“Therefore, putting away lying, ‘Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,’ for we are members of one another” (Ephesians 4:25).
By divine design, nature abhors a vacuum. If a plot of ground is not cultivated, planted, and tended to, weeds will grow rampantly.
In like manner, neutrality toward good and evil is impossible. To cling acceptably to what is good, you must abhor evil (Romans 12:9).
As a new creation in Christ who is the Truth (John 14:6), not only must you put away falsehood—false thinking, false values, false conduct, false speech—you also must speak truth. If you have properly learned Christ, you know that deceit was never in His mouth (1 Peter 2:22), He is the faithful (i.e., trustworthy) witness (Revelation 1:5), and to be born again requires truth (1 Peter 1:22-23).
According to the prophet Zechariah, speaking truth to your neighbor is one of the telltale proofs that God has brought salvation to His people (Zechariah 8:7, 15-16). Truth is foundational to Christianity and to every new man in Christ.
A body in which inaccurate messages are sent and received via its nervous system is diseased and in grave peril. In like manner, it is imperative that members of Christ’s body—who are members of one another—speak the truth in love to their neighbors.
