“ … speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ” (Ephesians 4:15).

It’s easy to miss the substance of what Paul writes in this verse both because it is such a well-known scripture, and because most major English versions of the Bible  translate it in essentially the same way. The idea of “speaking the truth in love” has thus taken on a kind of life of its own – a kind of  poster scripture for the idea of spiritual “tough love,” which is based in concern, but doesn’t hold back on the truth.

To some extent, this idea is contained within what Paul writes in Ephesians 4, but it is only a small part of it at best. If we look more closely at verse 15 and consider it in context, we see the verse carries far more meaning – both specifically and in a broader general sense. Looking at the context of “speaking the truth in love” is not as obvious as it may sound in regular Bible reading because the context actually begins quite a few verses earlier.  But we need not guess what the context is. If we patiently read backwards from verse 15 we will come upon the specific  subject Paul was discussing, and we find that subject in verses 11-12:
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“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up”

If that doesn’t immediately connect in our minds with “speaking the truth in love,” notice the very next verse (Ephesians 4:13):

“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”

Do you see it?  Verses 11 and 12 say Christ gave the various offices of the Church to prepare and equip his people for service – until we come to maturity in him (vs. 13), which is exactly the reason Paul gives in verse 15 for speaking the truth in love.

But let’s look at that expression a little more closely.  The Greek Paul wrote is “alētheuontes  de en agapē” which is literally “being true, yet in love.”  The first word there – a form of alētheuō – can mean to speak the truth, teach the truth, or live the truth.   This is important because the second meaning – to teach the truth – is obviously involved in the context of Ephesians 4.  Paul is talking about the various types of preachers and teachers in the Church, and he doesn’t just mean they should not lie, but that they should teach the truth – that’s how the Church then grows into the stature of Christ (vs. 15). 
 
Notice that the third meaning of alētheuō is that of living the truth.  This may apply in this verse also. Clearly, it is only as we live the truth, not just profess it, that we grow towards the stature of Christ.  That is why the Revised version, in Ephesians 4:15,  gives an alternate translation of “speaking the truth”  as “to deal truly,” and the Douay Rheims version translates it “doing the truth in charity.”   The Amplified Version expands on this aspect of the verse by paraphrasing:  “let our lives lovingly express truth [in all things, speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly]” (AMPC).

So when we look closely at Ephesians 4:15, the focus of the verse in context is one of the responsibility for those who handle the word of God to teach the truth, and the responsibility all of us have to make truth a part of our lives of love.  The emphasis is not on our telling others the truth they need to hear – as in the “tough love” kind of truth we give – but on the true love kind of truth we live.

Something to Think about:  Psalm 65:8 (CEB) "... you make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy."

In many parts of the ancient Near East, in the cultures surrounding ancient Israel such as Babylon and Egypt, the sun was believed to rise from the underworld each day through gates which opened in the morning on the eastern horizon and to sink back into the depths of the earth at night ​through the gates of the evening in the west. 

For the cultures that held this kind of belief, the gates of the evening and morning were places of great significance controlled by the gods, but they were essentially part of the underworld and as such they were places of darkness, foreboding, and closeness to death.

The biblical writers rejected this view and characterized the morning and evening as times of joy – times in which the One true God demonstrated his power and his care for his creation (Psalm 30:5, 42:8, 49:14, 141:2, etc.).  Psalm 65:8 captures this view in a single verse, showing that each morning was a sign of the hope of life and each evening a rejoicing in the life God had given. Its wording is slightly different in other translations, but the idea is the same: "The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders; where morning dawns, where evening fades, you call forth songs of joy" (NIV).

Today we may smile at the concepts of ancient pagan peoples, but we should be equally impressed with the enlightened nature of the biblical view.  Psalm 65:8 and similar verses shun the darkened views of ignorance that surrounded ancient Israel and remind us that each morning and evening are a cause for joy.  It's a message we should remember as we go from day to day and one we can apply in two small ways.  

First, the psalmist tells us "It is good to praise the Lord ...  proclaiming your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night" (Psalm 92:1-2), yet it is easy to forget to do this joyfully at the sleepy and tired ends of the day when joy is so often replaced by the hurry of preparing for the day or the wind-down at its end.  Psalm 65:8 is a colorful reminder to include real joy in our morning and evening prayers.  

Second, despite the problems or the simple ongoing strain that our lives may involve, Psalm 65:8 calls us to consider ourselves as gatekeepers: to consider each morning and evening an opportunity of reflecting joy.  They can sometimes be the hardest times to let our light shine, but remembering this simple verse can make a difference in our lives, and the lives of those around us, when we treat the morning and the evening as the times of joy they were intended to be!

“From His right hand came a fiery law for them.  Yes, He loves the people”
(Deuteronomy 33:2b-3a NKJV).
 
It is surprising how many people visualize the God of the Old Testament as an essentially stern God dispensing laws and their strict penalties. This God is seen by many as a God of law and commandments. By contrast, some think the God of the New Testament and his son, Jesus, are typified by love and not law.  It is believed that somehow God changed in his approach to humans.

But what the Bible clearly shows, when we look at it closely, is that the God of the Old Testament is no different from the God of the New.  Theologically, of course, it seems clear that in many instances the pre-incarnate Jesus was actually the one called God in the Hebrew Scriptures (John 1:1-10, 1 Corinthians 10:4), but the point is that the character of God does not change (Malachi 3:6, Hebrews 6:17, Hebrews 13:8).  God has always been a God of law and love.

We can see this dual aspect of the character of God in many examples throughout the Old Testament.  Take the words of Moses, for example, in the Book of Deuteronomy (which means “second law”) as it recounts the re-giving of the law of God to ancient Israel.  Deuteronomy focuses on the law of God as much as any book of the Hebrew Scriptures, yet we find frequent expressions of God’s love as well as his commands and laws: “Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments” (Deuteronomy 7:9).  Repeatedly, God’s love is stressed just as much as his law, as we see also in the quotation from Deuteronomy 33 above.  

And that is not just an Old Testament perspective.  When we look closely at the life and teachings of Jesus, love and law are never separated. Not surprisingly, after the Book of Psalms, the Book of Deuteronomy was the book most frequently quoted by Jesus. When asked which was the greatest law, Christ replied that the law is that we love God and our neighbor (Matthew 22:35-39).  When he showed love by not condemning the woman taken in adultery, Jesus nevertheless still told her “Go, and sin no more” (John 8:11).

God’s law did not somehow disappear after the death of Christ because he paid the penalty for our breaking the law – any more than a speeding law disappears if someone pays our speeding fine. And even though we are not saved by our keeping of the law (Galatians 2:16), Paul stresses that the law is a guide to us (Galatians 3:23) and that “The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good” (Romans 7:12).  Paul continues to show us why the law is good:

“…for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law” (Romans 13:8-10).

So the principle of God’s use of law as well as love is still alive and functioning throughout the New Testament, as the writer of the Book of Hebrews reminds us: “… the Lord disciplines the one he loves” (Hebrews 12:6). We would not think a human parent did not love his or her children because the parent gave them rules or disciplined them, and we must realize that God works with us in exactly the same way.

As we grow in understanding of God, we come to see that law and love are actually not opposites, but complementary aspects of his character. His commands are given out of love to protect our relationship with him and with others. God’s love does not somehow negate the purpose of his laws, and the purpose of his laws does not somehow cancel out his love. 

​God is indeed a God of law and love.

Bible Gateway's Jonathan Petersen recently interviewed award-winning author Nancy Pearcey about her latest book, Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes (David C. Cook, 2015).

Nancy Pearcey has been described as “America’s pre-eminent evangelical Protestant female intellectual” (The Economist), and the book exposes the failures of a number of modern world-views while strengthening an approach of faith.  We are happy to reproduce the interview, with permission, on our website today.  You can read the interview here. 

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