Reading this passage strikes me pointedly every time with this ironclad truth: As we grow and live in view of the Gospel and by the prevenient grace of God, Christ is the head, and from him, all aspects of a reconciled life lived in truth come from Him first.
If we can keep in step with the humbling and necessary reality that all truth, all love, and all hope are rooted and found in Christ, then we can understand how to speak the truth in love. The love of God flows through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. The only source of true and pure love is in Christ and is not contingent upon any of our opinions, feelings, or musings. Thankfully, God has seen it fit to reveal the truth to us through his word…the word that became flesh and made its dwelling among us…that is to say, Christ is the actual, tangible, living word of God both metaphorically and practically. As we follow Christ and are connected with the purity of His love alive within us, it is then that the truth comes alive in us. As this realization of the singularity of God’s truth is evident in our mind and spirit, we are able then to be disseminators of the singularity of Love that is alive in the Gospel of Truth. In this manner, we grow in all aspects of our lives to the Glory of God, and the truth that we speak points to what God has done through His love rather than what we can muster as an empathetic emotion of love. This then is the way that truth is spoken in love. As we speak this loving veracity, it is done so dependent upon what God has done, not what we can say or what someone else has done. If we can continue to bring into obedience our opinions and preferences by trading them out for the love and truth of God…the truth that we speak will be empowered by the Holy Spirit and land solid within the purposed of God. I hope and pray that I will continually submit to God’s correction and instruction in these matters for all my days.