Tasting and Seeing for Ourselves

"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."--Ephesians 4:15


Of the many risks facing a Christ-one in our day, the greatest may be being deceived to believe something that sounds right but is really way off. Take this familiar passage, for example. How often have we heard well-meaning believers say "speak the truth in love" to imply "I'm gonna tell it like it is, baby, whether you like or not."

Not only "sounds right but is really way off," but not even close.

Eugene Peterson, writer of The Message, has a great heads up for all of us before we start lifting phrases out of a story just to make our point (frankly, because we can't help ourselves):

“No text can be understood out of its entire context. The most entire context is Jesus. Every biblical text must be read in the living presence of Jesus. Every word of the scriptural text is a window or door leading us out of the tarpaper shacks of self into this great outdoors of God's revelation.” 

And when we step back and see that the context of this so-called "tell it like it is" passage is, indeed, Jesus, and the Church He built, it changes everything. In fact, Ephesians 4 reminds us He has put fellow believers in our lives with various gifts to build us up, to rub off the rough edges, to help us keep going even when we stumble, to encourage us to drink in and live the Gospel, to continually taste and see for ourselves that the Lord is good, to equip us to know the voice of the Shepherd so well that we can more easily discern and refute those "sounds right but is really way off" voices that will try to set us, our loved ones, and friends adrift--or worse.

Not only that, it's good to know that when we do truly "speak the truth in love" in the face of daily (and often very enticing) deceptions, both subtle and blunt, we also speak volumes about the Jesus context through our attitudes, our affections, and our actions. So, Lord, this day, thank You for the people You've put in our lives over the years to help us taste and see the Truth of You for ourselves, and then help us to erase all false definitions of this passage and instead...

"Let our lives lovingly express truth in all things--speaking truly, dealing truly, loving truly. Enfolded in Love, let us grow up into Him in every way and in all things into Him who is the head--even Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One."--Ephesians 4:15, Amplified