“As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.” – Ephesians 4:14-16
When you take a road trip with little kids, there are two questions you cannot avoid: “Where are we going?” and “Are we there yet?” As annoying as they sound in that context, there is a lot of wisdom behind those questions. To be successful in any journey in life you need to know where you are going. These verses remind us that the same is true for us as a community of Jesus followers. We are not on this journey by ourselves. We have a shared destination (“grow up in all aspects into Christ”) and a shared course for getting there (“speaking the truth in love”). Real relationships give us the opportunity to lovingly pour truth into one another’s lives which in turn grows us as Jesus followers.
How do you speak truth through the motivation of love in your connection with other Jesus followers?
