December 13 2025

Saturday December 13

“Speaking the Truth in Love”

Ephesians 4:11-16

11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head--Christ-- 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

In this passage in Ephesians 4:11-16, we have been talking about spiritual maturity, spiritual growth. Remember what we said, our spiritual maturity is not a destination, it’s a journey. It mainly concerning the direction in which we're going. It's a journey where we have allowed the Holy Spirit of the living God to make us one with Christ. We have received the Holy Spirit. We've received the truth of the fact that the Holy Spirit of God lives in us. Our body is the temple of God. We've surrendered our will to the will of God.

The first thing that we see as an evidence of spiritual maturity and spiritual growth is that we are Christlike in our attitude, actions and speech. Jesus was always submitted to the will of His Father. Read the Gospels. Jesus always did His Father's will. This quote from Psalms is most descriptive of Jesus: “I had delight to do Thy will. Oh my God. Thy law is written within my heart” (Psalm 40:8). That was the heart and mind of Jesus, my friend. That's what happens to us when we're submitted in obedience to the will of God. As Oswalt Chambers said in one of his writings.

We've been perfectly adjusted to the fact that Christ lives in us, and we now know and live in His righteousness. We're robed in that righteousness, and we want to walk with Him with all of our heart. It's a surrendered life, as Andrew Murray put it.

Then we see the second evidence of our spiritual growth is stability. We're no longer children tossed to and fro.  Today, we looking at the third evidence of our spiritual growth that we find in verse 15: “But speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things unto Him who is the head Christ”. The third evidence of spiritual maturity is that we consistently “speak the truth in love”. Someone has said that truth without love is brutality, but love without truth is hypocrisy. We somehow another, by the grace of God, can combine the two. You must have truth expressed in love. I love that verse in Psalm 85:10 where it says, "Love and truth and mercy have met. Righteousness and peace have kissed." I believe this happened at the cross of Calvary. It was there the truth of God, that we're sinners that our sin must be punished, met with the love and mercy of God, as Christ died in our place for our sins. We now can be set free from our sin and experience peace along with God’s righteousness!

Now we can speak truth out of a heart of love to those around us because we've experienced the love of God. 1 John 4:7-11 tells us where this love comes from: "Beloved, let us love one another. For love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God. For God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to love one another."

Evidence that we have spiritual maturity is that we can love, but we love in truth. We speak the truth in love. We don't speak the truth to hurt, to condemn, to destroy, to tear down. We speak it in love to build up, to encourage, to help a person get back on track. We speak the truth in love. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 tells us the kind of love that God has and that we should have. “Love suffers long. Love is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself. Is not puffed up. Does not behave rudely. Does not seek its own. Is not provoked. Thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, rejoices in the truth, love bears all things.”

When we have a heart that is surrendered and obedient to the will of the Lord God Almighty, we will have the mind of Christ, and we will speak the truth with love. It will be evidence that there is something in our heart that's different than when the natural man is in control of our lives and tearing down and destroying the lives of those around us as we see so often in Christian circles. God help us to have this mark of spiritual maturity, and spiritual growth, and that is “speaking the truth in love”.

God bless!