Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Christ Himself, who is the head.but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ,But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:but speaking truth in love, may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, even Christ;
3 sermons cite this verse
… And I think when you have to speak to someone critically, the Bible says in Ephesians 4.15, speak the truth in love. We should keep each other accountable. If we see a Christian friend going the wrong direction or making the wrong decisions, we might say, hey, you shouldn't do that. The Bible says thus and so. But before you correct, try to compliment. Jesus modeled this for us when he spoke to the church of Ephesus in the book of Revelation. Loose paraphrase, he says, I know you guys are discerning. I know you're hardworking. I appreciate all these things about you, but I have this against you. You have left your first love, so remember therefore from where you have fallen and repent and do the first works quickly. I love that. Compliment, doing this well, doing that well, doing a good job over here, but there's this one area. So let's talk about that. That's the right way to do it. Deposit a compliment before you make the withdrawal of a criticism. Married couples, listen to what I'm saying. …
… Great job. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11 through 16 says this. So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature. Everyone say mature. And become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. In other words, God has created the church so we could do good works for the reason of two things, unity and maturity. God wants to develop you and grow you. He wants to stretch you so you can have unity and maturity. Isn't this so cool? Maybe you hear like, well, why do we got to have pastors at this church? Why do we got to have worship leaders? Can't we all just kind of like, you know, gather in a room? Well, we have people who are pastors and evangelists and teachers. …
… Because in verse 15, it says, instead, speaking the truth in love, and all commentators know that there's something very weird about this phrase. The word truth is a noun in Greek as it is in English, but Paul does not say actually speaking the truth in love. Literally, he says instead, truthing in love. He turns a noun into a verb. It's awkward, it's odd, and it's very rare. Well, he means speaking the truth in love, doesn't he? Well, no, he means something more than that. He means, he is talking about something more than ethical honesty. There's a place where Jesus Christ speaks of his followers as people who are of the truth, sort of made of truth, swimming in truth. Truth is your very element. We're talking about something really different, really different. So what is this? I'm saying that the supernaturally changed heart is a heart that is changed in its attitude toward truth, and it has an attitude and relationship to truth that no other kinds of hearts have. So what are we talking about? Let's notice in this great passage, which you know, of course, has a lot in it with the word truth, has a lot to teach us about truth. We see here the problem of truth, the encounter we have to have with truth, and something about the practice of truth. The problem, the encounter, and the practice. First, right off the bat, we see that there is a problem here. …