We all need to hear truth. The Bible teaches us that it is in the renewing of our minds that we are changed from the inside out be new people. This message explores the powerful role that we can all play in one another's growth to maturity in Christ as we share His truth in love to one another.
The Power of Truth Spoken in Love
Ephesians 4:11-16; Revelation 3:14-22
1/05/2011
Introduction
“Your arrogance sickens me”
How would you react if someone got up in your face and said that to you in front of a whole group of people?
I just stood there a bit dumbfounded as one of the students in my year at Bible college unloaded on me. I don’t know how long it had been brewing but he let me have both barrels that day!
I already knew that he didn’t like me. He certainly never bothered to hide that. He was a guy who was not backward in speaking his mind, and loudly. Funnily enough, I considered that to be very arrogant, but never had the guts to say anything about it. I’d heard him pay out on people, apparently not concerned about their reputations or what their side of the story might be. That frustrated me. Now I was in the firing line.
But you know what?
I deserved it. That morning - like many other mornings – I’d struggled to stay awake in one of our lectures. To be frank, the pace of the lecture was too slow to keep my tired mind interested.
I was a late-night person. Part of that was due to my social life, but part of it was that late nights were the best time to get into the library or to get work done in my unit on campus. At other times I tended to get distracted with questions from some of our overseas students. I enjoyed helping them come to grips with language to really understand what they were reading, or the questions they needed to answer for the essays they were doing and so on. Besides that, I liked to be pretty thorough with my assignments and I would often find myself going into the early hours until I was satisfied with what I'd done.
So whether it was due to helping others or lack of discipline, I often found myself working into the early hours of the morning, which made it very hard to appear interested during lectures that seemed to drag.
Whatever the reason for it though, it was simply not respectful or considerate to the lecturer; nor was it a good personal discipline to be inattentive during class.
Yes, you could even say that it was arrogant of me to consider my other activities more important than getting a good night’s rest in order to be ready to receive what the lecturer had prepared to give us.
So did the confrontation help me?
Nope.
In fact it just reinforced the barrier that existed between me and this other student.
It reinforced my opinion of him as a opinionated, self-important, loud-mouthed lout. That’s not a flattering opinion, nor is it fair, but that’s what my defensive heart fixed on.
I didn’t pause to consider what truth I could discern from what he said. My guard was up. Even years later I would sometimes replay the incident in my mind – except this time I would respond in a way that would demonstrate my righteousness and expose that guy’s arrogance!
It wasn’t until quite a few years later that I looked back more objectively to see some truths about myself that I wish I had seen back then.
As someone who is called to teach I would hate it if you all turned up on Sunday after a late night on Saturday, bleary-eyed and unable to concentrate. It would break my heart, because every time I get up to preach it’s with a conviction that God has something to say to every one of us who is present. Yet that’s exactly what I did to my teacher week after week, and that was not OK. Who knows what life-changing lessons I missed out on through my lack of personal discipline? I needed someone to help me change my lifestyle; and I needed the wisdom and humility to accept that help.
What about you?
Do you have it all together, or are there some truths that you need to hear?
Last week I read in a newspaper article that there was going to be a little wedding happening in London; and Romans 12:1-2 was to be read out during that service. I’d like us to have a look at that passage also.
Romans 12:1-2
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. [1]
This is one of those key passages that we tend to mention often because it sums up a lot of key truths in a few short sentences.
In this church we give priority to the teaching of God’s word because we want to help you to worship profoundly in your day-to-day lives. By nature we conform to the pattern of those around us – the pattern of this world. Like everyone else on the planet, we are sinful. We tend to want to do the same sorts of things that every other sinful person wants to do.
But we have been freed from sin and called to live a new life.
We live that life as our minds are renewed by God’s truth. Renewed thinking leads to renewed attitudes and actions. These new attitudes and actions are pleasing to God and they also prove to us that living God’s way is best.
So we come to the theme verses for our studies over the next two weeks in Growing Together in Christ.
Ephesians 4:7,11-16
7 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.
Paul has just been writing about the things all Christians have in common – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one Spirit, one Father, one hope… these are the things that every believer shares equally. Yet there is a type of grace that has been dispensed by Jesus according to His specific plan for us and for the work He has called us to. We read more about this from verse 11…
11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Paul lists 5 gifts which are all concerned with the communication of God’s truth. God has provided people in His church with gifts in communicating His truth so that we can all have our minds renewed, our nature changed and our behaviour guided just as Romans 12 talked about.
14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
According to Ephesians 4 my job today is to prepare God’s people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up. Specifically, I want to challenge and encourage you to do what verse 15 tells us: to speak the truth in love to one another so that in all things we will grow up into Jesus.
I want to tell you that the Scriptures teach us that speaking the truth to one another in love is powerful. It will change lives for the better. If we truly love one another then we will speak truth to one another.
Speak the Truth, Even if Your Voice Shakes!
A couple of weeks ago I shared a principle from Scripture that is absolutely critical for us: We need to remember who the real Judge is.
So often we are more concerned with what others will think about us and what they may do to us, when it is really Christ’s opinion that matters. He’s our Lord.
I want to share with you a passage of Scripture which features Jesus as Lord of the Church speaking to a congregation of believers via the Apostle John.
Revelation 3:14-22
“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:
These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. 15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
Let me fill you in on a bit of history here! Laodicea was a wealthy commercial centre along an important trade route. It was very close to two other cities: Colossae, which had access to water from fresh mountain springs; and Hierapolis which had hot mineral springs. Cold water is great for drinking; Hot water is great for bathing. Laodicea’s water was lukewarm – it was carried via aqueduct and was warm by the time it arrived in the city – ancient historians also tell us that it was full of sediment.
Jesus uses this picture of their substandard water supply to illustrate their condition in His eyes. Unlike hot water for bathing or cold water for drinking, lukewarm water is not great for either use. It must be either heated or cooled. In the same way these Laodicean’s need to be changed if they are going to be useful in God’s service.
However the Laodicean’s have a different view.
17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. 20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.
21 To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
The Laodicean’s thought they were going along alright – they needed to hear the truth or else they were headed for judgement. Jesus loved them enough to share that truth with them. He loved them enough to rebuke and discipline them.
If He did not do this they would continue on in their spiritual limbo, self-righteous and self-reliant. They would not experience the joy of a living relationship with Jesus. They would not glorify God or build His Church. Instead they would receive a terrible shock when the time for them to stand before Christ.
Jesus loves them too much to leave them to that fate. So He rebukes them and disciplines them so that they have the chance to repent. If they receive His truth and are changed by it they will be restored to intimacy with Jesus and become overcomers in Him.
Here’s something interesting about this story though. Jesus does not share this rebuke with the Laodiceans directly. It was not to one of them that He appeared in a vision, it was to the Apostle John. John wrote the vision down and sent it to them as he was instructed to.
So it was not just Jesus speaking the truth in love to them, it was also John as a messenger of Jesus.
Are you willing to hear truth spoken in love for your growth in Christ? I needed it. The Laodiceans needed it. Will you acknowledge your need of it or will you allow pride to get in the way?
Are you willing to speak the truth in love for the building up of God’s Church? Is your love strong enough that you will speak up for the sake of the one you speak to?
[1]All Scriptures from The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
