The Leadership Style of JesusSýnishorn

Day 3: Speaking the Truth in Love

It’s not enough to merely speak the truth. How we speak the truth matters.

Some people use “the truth” as a weapon. They can’t wait to tell someone an ugly truth, because they are eager to inflict hurt or cause division. They love to give their opinions, then say, “Well, I’m just being truthful. I don’t believe in beating around the bush.”

Christians are not called merely to speak the truth. As the apostle Paul writes, “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” (Ephesians 4:15). There is a big difference—indeed, all the difference in the world—between merely speaking the truth and speaking the truth in love.

When we use the truth to hurt others, or to divide friend from friend, or to belittle or degrade someone, we are using the truth maliciously and sinfully. When we speak the truth in love, God’s Spirit speaks through us. Sometimes the truth does hurt, and we can’t avoid that. But we can make sure that our motives for speaking the truth are pure, Godly, and righteous.

Someone once said to me, “The Holy Spirit is a gentleman. A gentleman never behaves rudely or unkindly.” I believe that’s true. God clothes his Truth in kindness. When Jesus came into the world, he not only brought Truth into the world, but he was “full of grace and truth” (see John 1:14). When we are called upon to speak the truth, let us always clothe the truth in Love and Grace.

For some leaders, lying holds no temptation. But most of us find it easy to misuse the truth, to compromise the truth, to stretch the truth, or to speak the truth with the wrong motives and without love. The leadership style of Jesus reminds us that authentic leaders must always speak the truth, always live the truth, and always handle the truth with love.

When Jesus spoke the Truth, some people were attracted, but many people were repelled. Once, when he spoke the Truth, the crowds deserted him (see John 6:66). He could have made himself more popular by shading the Truth or stretching the Truth. But Jesus is the Truth. He could not deny the Truth because he could not deny himself.

You may be struggling to live out the truth in your leadership life. Your struggle to speak the truth in love as a leader may be never-ending. The temptation to compromise the truth or compromise love may always be with you. If so, it’s a battle worth fighting daily. As you battle to maintain the truth, the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life is always with you, always on your side.