SPEAKING THE TRUTH
Ephesians 4:25
Good morning! I invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to Ephesians 4. This morning we are looking at just one verse. We’ll be focusing on verse 25. And it says,
"Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.”
Let us pray:
Lord, we look to you this morning trusting that you will speak the truth to us. This is your truth; this is the truth. Teach us to follow it. Teach us to do it. Put the truth in us that we may obey it.
Above all, open our eyes that we might behold wonderful things in this your truth. For this we ask in Jesus’s strong name. Amen.
Introduction
We come this morning to the second of several texts that have to do with godly communication. Some of you may remember that we tackled the first text about two weeks ago. Interestingly, these first two passages having to do with our speech both deal with the topic of honesty.
Last time we said we need to speak the truth in love. And our speech needed to be in direct contrast to the dishonesty that characterizes the world’s speech. This morning we come to verse 25 and we see that God requires us to put away falsehood and speak the truth to our neighbors.
One might think that we could breeze over this passage since we basically covered the exact same material just a short time ago. But that would be a grave mistake. Not only do we have new information in this section: the idea that we are members of one another, but we have opportunity to explore more deeply the issue of speaking the truth.
There is a reason why the Spirit uses precious papyri to say almost the exact same thing. To put it more succinctly, God knows the need. The Lord knows that this is an area of life where we often struggle.
When it comes to communication, we all could use some help. But when it comes to speaking the truth, this is a special subset of communication in which we all could use a good amount of help. If ever there was a place for us to grow, it is most certainly here.
So, even though we have already dealt previously with this topic of truthfulness in our speech, we know that there is still plenty to learn. There’s much work that we can still yet do. So it is good to return to this topic and consider again the call to speak the truth.
And this passage is certainly has many good things to say on the subject. It may be one verse (and not a long one at that), but there are actually 5 points we can draw out of it. When it comes to truth telling, the first thing we should note is its priority.
I. Its priority
You notice that this is the first of all the commands that Paul is about to list. Paul has a lot of commands that he is going to give in rapid succession, but what is the first one out of his pen? It’s the one having to do with the truth.
And you understand why this call to truth telling takes precedence. Paul has just said that Jesus Christ is the truth. And so you understand that this idea of truth telling has a special place in our God’s heart. Bearing false witness may be the 9th of the 10 commandments, but do not think that its position there means that it is last in God’s book.
When you survey the Scriptures, you find that the Bible has a lot to say about truth. As a matter of fact, I recommend you check out the Westminster Larger Catechism. The WLC has a section that deals with each of the 10 commandments. And it unravels for you everything that is involved in that command: all that is required and all that is forbidden. Everything that falls under the umbrella of each of these commands is listed there. And it is very interesting to note that the 9th commandment, the one dealing with a false witness, is the longest of all the questions and answers in that section.
There’s no doubt that God puts a priority on truth telling. And since God puts a priority on it, so should we, especially if you are a new believer or if you are a young person in our midst. For, as we said last time, lying is something to which unbelievers are very much accustomed. It has long been known that those societies that do not have any interest in Christ have an incredible tendency to lie.
Albert Barnes, in his commentary on this passage says that missionaries will report the prevalence of this evil in the lands to which they have gone. This has been my experience too with the missionaries that I have conversed with over the years. These missionaries will say that, in the cultures to which they have gone, you can never trust anyone. If there is even the slightest reason to lie, they will do it.
And in our own day and age, and in our own culture, we recognize that truth is not something that is held in high value. It is easy to lie because we are a postmodern and pragmatic people.
Postmodernism has as its foundational belief the idea that there is no such thing as absolute truth. Thus, what is true for me may not be true for you. In this system of thought, truth is as mold-able as play’doh and it can be applied or ignored as you see fit.
Furthermore, our society is a pragmatic one. People who are pragmatic are not so much concerned if something is true, but rather if it works. If it works, then that’s what you should do. And you understand that speaking the truth is not specifically the norm. If lying works for me, then we may sacrifice truth on the alter of pragmatism.
So one should expect that telling the truth is not something that will be the rule of the day.
Our culture may not put a priority on the truth, but we must. We need to resist the urge to go along with our culture. God’s priority is now our priority and we must seek to be truth tellers.
Secondly, I want you to notice its prohibition.
II. Its prohibition
Paul is very clear when he says you need to “put off falsehood.” If the truth is to be our priority that means we must steer clear of anything that is false. There is a prohibition now against speaking lies and being deceptive. We must be careful not to hurt our neighbor’s good name or inflate our own by what we say.
And this means more than merely lying or shifting the blame. It is not just trying to conceal the wrong we’ve done by justifications or making up excuses. We can lie by saying he did it when he didn’t. But Paul means all kinds of speech that is false.
The word falsehood is the Greek word “pseudo.” You are likely familiar with this word. It is one we frequently use in English. Lately there’s been a lot of talk about pseudo-science, which is a false science. It is not true science, because it is not abiding by the principles of observation and testing. It is false science because it is driven by agendas and politics, and not by an accurate state of things.
So what is false speech? It is speech that is driven by our own agenda. It is driven by our own good and not the good of others. It is speech that is not just not true to reality, but it is not true to love.
This past week I had the chance to drop in at the men’s Bible Study in Wooster. Along with their Bible study they like to have what they call their freestyle discussions, where they take a controversial topic and go at it. Since I was there I think they were hoping I would stir the pot.
We started to discuss the issue of lying. And I attempted to make the point that the 9th commandment has as its focus a person’s reputation. To be a false witness has as its base the destruction of one’s good name. In a court of law, if you are bearing false witness, you are putting in jeopardy the reputation of the person on trial and you have the ability to destroy their livelihood, their family, their future.
I do believe that is at the heart of what Paul wishes to communicate here too. And if we take this into account, then we will recognize that false speech involves more than just claims that are false. For you can say things that are true, but they can still mislead or bring harm. The truth can be false speech if it is not used the way God intends it.
“Did you hear what Billy did?” What you say about Billy may be true. Billy may have done something wrong, but your speaking that truth doesn’t promote the good name of Billy. What you should have done is covered Billy’s sins with love as the Lord would have. Instead you’ve further depressed Billy’s reputation by passing along these bits of data. Now, this person with whom you have spoken is not going to look at Billy in the same way. His view of Billy is going to be tainted, and his interactions with Billy will likely change.
Let me give you a very apt illustration of this. I have a very strict policy of confidentiality. I don’t talk with others about the things that go on in my counseling or in this church. I do not even talk about them with my wife. And she’s glad for that. She doesn’t want to know. If there happens to be some problems in the church, she loves being completely oblivious to it. She likes it that she can go up to anyone and chat with them without knowing that truth. Because if she knew what was going on, she would be worried about what she says and what they may be thinking. She’s likely act differently around them because of that information.
That’s what happens when the truth become pseudo speech. If we use the truth in a damaging way, it becomes false speech.
Similarly, you might say that you were at John’s house, then you went to Dan’s house. All that you say there is true, but you did not say that you stopped by Jimmy’s house and threw a rock through his window.
You may have spoken the truth, but the truth was used as a cover up. The truth was used in a misleading way. In this case you were protecting yourself by falsely inflating your own reputation. You are making people think they are innocent when you are not.
That is another instance of false speech. Concealing the truth or using the truth in a misleading way to falsely represent yourself is a form of deception that God forbids.
Perhaps one of the greatest examples of this is found in Charles Finny. Finny was one of the famous preachers of the 2nd Great Awakening. Finny is not someone who I would endorse as his theology was quite unbiblical, and the methods he employed in the ministry were even more catastrophic. He has actually had a detrimental impact upon the American church. His influence has been huge, and it has been evil. He should have never been allowed to preach or enter the ministry.
But Finny was ordained as a Presbyterian minister. For those of you who may not know, Presbyterians have a very thorough examination process that you must go through before being approved for ordination. And in his examination Finny was asked if he had agreed with the Westminster Confession. Finny answered by saying, “Yes, in so far as I have read it.”
The problem was he had not actually read the Westminster Confession. So, in a sense, he was being honest: he agreed with it in so far as he had read it. There’s nothing to disagree with because there was nothing read. Even though his words were technically true, he was engaging in pseudo speech. He was deceiving his peers by concealing the real truth.
So you understand that putting off falsehood, includes more than simply the act of lying. We must put off any kind of underhanded, evil speech. Anything that degrades our reputation unduly or inflates our reputation without warrant, should be seen as prohibited.
We’re talking about telling the truth. We’ve seen its priority and its prohibition. But notice also its practice.
III. Its practice
Paul says we not only need to put off falsehood, but each one of us needs to do something. We need to speak the truth to our neighbor.
As we said last time, it is not enough for us just to stop a behavior. We also need to put on the right behavior. We need to replace the evil that is forbidden and begin to practice the good that God requires. And we all should realize that we only cease to be a liar, not when we stop talking, but only when we start telling the truth instead.
So we recognize that means doing new things with our mouths. There’s reform that we are seeking to bring to our life. And we are going to dedicate ourselves now to actively speaking the truth.
Maybe that means that we begin taking responsibility.
There may have been a time where you shied away from the truth. You used to conceal the truth. When someone confronted you, you would blame someone or something else, rather than taking responsibility. You were really good at making yourself sound so innocent.
But that’s not the way it is going to be anymore. Now that you have learned Christ, who is the truth, you are going to confess the truth. It won’t be easy, but you are not going to dodge it any longer. You going to speak the truth in that you admit the things you’ve done wrong.
There’s not much about Alcoholic's Anonymous that I like. I know that it has helped some people over the years, but I don’t find it the best way to help people escape their addictions. As my brother once said, all the guys at the AA meeting stopped their drinking, but they started chain smoking. That’s the danger of not replacing your behavior and dealing with the root issues. Your evil just pops up in other ways.
But one thing I do like about the program is that one of the 12 steps is to make a list of everyone they harmed. Then they are to go and try to make amends.
Maybe there’s someone here who needs to do that kind of thing. Maybe you need to start practicing what God wants you to do. You had skirted the truth before, but now you know you need to confess the truth.
Or if you had a problem with gossip, you are not going to just be mute and try not to talk about anyone anymore. You are going to speak the truth in that you try to be more edifying with your speech. Instead of being critical, you’re going to try and be more complimentary. As a matter of fact, you are going to make it your goal to point out 5 or 10 things good qualities in other people just to try to get yourself in the habit.
Better yet, when someone starts talking to you about someone, you’re going to make it your aim to stop that conversation from going down that rabbit hole. You’re going to practice saying, “I don’t think that’s a topic that we should be talking about. I don’t find that edifying. Why don’t we talk about something else?”
What does speaking the truth look like? How can one begin to practice speaking the truth? Those are just a couple examples. When you can use your tongue to confess and to compliment and confront, you are well on your way.
Certainly there are other ways you can practice speaking the truth. There’s no doubt that these couple of examples that I have given are only scratching the surface. But you understand that you now need to put on a new way of speaking.
Truth telling should have a new priority, and you know that your speech should not just avoid falsehood, you need to go in the opposite direction and begin to practice speaking the truth.
Fourthly, I want you to think about its purpose.
IV. Its purpose
In the later half of verse 25 Paul tells us why we should speak the truth. It is because, “We are members of one another.”
Now, again, let’s go back to what we said last time we were together. Part of the sanctification process is changing our behavior. We said that we need to do the work of replacement by putting off one behavior and putting on the behavior that God requires of us. But we also said that there was a second step in the process. And that is the act of renewal. We are to renew our minds by thinking biblically.
Here in the later half of verse 25 Paul provides us with the information which helps us to renew our minds. We have to understand that we are members of one another. We are not autonomous individuals. If that were the case, lying may have a place. But since we have a connection to each other and to a wider corporate body, we have a responsibility to speak the God honest truth to one another.
The imagery here is again, the idea of a body. You can think about how difficult we would have it if our different body parts were not honest with one another.
Suppose someone threw a ball to us. We rely on the fact that our eye is going to watch that ball and tell us exactly where we need to raise our hands in order to catch that ball. If our eye played a little trick and said that it was a little to the left, that is going to have rather severe consequences. There’s going to be some real pain that we experience. Because the hand is going to shift to the one side and we are going to miss it. It will end up cracking us in the head.
Let’s say that you are enjoying one of our carry in lunches. You are eating right along. And your stomach is loving it. As a matter of fact, he’s loving everything so much that he doesn’t tell you that he’s getting full. So you just keep packing in more and more food. At some point that’s going to cause a real problem. It’s probably going to be a little embarrassing because your stomach is going to come out with the truth that it cannot handle that much. You are going to get sick. And all that food you packed in there is going to come back out, if you know what I mean.
So you understand what Paul means when he says that we are members of one another. Just like the members of our body must have precision and honesty when working together, our relationships need precision and honesty in order to function. If we do not speak the truth, our relationships will suffer.
If you have a contract with someone to paint their house for $5,000, you will be pretty upset if they only give you $2,000. He lied to you about how much he was going to pay you. And that’s going to cause some real problems for you.
You stand up here and you take vows to become a member of this church. You make promises to support the church in its worship and work. You promise to submit to the leadership and seek the peach and purity of the church.
What happens when you violate those vows? You hurt the entire church. You might not think much of it. You may say, “Well, I have my reasons.” But you have to understand that there are wider repercussions. Failing to uphold your word is a form of pseudo speech and when you do that it has a ripple effect. It impacts the people around you. That’s because we are members of one another.
That goes for marriages and families too. Lying at work has implications for all the people involved at your work. Your coworkers, your boss, your customers. God wants you to renew your mind here. People often think that their lies are isolated things that don’t really hurt anyone. But that’s not true. We are members of one another and lying is an invasion into the community. The bonds we have are held together in harmony by the truth. And speaking the truth is needed because of the union we have with one another.
V. Its potential
The last thing to note is that Paul assumes this is something you can do. He doesn’t say, “maybe, if you try real hard, you can possibly speak the truth.” He doesn’t say, “Some of you will be able to put off falsehood and speak the truth.” This is something that he commands to everyone. He assumes that each of us has the potential to change.
Even if you have been a pathological liar up to this point. Maybe you are thinking that it is impossible to tame your tongue because you’ve been so accustomed to lying through the course of your life. You could be thinking, there’s no way.
But I want you to know that it is not just possible, it is achievable; no matter where you are on the spectrum you can begin speaking the truth. And the reason is because of Jesus Christ and his saving power.
There’s that one scene in Jesus’ life. It was his last night. And the mob of angry men came to arrest him. John records that when the crowd came up to Jesus he asked them, “Whom do you seek?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” And Jesus replies with the simple words, “I am he.” Really in the original language it says, “I am.” And John records that the mob fell drew back and fell to the ground. Somehow they were completely overpowered by his presence and speech.
Now, that’s a beautiful passage to remind us of Jesus’ divinity. He is the Son of God; he is Yahweh. But there’s more to it than that.
You see, what John is portraying for us is a replay of the Garden of Eden and how it was supposed to go. You may recall that Adam and Eve were in a garden and they too were approached. After they had eaten of the forbidden God came to them. And what happens is that each of them lied. God asked them if they had eaten of the tree that they were forbidden to eat and Adam blamed Eve. Eve blamed the snake. Neither of them would own up to the truth. Satan had lied to them, and they now were given to false speech.
So in John’s gospel we have something different. Jesus reenacts that confrontation. Only this time the Second Adam, Jesus, confesses the truth. He stands his ground; and as he does so, he speaks the truth.
And it is interesting that Adam, though a liar, got what he did not deserve. He received grace and life. Christ too, received what he did not deserve; only he received the sentence of death. He was cursed.
And what we have there is a reminder that Jesus Christ, the truth speaker, died on our behalf. And because he now lives in us, we too can begin to speak the truth.
That gospel should make the truth a priority for us. And it should be the thing that drives us to put off false speech. With Christ we’ve died to pseudo speech. And by his power we can begin speaking the truth. We are no longer in Adam. Christ is redeeming us and empowering us to speak his language.
"Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.”
Let us pray:
Lord, we look to you this morning trusting that you will speak the truth to us. This is your truth; this is the truth. Teach us to follow it. Teach us to do it. Put the truth in us that we may obey it.
Above all, open our eyes that we might behold wonderful things in this your truth. For this we ask in Jesus’s strong name. Amen.
Introduction
We come this morning to the second of several texts that have to do with godly communication. Some of you may remember that we tackled the first text about two weeks ago. Interestingly, these first two passages having to do with our speech both deal with the topic of honesty.
Last time we said we need to speak the truth in love. And our speech needed to be in direct contrast to the dishonesty that characterizes the world’s speech. This morning we come to verse 25 and we see that God requires us to put away falsehood and speak the truth to our neighbors.
One might think that we could breeze over this passage since we basically covered the exact same material just a short time ago. But that would be a grave mistake. Not only do we have new information in this section: the idea that we are members of one another, but we have opportunity to explore more deeply the issue of speaking the truth.
There is a reason why the Spirit uses precious papyri to say almost the exact same thing. To put it more succinctly, God knows the need. The Lord knows that this is an area of life where we often struggle.
When it comes to communication, we all could use some help. But when it comes to speaking the truth, this is a special subset of communication in which we all could use a good amount of help. If ever there was a place for us to grow, it is most certainly here.
So, even though we have already dealt previously with this topic of truthfulness in our speech, we know that there is still plenty to learn. There’s much work that we can still yet do. So it is good to return to this topic and consider again the call to speak the truth.
And this passage is certainly has many good things to say on the subject. It may be one verse (and not a long one at that), but there are actually 5 points we can draw out of it. When it comes to truth telling, the first thing we should note is its priority.
I. Its priority
You notice that this is the first of all the commands that Paul is about to list. Paul has a lot of commands that he is going to give in rapid succession, but what is the first one out of his pen? It’s the one having to do with the truth.
And you understand why this call to truth telling takes precedence. Paul has just said that Jesus Christ is the truth. And so you understand that this idea of truth telling has a special place in our God’s heart. Bearing false witness may be the 9th of the 10 commandments, but do not think that its position there means that it is last in God’s book.
When you survey the Scriptures, you find that the Bible has a lot to say about truth. As a matter of fact, I recommend you check out the Westminster Larger Catechism. The WLC has a section that deals with each of the 10 commandments. And it unravels for you everything that is involved in that command: all that is required and all that is forbidden. Everything that falls under the umbrella of each of these commands is listed there. And it is very interesting to note that the 9th commandment, the one dealing with a false witness, is the longest of all the questions and answers in that section.
There’s no doubt that God puts a priority on truth telling. And since God puts a priority on it, so should we, especially if you are a new believer or if you are a young person in our midst. For, as we said last time, lying is something to which unbelievers are very much accustomed. It has long been known that those societies that do not have any interest in Christ have an incredible tendency to lie.
Albert Barnes, in his commentary on this passage says that missionaries will report the prevalence of this evil in the lands to which they have gone. This has been my experience too with the missionaries that I have conversed with over the years. These missionaries will say that, in the cultures to which they have gone, you can never trust anyone. If there is even the slightest reason to lie, they will do it.
And in our own day and age, and in our own culture, we recognize that truth is not something that is held in high value. It is easy to lie because we are a postmodern and pragmatic people.
Postmodernism has as its foundational belief the idea that there is no such thing as absolute truth. Thus, what is true for me may not be true for you. In this system of thought, truth is as mold-able as play’doh and it can be applied or ignored as you see fit.
Furthermore, our society is a pragmatic one. People who are pragmatic are not so much concerned if something is true, but rather if it works. If it works, then that’s what you should do. And you understand that speaking the truth is not specifically the norm. If lying works for me, then we may sacrifice truth on the alter of pragmatism.
So one should expect that telling the truth is not something that will be the rule of the day.
Our culture may not put a priority on the truth, but we must. We need to resist the urge to go along with our culture. God’s priority is now our priority and we must seek to be truth tellers.
Secondly, I want you to notice its prohibition.
II. Its prohibition
Paul is very clear when he says you need to “put off falsehood.” If the truth is to be our priority that means we must steer clear of anything that is false. There is a prohibition now against speaking lies and being deceptive. We must be careful not to hurt our neighbor’s good name or inflate our own by what we say.
And this means more than merely lying or shifting the blame. It is not just trying to conceal the wrong we’ve done by justifications or making up excuses. We can lie by saying he did it when he didn’t. But Paul means all kinds of speech that is false.
The word falsehood is the Greek word “pseudo.” You are likely familiar with this word. It is one we frequently use in English. Lately there’s been a lot of talk about pseudo-science, which is a false science. It is not true science, because it is not abiding by the principles of observation and testing. It is false science because it is driven by agendas and politics, and not by an accurate state of things.
So what is false speech? It is speech that is driven by our own agenda. It is driven by our own good and not the good of others. It is speech that is not just not true to reality, but it is not true to love.
This past week I had the chance to drop in at the men’s Bible Study in Wooster. Along with their Bible study they like to have what they call their freestyle discussions, where they take a controversial topic and go at it. Since I was there I think they were hoping I would stir the pot.
We started to discuss the issue of lying. And I attempted to make the point that the 9th commandment has as its focus a person’s reputation. To be a false witness has as its base the destruction of one’s good name. In a court of law, if you are bearing false witness, you are putting in jeopardy the reputation of the person on trial and you have the ability to destroy their livelihood, their family, their future.
I do believe that is at the heart of what Paul wishes to communicate here too. And if we take this into account, then we will recognize that false speech involves more than just claims that are false. For you can say things that are true, but they can still mislead or bring harm. The truth can be false speech if it is not used the way God intends it.
“Did you hear what Billy did?” What you say about Billy may be true. Billy may have done something wrong, but your speaking that truth doesn’t promote the good name of Billy. What you should have done is covered Billy’s sins with love as the Lord would have. Instead you’ve further depressed Billy’s reputation by passing along these bits of data. Now, this person with whom you have spoken is not going to look at Billy in the same way. His view of Billy is going to be tainted, and his interactions with Billy will likely change.
Let me give you a very apt illustration of this. I have a very strict policy of confidentiality. I don’t talk with others about the things that go on in my counseling or in this church. I do not even talk about them with my wife. And she’s glad for that. She doesn’t want to know. If there happens to be some problems in the church, she loves being completely oblivious to it. She likes it that she can go up to anyone and chat with them without knowing that truth. Because if she knew what was going on, she would be worried about what she says and what they may be thinking. She’s likely act differently around them because of that information.
That’s what happens when the truth become pseudo speech. If we use the truth in a damaging way, it becomes false speech.
Similarly, you might say that you were at John’s house, then you went to Dan’s house. All that you say there is true, but you did not say that you stopped by Jimmy’s house and threw a rock through his window.
You may have spoken the truth, but the truth was used as a cover up. The truth was used in a misleading way. In this case you were protecting yourself by falsely inflating your own reputation. You are making people think they are innocent when you are not.
That is another instance of false speech. Concealing the truth or using the truth in a misleading way to falsely represent yourself is a form of deception that God forbids.
Perhaps one of the greatest examples of this is found in Charles Finny. Finny was one of the famous preachers of the 2nd Great Awakening. Finny is not someone who I would endorse as his theology was quite unbiblical, and the methods he employed in the ministry were even more catastrophic. He has actually had a detrimental impact upon the American church. His influence has been huge, and it has been evil. He should have never been allowed to preach or enter the ministry.
But Finny was ordained as a Presbyterian minister. For those of you who may not know, Presbyterians have a very thorough examination process that you must go through before being approved for ordination. And in his examination Finny was asked if he had agreed with the Westminster Confession. Finny answered by saying, “Yes, in so far as I have read it.”
The problem was he had not actually read the Westminster Confession. So, in a sense, he was being honest: he agreed with it in so far as he had read it. There’s nothing to disagree with because there was nothing read. Even though his words were technically true, he was engaging in pseudo speech. He was deceiving his peers by concealing the real truth.
So you understand that putting off falsehood, includes more than simply the act of lying. We must put off any kind of underhanded, evil speech. Anything that degrades our reputation unduly or inflates our reputation without warrant, should be seen as prohibited.
We’re talking about telling the truth. We’ve seen its priority and its prohibition. But notice also its practice.
III. Its practice
Paul says we not only need to put off falsehood, but each one of us needs to do something. We need to speak the truth to our neighbor.
As we said last time, it is not enough for us just to stop a behavior. We also need to put on the right behavior. We need to replace the evil that is forbidden and begin to practice the good that God requires. And we all should realize that we only cease to be a liar, not when we stop talking, but only when we start telling the truth instead.
So we recognize that means doing new things with our mouths. There’s reform that we are seeking to bring to our life. And we are going to dedicate ourselves now to actively speaking the truth.
Maybe that means that we begin taking responsibility.
There may have been a time where you shied away from the truth. You used to conceal the truth. When someone confronted you, you would blame someone or something else, rather than taking responsibility. You were really good at making yourself sound so innocent.
But that’s not the way it is going to be anymore. Now that you have learned Christ, who is the truth, you are going to confess the truth. It won’t be easy, but you are not going to dodge it any longer. You going to speak the truth in that you admit the things you’ve done wrong.
There’s not much about Alcoholic's Anonymous that I like. I know that it has helped some people over the years, but I don’t find it the best way to help people escape their addictions. As my brother once said, all the guys at the AA meeting stopped their drinking, but they started chain smoking. That’s the danger of not replacing your behavior and dealing with the root issues. Your evil just pops up in other ways.
But one thing I do like about the program is that one of the 12 steps is to make a list of everyone they harmed. Then they are to go and try to make amends.
Maybe there’s someone here who needs to do that kind of thing. Maybe you need to start practicing what God wants you to do. You had skirted the truth before, but now you know you need to confess the truth.
Or if you had a problem with gossip, you are not going to just be mute and try not to talk about anyone anymore. You are going to speak the truth in that you try to be more edifying with your speech. Instead of being critical, you’re going to try and be more complimentary. As a matter of fact, you are going to make it your goal to point out 5 or 10 things good qualities in other people just to try to get yourself in the habit.
Better yet, when someone starts talking to you about someone, you’re going to make it your aim to stop that conversation from going down that rabbit hole. You’re going to practice saying, “I don’t think that’s a topic that we should be talking about. I don’t find that edifying. Why don’t we talk about something else?”
What does speaking the truth look like? How can one begin to practice speaking the truth? Those are just a couple examples. When you can use your tongue to confess and to compliment and confront, you are well on your way.
Certainly there are other ways you can practice speaking the truth. There’s no doubt that these couple of examples that I have given are only scratching the surface. But you understand that you now need to put on a new way of speaking.
Truth telling should have a new priority, and you know that your speech should not just avoid falsehood, you need to go in the opposite direction and begin to practice speaking the truth.
Fourthly, I want you to think about its purpose.
IV. Its purpose
In the later half of verse 25 Paul tells us why we should speak the truth. It is because, “We are members of one another.”
Now, again, let’s go back to what we said last time we were together. Part of the sanctification process is changing our behavior. We said that we need to do the work of replacement by putting off one behavior and putting on the behavior that God requires of us. But we also said that there was a second step in the process. And that is the act of renewal. We are to renew our minds by thinking biblically.
Here in the later half of verse 25 Paul provides us with the information which helps us to renew our minds. We have to understand that we are members of one another. We are not autonomous individuals. If that were the case, lying may have a place. But since we have a connection to each other and to a wider corporate body, we have a responsibility to speak the God honest truth to one another.
The imagery here is again, the idea of a body. You can think about how difficult we would have it if our different body parts were not honest with one another.
Suppose someone threw a ball to us. We rely on the fact that our eye is going to watch that ball and tell us exactly where we need to raise our hands in order to catch that ball. If our eye played a little trick and said that it was a little to the left, that is going to have rather severe consequences. There’s going to be some real pain that we experience. Because the hand is going to shift to the one side and we are going to miss it. It will end up cracking us in the head.
Let’s say that you are enjoying one of our carry in lunches. You are eating right along. And your stomach is loving it. As a matter of fact, he’s loving everything so much that he doesn’t tell you that he’s getting full. So you just keep packing in more and more food. At some point that’s going to cause a real problem. It’s probably going to be a little embarrassing because your stomach is going to come out with the truth that it cannot handle that much. You are going to get sick. And all that food you packed in there is going to come back out, if you know what I mean.
So you understand what Paul means when he says that we are members of one another. Just like the members of our body must have precision and honesty when working together, our relationships need precision and honesty in order to function. If we do not speak the truth, our relationships will suffer.
If you have a contract with someone to paint their house for $5,000, you will be pretty upset if they only give you $2,000. He lied to you about how much he was going to pay you. And that’s going to cause some real problems for you.
You stand up here and you take vows to become a member of this church. You make promises to support the church in its worship and work. You promise to submit to the leadership and seek the peach and purity of the church.
What happens when you violate those vows? You hurt the entire church. You might not think much of it. You may say, “Well, I have my reasons.” But you have to understand that there are wider repercussions. Failing to uphold your word is a form of pseudo speech and when you do that it has a ripple effect. It impacts the people around you. That’s because we are members of one another.
That goes for marriages and families too. Lying at work has implications for all the people involved at your work. Your coworkers, your boss, your customers. God wants you to renew your mind here. People often think that their lies are isolated things that don’t really hurt anyone. But that’s not true. We are members of one another and lying is an invasion into the community. The bonds we have are held together in harmony by the truth. And speaking the truth is needed because of the union we have with one another.
V. Its potential
The last thing to note is that Paul assumes this is something you can do. He doesn’t say, “maybe, if you try real hard, you can possibly speak the truth.” He doesn’t say, “Some of you will be able to put off falsehood and speak the truth.” This is something that he commands to everyone. He assumes that each of us has the potential to change.
Even if you have been a pathological liar up to this point. Maybe you are thinking that it is impossible to tame your tongue because you’ve been so accustomed to lying through the course of your life. You could be thinking, there’s no way.
But I want you to know that it is not just possible, it is achievable; no matter where you are on the spectrum you can begin speaking the truth. And the reason is because of Jesus Christ and his saving power.
There’s that one scene in Jesus’ life. It was his last night. And the mob of angry men came to arrest him. John records that when the crowd came up to Jesus he asked them, “Whom do you seek?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” And Jesus replies with the simple words, “I am he.” Really in the original language it says, “I am.” And John records that the mob fell drew back and fell to the ground. Somehow they were completely overpowered by his presence and speech.
Now, that’s a beautiful passage to remind us of Jesus’ divinity. He is the Son of God; he is Yahweh. But there’s more to it than that.
You see, what John is portraying for us is a replay of the Garden of Eden and how it was supposed to go. You may recall that Adam and Eve were in a garden and they too were approached. After they had eaten of the forbidden God came to them. And what happens is that each of them lied. God asked them if they had eaten of the tree that they were forbidden to eat and Adam blamed Eve. Eve blamed the snake. Neither of them would own up to the truth. Satan had lied to them, and they now were given to false speech.
So in John’s gospel we have something different. Jesus reenacts that confrontation. Only this time the Second Adam, Jesus, confesses the truth. He stands his ground; and as he does so, he speaks the truth.
And it is interesting that Adam, though a liar, got what he did not deserve. He received grace and life. Christ too, received what he did not deserve; only he received the sentence of death. He was cursed.
And what we have there is a reminder that Jesus Christ, the truth speaker, died on our behalf. And because he now lives in us, we too can begin to speak the truth.
That gospel should make the truth a priority for us. And it should be the thing that drives us to put off false speech. With Christ we’ve died to pseudo speech. And by his power we can begin speaking the truth. We are no longer in Adam. Christ is redeeming us and empowering us to speak his language.