Friday, August 10, 2012

Friday, August 10, 2012


The Thorny Truth

Scripture: Ephesians 4:25-5:2                      

So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, 
for we are members of one another. Ephesians 4:25

The truth is a thorny rose. I heard this statement time and again from my pastor growing up. As a tween, I couldn’t fully grasp the meaning of this statement. Yet, in the past few days, these words resounded in my head as I witnessed conflicts in two different environments.

The truth is a thorny rose.

In each instance, two people presented their opinion/perspective on a topic. The conversation escalated to conflict when the people involved shifted from making a statement to hearing the other person’s viewpoint as a challenge to their own. A simple opinion morphs into a defense; not just a defense of an idea, but a defense of the person’s being.

But what does this mean if we hold fast to the reality that we are members of one another?

How does it alter the way we speak truth to our neighbors?

Often, in our attempts to speak truth to another, we engage them as an “other,” as a person distinct from ourselves. Yet as people of the Risen Lord, we are members of the body of Christ. To speak truth to another is to speak truth to ourselves.

Like holding a rose, encountering truth and beauty often stems from pain. But if we remember the person we speak to is part of who we are in Christ Jesus it just may alter how we hold a thorny rose with them.


Prayer: Eternal Truth, you immerse us in the pain and beauty of life together. Guide our interactions with one another. Temper our anger and enable us to speak the truth with your grace and mercy. Amen.


Jennifer M. Manis


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http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/