The main message of Ephesians 4 is that Christians ought to endeavor to preserve the gift of unity that God has blessed us with. Unity is not something we have to create. It is a gift that we are called to preserve. In case we might think that we do not have unity, the Holy Spirit points out seven unifying factors in our relationship. Then the Holy Spirit points out that Christ gave talents and abilities to the people He rescued from bondage to death. Then Christ gave those people as gifts to the church for the purpose of building up the Body of Christ. Ephesians 4:14-16 tells us what we should then be and do, “As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; 15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.” (NASU)
Five little words in verse fifteen jump off the page: “speaking the truth in love.” Much has been said about this phrase down through the centuries. I cannot think of any time in history when this admonition was more needed than right now. During the best of times, it seems difficult to get both truth and love in the same discussion. Currently, it seems virtually impossible to find even one of these in any discussion. Verse fourteen points out that false doctrine is a problem because it leads to THE problem which is not preserving the unity given to us by God. It seems impossible to discuss any issue of doctrine without the conversation being muddied terribly by the including the personalities of the teachers and students both. Many, many other current issues come to mind. Racial conflict seems impossible to address by speaking the truth in love. Disagreements over elections and political issues are discussed in every way possible except by speaking the truth in love. Solutions to the problem of poverty in our country are sought in any number of ways except through the speaking of truth in love.
Grandparents who meddle in messy custody issues can’t seem to be able to speak the truth in love. Parents who enable their children to continue drug-abusing, thieving lives cannot bring themselves to speak the truth in love. Siblings fighting over how to care for aging parents or how to divide the inheritance desperately need to speak the truth in love. You get the idea: we have little chance of maintaining the unity or solving any existing problems without a commitment to speak the truth in love.
Someone once said, “It is impossible to speak the truth without love.” I am not sure if that is accurate but it certainly gives pause for thought. One fact that ought not to be missed in this issue is that truth and love are both part of the character and nature of God. Thus, truth and love cannot be separated. Our society desperately, urgently, needs many, many more people committed to speaking the truth in love. We are drowning in angry “truth” and lying “love”, though I would suspect that the former is not really truth and the latter is not really love.
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