus that empowers you, that makes it possible for you to grow. He is the origin and the source of your growth.
Pray for families and business owners who have been displaced by the fires. Pray for the governmental leadership that has been called on to make “course corrections” in how they maintain the hillsides. Include the investigators in your prayers. Finally, also pray that news reporters and editors seek only the truth as the process continues and rebuilding begins, even as the danger of new fires remains.
Today’s Verse: Ephesians 4:15
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Recommended for further reading: Ephesians 4:1-16
4 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it says,
“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.”
9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? 10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 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. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
