Jan 15
Hard Questions Women Ask
Eph 4:15 But speaking the truth in love,...
He was an eyewitness and now was being called on
for his testimony. He understood the question but did not answer. His mind
raced as he considered the repercussion of his answer. He could not lie but
feared to tell the truth.
It was an advertisement I saw during which
Honest Abe Lincoln was being questioned by his chubby wife. The question she
had asked was “Does this dress make me look fat?” Watching Honest Abe struggle
with how to answer was hilarious. Most men have had a similar experience.
In polite society we are confronted with times
where flattery is substituted for the unflattering truth. We may meet an old
friend we have not seen in years. What we see is thinned hair that has turned
gray, wrinkles, a few extra pounds, maybe a hearing aid, but the same welcome
smile. Our response is “Hey you look great!” and they do because it is so great
to see them again.
The verse for our meditation today is not
talking about telling people the naked truth, but doing it in love. This verse
does not require you to tell your wife “Yes, that dress makes you look fat, but
I still love you”.
Ok, what does this verse teach? First we have
to look at the context. What is being talked about? How are we to respond? The
verse starts with “But” which alerts us that it is a response to what has gone
on before. The previous verse is about not being children who are not mature
enough to respond to cults and false doctrine.
A simple outline of Ephesians is to view the
first three chapters as doctrinal (talk) and the last three as practice. (walk)
The fourth chapter begins the “walk “ section by pointing out there is one Lord
and one faith. Then the different gifts are listed. One faith but differing
gifts. All of that points to verse 14 that says;
Eph 4:14 That we henceforth be no more children,
tossed to and fro,
and carried about with every wind of doctrine,
by the sleight of men,
and cunning craftiness,
whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
The verse above is formatted to
emphasize the individual parts. What does it mean when it says we should “be no more
children”? It means we should be growing to maturity. We should be so grounded
in the Scriptures that we have a solid foundation of Biblical knowledge. We
should know our Bible well enough to not be tossed to and fro by silliness that
pretends to be spiritual. We should be able to speak the truth to combat false
teachings, but do it in a loving manner. Our own studies should guard us
against doctrines that blow like the wind, this way and that. Cults, false
missionaries, and bad preachers may want us to agree with their twisted ideas
about how to please God. They can be very convincing because they resort to
crafty ways of talking and have learned ways to confuse and confound the
uninformed Christian. Their goal is to deceive you into accepting the same lie
they believe.
Then we come to our verse for today.
Eph 4:15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into
him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
Here we find a summary of what has gone on
before. Growing up, becoming mature, learning how to live a Christ like way of
living, and doing it in truth and love.
Wiersbe, in his Exposition Commentary on this
verse said
“Truth without love is brutality, and love without truth is hypocrisy”.
The remainder of the chapter talks about not
walking as other Gentiles walk. Their walk is described in a few verses and the
chapter ends with specific instructions on how we should be walking.
The road to maturity starts with a rebirth. As
a dear old saint used to say “You gotta get borned again”. Doctrine, knowledge,
religious practice are all worthless without our receiving Christ and His
love. Corinthians 13 says if we can
speak like an angel, understand all mysteries, know everything, have deep
faith, sell everything we have and give it to the poor, and then give our
bodies to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
The love of Christ is not gained by what we do,
what we know or what we give. Salvation is seeing ourselves as sinners,
understanding we cannot help ourselves and accepting Christ’s gift of
salvation. The starting place of maturity is to be “borned again”
Once we are blood bought Christians our
responsibility is to study the Scriptures.
2Ti 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a
workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth.
That verse occurs in the middle of some verses
that discuss not striving over words or listening to vain babblings. It is a
reminder that we should become mature in the scriptures. Maturity involves more
than head knowledge. Little children may know they should share toys, but may
not always do it. So with adults. So how mature are we anyway. If we scan
through the last ten verses of Ephesians four we may have a simple, if
incomplete, list of some marks of maturity.
Don’t be like other gentiles (the world)
Stop lying
Speak the truth
Don’t get so angry you do sinful thingsDon’t fall asleep planning revenge (Wrath)
Don’t give the devil a foothold in your thoughts and actions.
Don’t steal when you are able to work.
Don’t be selfish, give to the poor.
Don’t let dirty talk come out of your mouth (corrupt = rotten, filthy)
Do talk to edify others by your graceful speech.
Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit.
Put away bitterness
Put away wrath
Put away anger
Put away continued loud insistent demands (clamour)
Put away evil speaking
Put away badness, naughtiness, wickedness (malice)
Be kind
Be tenderhearted
Be forgiving to one another
I suspect that you have found something in this list to meditate on. None of us are perfect, which means there is always room for growth in both our talk and our walk. May God bless each of us as we endeavor to become more Christ like.
Php 2:5 Let this mind be in you,
which was also in
Christ Jesus:
