Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Family”
Our Bible verse for today: “But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into Him who is the head – Christ.” Ephesians 4:15 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “Speak the truth in love.”
I hope you are a part of multiple family-like groups. I hope you have a good family of father, mother, sisters, brothers, children, and grandchildren. I also hope you have a good church family; and a group of close friends who act like a family; and perhaps some other groups like a good healthy group of co-workers who genuinely enjoy working together and who are good for each other.
But in order for any of those groups to be truly “good”, there has to be a level of comfort among the members that allows for the truth to be spoken in love. In fact, speaking the truth in love is an essential element for a family-like group to be truly good and healthy.
The truth is that none of us are infallible – not one of us has cornered the market on wisdom and good decision-making. From time to time each of us strays in some way and so we need people around us who will gently and loving speak words of counsel and correction. My wife is especially good at this. You’ve probably heard it said that “The man is the head of the house.” That may be true but it’s also true that the woman is the neck that turns the head. It’s true. My wife can guide and correct me without me even realizing I’m being guided and corrected!
We can all think of situations where the truth is not spoken, and consequently all sorts of bad decision-making, sin, depravity, and destructive behavior is allowed to exist. I’ve known of situations where adult children, living with their parents, were doing drugs in the house and even having drug-using friends over to do drugs with them. The parents didn’t like it but they also didn’t stop it.
Sometimes situations exist in churches where a member is involved in something sinful, and others know it, but nobody is willing to say anything about it (after all, nobody wants to cause conflict in the church).
But this shouldn’t be. If you love somebody you will speak truth to them. If you love a person then you won’t silently sit by and say nothing as they engage in behaviors that cause harm to them and to others.
In the Bible God requires us to hold each other accountable and to speak truth to each other when needed. We are to speak the truth in love, but we are to speak it. This is an essential element in all family-like groups. I encourage you to have the courage to say what needs to be said. Speak the truth in love.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 