Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. Ephesians 4:15
When we think about the word gentleness, many of us may tend to believe that being gentle means being a “pushover” and not being a strong person. This understanding could not be further from the truth. Gentleness does not mean that you are a weak person who lets people order you around. In fact, Scripture teaches that gentle people speak the truth in strength, but they speak it in love.
Scripture puts to death any belief that gentleness means weakness, particularly in Ephesians 4. In this chapter, the apostle Paul teaches that Christ-followers are to speak the truth in love. This requires strength. Telling the truth, particularly when the truth is difficult to say, takes a great amount of strength. It requires an entirely different kind of strength when it may seem easier to simply speak the truth without regard to love or kindness. You see, when we lovingly speak the truth, gentleness is on display.
One of my favorite pictures of teaching the truth in love is a story found in John 8. In this story, a group of religious leaders brought a woman who was caught in the act of adultery in front of Jesus and a crowd of people. Now, in Jesus’ day, the punishment for this act was stoning, a gruesome act that often resulted in death. When they caught this woman, they asked Jesus if they should stone her. In response to their question, Jesus told the crowd that the person without sin could cast the first stone. One by one, the crowd disappeared. Why did they disappear? They all left because they all knew that they had sinned. Finally, Jesus was the only one left. He looked at her and spoke with gentleness. He asked the woman if any of the people had condemned her, and she confirmed that no one had thrown a stone or condemned her. Then, he spoke the life-changing words, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more” (verse 11). Those gentle words from Jesus are the epitome of what it looks like to speak the truth in love. He did not condemn her (love), but He also called her to stop sinning (truth).
Maybe you, like me, needed the reminder today that gentleness does not mean weakness. In fact, gentleness requires great strength. It requires the strength to speak the truth to other people. It requires us to encourage people with the truth that they must live differently than the rest of the world, with love that contains no condemnation. May you and I be people who gently speak words of loving truth to ourselves and to all those around us.
How honest are you with other people? That’s a hard question to ask because people who are blunt often push others away. People who never share their true feelings often lack the self-confidence needed to make their own voice heard. Jesus was both honest and loving with His words. How are you doing in following His example? Take some time to journal about the verses you have studied today. What does it mean to speak the truth in love? How did Jesus demonstrate this? What stands out to you about the way Jesus lovingly spoke the truth? How can you speak the truth in your life beginning today? Pick one way to grow in this practice of speaking the truth in love.
Read John 8:1-11 (NLT)
Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.
“Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”
They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.
When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”
“No, Lord,” she said.
And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”
©2024 Sagebrush Church
