[U]ntil all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love. Ephesians 4: 13-16, NRSV.
Merciful God, We thank You for Your love. We thank You, that like a good parent, You are willing to walk with us and help us to grow in grace, grow in love, and finally, grow into Your image. In the name of Jesus, we give You thanks. Amen.
Today we are going to continue our study, looking at some of the behaviors we are to acquire as we “grow-up” in Jesus Christ. Yesterday we talked about instability, as the behavior of a “spiritual child.” Thank God we discovered that as we go to the Source of Wisdom, we can be enabled to believe, and finally, to become stable Christians! We will now look at a very positive, and powerful, feature, of one who is spiritually mature.
“But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.”
How do you speak the truth in love? It is said that, “a picture is worth one thousand words.” That being the case, let me paint you a few pictures. All of these pictures have to do with the way Jesus told people the truth, and instead of destroying them, He actually redeemed them. Telling people the truth is not always an easy thing to do. Some truths are hard to listen to, and harder yet, to accept. But any worthy goal set by the Christian, no matter how apparently unattainable, can be reached, if we will only surrender, and let the Lord accomplish it, through us.
The woman taken in adultery. Most of us have read, or heard, this story. The scribes and the Pharisees were always seeking ways to entrap Jesus. This day they brought a woman “taken in adultery” (John 8: 3). We all know that this was no ordinary case. This was what we would call in our day, a “trumped up” case. The male ,who, of a necessity, had to be there since she was “caught in” the act, was absent. The penalty for this deed, according to Jewish law, was death (Deuteronomy 22: 22) – although under Roman legislation the Jews could not put anyone to death (John 18: 31). The only males present, as mentioned in the story, were her accusers. Jesus was expected to pass the verdict. He could have been done this in such a way, that would have completely, destroyed her; both emotionally, and if they could find the way to get the Romans to consent to her stoning, physically.
But Jesus preferred to speak the truth in love; to her, and to her accusers. His words, ” ‘Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her’ ” (John 8: 7, NRSV), was another way of saying, “All of you are guilty of some sin.” He could then have proceeded to point to each of them, and accuse them of their individual sins. What Jesus did, as some commentators have suggested, is that He stooped down, and wrote in the dust the sin of every one of her accusers. As soon as each person saw his sin, he dropped his stone and scurried away. To the woman, He could simply have said: ” ‘Neither do I condemn you . . .’ Instead, He made her aware of her sin, but gave her hope, by adding, ‘Go your way, and from now on do not sin again’ “(11). Wonderful, kind, compassionate, Savior!
May God help us to become so “grown-up” in Christ Jesus, that we will always “speak the truth,” in pure, redeeming, Godly, tones of love!