The Heart Attitudes: Part 3Sample

  

Heart Attitude #2 – Live an honest, open life before others.

Ephesians 4:25

Since you put away lying, Speak the truth, each one to his neighbor, because we are members of one another.

Ephesians 4:15

But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into Him who is the head – Christ. 

The New Translation for verse 15 is “But practicing the truth in love…”. We have a hard time getting the sense of the Greek language right when it uses what in English is most often if not always a noun as a verb like “Truth” in verse 15. It really says, “Truthing in love”. 

Practicing living a truthful, open, and honest life before others, begins in the everyday small things. It means doing the little things with integrity. Being honest with ourselves and with others around us in every detail of our lives. 

We will see later that it does not mean we have to be inconsiderate or tell every detail of our lives to everyone. But it does mean that what we share is true to the best of our knowledge.

I am notorious for stopping people when they say to me, “Well, to tell you the truth…”. I will ask them if every other thing they have said to me was a lie. I expect people to tell me the truth and I expect to tell them the truth myself. 

The end of that verse is also important. Our motive for speaking the truth should always be love. That also affects the way we say what we say. Truth spoken in anger can be a weapon to harm others. That is not what the verse is getting at. We always need to put the interests of others before our own and temper our speech whenever possible. We may have to say nothing, in order to avoid not telling the truth!

As you go through your day, notice the moments when it is easy to speak the truth in love and the times when you are tempted to do otherwise!