Truth in love
Ephesians 4:15
Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.
It had been years since I had fished trout on the small streams of Michigan when a friend asked if I would take him and his son trout fishing and show them how to do it. Trout, stream fishing isn't like sitting in a boat and casting or trolling. There are times when you have to speak up on thw places where the fish are... even belly crawling. Trout are extremely high strung and spooky. They are also spooked by heavy line or extra things on the line.
The first stream we stopped at my friend and his sun said that they would fish close to the bridge and I said I would go a hundred yards or so downstream and fish down from there. I walked 100 yards or so through the cedar swamp and then snuck carefully to the streams edge.
I only fished about 10 minutes and had a 5 fish limit of beautifully colored brook trout. Walked back up to see how thw other guys were doing. When I got there I found them walking downstream in the middle of the water and casting big spinners on heavy line. All the things that I knew were against what I knew would make them successful was what they were doing. And they hadn't caught a fish
I knew I had to correct them and I had a choice. I didn't want to embarrass them, but I had to gently correct them, if I wanted them to be successful. By the 3rd or 4th stream we had them beginning to catch fish.
Often we struggle between speaking the truth and loving. We can be truthful as Christians and do tremendous harm to someone that is hurting. We can also be loving and not want to hurt someone by being truthful about what God's word says about what is right and wrong. By loving without truth we can do as much harm as we would by being truthful without loving.
Ephesians 4:15 says to "speak the truth in love"... don't do one at the expense of the other.
In John 13:34 & 35 Jesus said, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
Often we best show love by being truthful... we can allow someone to continue in bad habits or lifestyle, which is far from loving, or we can do what I dis.for.my fishing buddies and lovingly and honestly correct their wrong behavior.
Love is perfected in God's truth and real truth is perfected in Godly love. Share them both freely.... but equally.
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