The verse for this week’s study is Ephesians 4:15:

This is another one of those verses that could be worthy of a lifetime of study. If this one verse had been heeded it is likely that literally millions of people would have avoided being needlessly killed in wars and persecutions by their fellow Christians during the church age. If this verse were heeded today, there would be no divisions within the body of Christ.

The Lord Jesus is the Truth and anyone who really loves Him loves truth. We must be committed to sound, biblical truth as a basis for our lives. Even so, we will still be deceived if our truth is not balanced by love. This has been one of the great failures of Christians since the first century. It is time for the church to change this. The Lord knows His people by their love.

One reason that the devil is called “an angel of light” is that he often uses truth to do his evil. An angel is a messenger and light is truth. Satan often comes to do his evil while disguising himself as an angel from God with truth. Truth without love can kill.

Just because we know something is true it does not mean we should share it. This is the stumbling block that many trip over trying to be Christian journalists. When we share a thing we must also consider whether what we are about to say is obedient to verse 29 of this chapter, which states:

Every word that comes out of our mouth should be qualified by this verse. I do not see anywhere in Scripture where there is an exception to this. This is actually the foundation for us to grow up “in all aspects into Him who is the Head, even Christ.” Remember that He is the Word. As He also said in John 6:63, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life." Words are precious. As we are told in Proverbs 18:21, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” What are our words producing? If we are truly growing up into Him they will edify those who hear them, producing life.

This does not mean that we should overlook sin in a person’s life. In fact, we are also commanded in Matthew 18 that when a brother is in sin, we must go to him and confront it. However, this chapter also gives a procedure for doing it in such a way that will keep us from becoming stumbling blocks. If a brother is in sin we must go to him in private. If he will not hear us, then we need to take one other person. Only after these two personal confrontations have been refused should we ever take a matter before others in the church.

Again, this was given to keep us from becoming stumbling blocks when we see others doing something wrong. If we do not follow this Matthew 18 procedure, we may be guilty of something far worse than the sin that we see in the other person—we could become a stumbling block that causes the Lord’s people to stumble. That is why we must be sure the truth that we speak in anything is truth spoken in love.