Nothing But the Truth

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH

Eph 4:25-28

25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. 26 "In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold. 28 He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.

NIV

This is a continuation of verse 17 where we are told not to live as the Gentiles do in the futility of their thinking. The new person in Christ must put off lies and speak truthfully to the others in the church. Wait, just a second, are there liars in the church? There must have been in that Ephesian church, believers telling things that were not the truth. If we are not speaking the truth, then lies are the only thing left. We have heard an analogy that demonstrates this truth. If we went out for a walk in the woods and our eyes saw what appeared as something that might be detrimental to our body, and the eyes said nothing to our feet, we might fall. But if our eyes told the truth to our feet, then we would step carefully to test the ground before us, to see if there was indeed a pitfall the eyes perceived and thus the whole body would be safe from that pit. Is the body of Christ in danger because there might be little lies going on in the church? How can there be any lies in the Church? It is interesting that before we became believers, we were all liars, as David said in psalm 116, “In my dismay, I said, all men are liars” But when we put off that old self filled with lies, we put on the new self that only speaks the truth, so how could there still be lies going in the Ephesian church, as well as in our own church? What would we ever lie about to our fellow believers? That just does not sit well with us, that there could even be liars in the church. Would exaggerating the truth be a form of a lie? Would enhancing ourselves, being prideful, boasting about our accomplishments and adding more than what there really was in the story be a form of a lie? When we refuse to admit that we have some sin that we still struggle with be a form of lying? Speaking on a personal level, I have witnessed this kind of lying in a previous church I attended and taught an adult bible study, when someone said they could not remember the last time they sinned. I could not say, “You are lying sir” for even if that was speaking the truth, it would have also been judgmental, yet in fact, as he was speaking he was in the middle of a sin, for we are all sinners saved by grace, and if we have attained this sinless state this gentleman claimed to be in, then Jesus going to the cross, shedding his blood was a waste of his time and meaningless. So, perhaps there could be lies in the church rather than always being words of truth. However, that should not be, if indeed lies exist in the church. But how is that fixed, and can it be? If we are one body, how could one part of the body lie to another part of the body? So then we must conclude, all lies have stopped within the body of Christ, and we all speak nothing but the truth, so help us God!