Speak Truth in Love

Text: Ephesians 4:14-15, Romans 12:2

Ephesians 4:14–15 NKJV

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, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—

Proposition: We can reach the world through Jesus by speaking truth in love.

Purpose: To teach Christians to grow and mature in their faith and knowledge of God, so that they can speak truth in love to others, being an example of Christ.

Interrogative: How do you properly reach the lost in the world without becoming part of it?

Keyword: necessities

Intro (Illustration): talk about 3 men who try to start churches, one through only love, one through only truth, and one combining truth and love.

Being discerning in the world of doctrine

Build a relationship with God

Spend time in prayer with God

Read God’s Word daily

2. Sharing the truth of the Good News.

Grow in knowledge of the Word of God

Not watering down scripture to please others

3. Expressing the love of Christ for others.

Love others just as Jesus loves

Be an example of who Jesus is.

Speak Truth in Love

There were three guys who came to Christ and had a desire and passion to begin their own churches. The three men decided to see how effective each could be in growing and bringing people to their churches, so they each decided to go about their own way of extending invitations to the public. The first man studied scripture front to back, learning and growing in his knowledge of God’s Word, so much so that as he went out into the towns to invite people to his church, he could win any argument to prove the existence of God and that everyone was a sinner in need of God’s grace. The second man read of how much Jesus loved others, and decided to go into the towns inviting everyone by accepting them, making sure to tell them how welcomed they were to his church, and how much Jesus loves them. And the third man spent time in God’s Word, discovering His character and building as relationship with Jesus. As he went out to the towns, he would walk in prayer, asking God to bring anyone to him that needs Jesus. And he reach a few people and had conversations with them. He took the time to invest in those few people and build a friendship with each of them, and eventually invited them to his new church. Now Sunday came along, and each man prepared himself to preach to their new congregations. As the first man stepped onto his stage, he noticed only a couple people had come. Most that he talked to decided not to come to a judgmental man’s church after being proved wrong in their beliefs. The second man stepped onto stage to be welcomed by a decent size congregation, about half the people he spoke to had come. As he prepared to give his message, he became afraid of sharing the exact Gospel and what Jesus truly taught, thus, watering down his message, and preaching a false Gospel, in which everyone in his church continued to live in their old lifestyles. And finally the third man walked onto stage, welcomed by more than just the few he talked to, for those he had became friends with invited their friends and family too. As he gave his message, the Spirit moved within the sanctuary, and the congregation felt the conviction of the Spirit, as well as the love of Christ, and many went to the altar to give their lives to Jesus.

Now, this illustration isn’t told from a true story, and our focus for church is not to see how many people we could fill our buildings with. But the point of this story is to exemplify the importance of combining two different necessities of the Gospel that Christians can often single out. Paul speaks in Ephesians about the importance of growing in our relationships and knowledge of God, so we can go out into the world, and not being influenced “by” it, but rather reflect the character of Christ, and being an influence: speaking truth IN love, and walking and talking as Jesus would. So today we’re going to look at three necessities to being and influence in this world rather than influenced by it.

Our first necessity, is being discerning in the world full of doctrine. The reason why this is important, is because this world we live has many many different kinds of beliefs. If we’re not careful, we can end up being influenced by different arguments and falling away from what God’s Word says. So to be discerning we need to first build our relationship with God. If we don’t have a firm foundation with our heavenly Father, we will surely be trampled by any sound argument someone throws at us. Having a relationship with God builds our knowledge of who He is, and why we believe what we believe. Romans 12:2 talks about how we must not conform to the world’s patterns, but instead be transformed by the renewal of our minds, that we can know God’s will for our lives. This is important to be in the world, but not of it, and why we should learn of who God is. As we learn more of who He is, we build discernment whenever someone speaks falsely of His character. This is important for every believer to immediately begin growing in that relationship to prepare them for war of what truth is, we may know it, but can we back it up? Can we understand why we believe what we believe? Do we know why it’s truth against everything the world says otherwise of? To grow in our relationship with God, we must build our prayer life. Prayer is important because it’s a conversations with God. Prayer is where we can come to talk to God, through His Spirit, so that we can talk about what we need God’s strength for in our lives, what we need His intercession over, and what He wants us to work on in our lives as we grow closer to Him. If we think of God how we would one of our best friends, you would notice how the more you talk to your best friend, the more you learn about them and who they are. Prayer is the same with God. The more we’re in a habit of prayer, the more we learn about Him and who He is. Another key to building our relationship with God, is to be in His Word. One of the biggest ways God speaks to us is through His Word. In God’s Word, we see a lot of His character. We see a lot of how He has provided for His people, and how He still does. His Word is essentially where we have learned about Jesus, and the Good News. If we want to grow in discernment in this world where we can easily be mislead by false truths, we need to be in God’s Word, consistent prayer, and overall building and strengthening our relationship with Him. As we build our life around this necessity, we will learn the importance of our second necessity.

Our second necessity to being an influence, is Sharing the truth of the Good News. The Good News, or Gospel, is God’s Word. If it’s vital for us to know God’s Word, it’s vital to teach others about His Word too. So as we ready ourselves to share God’s Word, we must grow in our knowledge of it. We can grow in our knowledge of Good News by studying it consistently. Memorizing Scripture, and understanding the message being each passage. A lot of God’s Word requires interpretation, so in order for us to understand it, we must learn how to study the Bible. We need to use our resources such as those around us who are mature in their faith, someone who has dedicated their lives to Christ and lives to show it everyday. We can use Scripture to backup Scripture through the cross-references, and truly understand the fundamental principles of what the truth is, so that we don’t misinterpret and misrepresent the Bible to fit our narrative. Remember, we’re not using God’s Word to justify and prove our points, but we’re using it to understand how WE should live. As we learn Scripture, and begin sharing it, it’s vital to not water it down in fear of upsetting those we teach it to. When we are speaking the truth to those around us, we must make sure it’s only the truth, and nothing added or taken away. The problem with doing that would be preaching a false gospel, in which you may get unbelievers to feel more comfortable with, but ultimately won’t grasp the true Good News. 2 Timothy 3:16 says “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” This is why it’s important not to add or take away from it. If we preach a false gospel for the sake of not possibly offending others, the problem that stems out would be they aren’t actually able to build a relationship with God, and won’t give their lives to Him, but instead stand on a false truth that God loves them while they live in their sinful lifestyle. This is the problem the second man had as he preached to his congregation. The people heard a message they wanted to hear and were comfortable with rather than what they needed to hear, and thus didn’t have true relationship with God. So to share the Word of God with others, we must make sure we aren’t sugarcoating it, but speaking it as pure truth. unchanged, and unaltered. But this is where our third necessity MUST come in.

Our third necessity is to express the love of Christ with others. If we were to go preaching the Gospel to others without also sharing the love of Jesus with them, we would push others away, even if it’s all truth. When Jesus came to die for others, He didn’t do so just to show them they were living ungodly lives, but also to show how much God truly loves His people, and that He does want a relationship with them. If Jesus loved everyone this much that He gave His life, undeserving of ANY of the punishments He endured, then we must love others just as so. In Matthew 12:37-39, Jesus says “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” If loving others as ourselves is the second greatest commandment, we should understand why it’s such a necessity. Peter even speaks on how much we should love others in 1 Peter 1:22, in which He says, “Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart.” This really marks how important it is to show love to others. As we love others as we do ourselves, we must love them as Jesus did, which involves us living like Jesus. The problem our first man had was he wasn’t living like Jesus, He wasn’t loving like Jesus. Sure, He knew all Scripture front to back, but He didn’t understand the character of Jesus love. He didn’t take into account how Jesus expressed His immense love for sinners through the cross. That is why it’s a necessity to also love as He did. That’s one of the biggest factors that drove people to Jesus, was His deep love for them.

If we take the necessities of standing firm in our relationship with God to be discerning in this world, and speaking truth IN love, you get this beautiful picture of people coming to be radically impacted by the love of Jesus in which they become convicted of their sinful lives, and turn to Him in full repentance. In this case, God uses us as vessels to reach the lost. How amazing it is to develop such a relationship with God that He uses us for His glory, to spread His Word, Through His love, to reach the broken lives in this world. Are you ready to incorporate these necessities into your life, that you may live and love as Jesus did, all while growing on a firm foundation? That’s the beautiful conclusion we see in our third man. He took the time to ready Himself, growing closer to God, developing a strong knowledge of Jesus’ character, and putting that character into practice in his own life, so that God could use Him to reach those who needed Him. Are you ready to do the same? Even if God doesn’t call you to start a church, He calls everyone to ministry. He calls everyone to speak the truth in love to the world without becoming part of it. It’s never too late to listen to that calling.