Speak The Truth In Love

Toni M. Babcock

“Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful,” (Proverbs 27:6 KJV).

May God give us the courage to be a friend when it’s time to sound a warning, or lend a helping hand to someone teetering on the edge of self-destruction; because the ‘wounds of a friend‘ speak the truth in love — a quality that seems in short supply these days. 

Jesus warned that in the last days, “the love of many will grow cold,” (Matthew 24:12 NIV) – may it not be said of us.

Courage to speak the truth is most difficult for those of us who’d rather avoid confrontation. 

We fear ‘imposing’ our will or our opinions on another. 

We fear being called out for being politically ‘incorrect’ (what does that even mean?). 

We find it far easier to hunker down with a tasty beverage, opining on the evening news, while witnessing traditional faith and family values crumble and collapse around us on a flat screen. 

Such a static Christianity is neither being faithful to God or a friend who might otherwise be saved from assured destruction by God’s glorious redemption through faith in Jesus Christ.

One needn’t read the news very long before coming across damaging ideologies that dismiss any idea of personal accountability to God. 

Such proponents typically point to something or someone else as being the problem, but who rarely require self-examination for themselves or the people they claim to protect. 

Others, hiding their true intentions like the ‘kisses of an enemy’, sell grievance and payback for reward in order to gain political power for themselves — when the truth is, God requires self-examination from everybody.

 
Believers in Jesus recognize who they would be without Christ, and who they are because of Christ. They own their sin if they’re sincere, and believe 

“If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed,” (John 8:36 KJV). Isn’t that what the world really needs to know and believe?

Toni M. Babcock is author of Reflections from the Heart, in Light of the Gospel of Jesus and The Stone Writer. Contact