Truth As A Verb--June 7, 2023

Truth As A Verb--June 7, 2023

"But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament and with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love." [Ephesians 4:15-16]

What if "truth" isn't merely something you say or believe, but something you do?

I ask because I think that is exactly what the book of Ephesians wants us to understand--that truth isn't just in the head--in our speech or our thoughts--but about living and acting in ways that are consistent with what we say and the one in whom we believe.  It turns out that our English translations for this verse struggle to convey what the Greek of the original says, because we don't have a word for what Ephesians says here.  In English, we have the noun "truth," which we use to mean something like "the way things actually are in reality" and the adjective "true," which usually means something like "factually accurate."  We don't have a verb, "to truth," but Greek does.  At least here Ephesians has it.  The phrase here in Ephesians 4 is more literally something like "truthing in love" or I suppose "being true in love"--in other words, it's a verb, an action, a way of living.  

Our English-speaking minds don't usually think of "truth" as something you "do" but rather something you say or think, and so we end up with translations like the NRSV above, "speaking the truth."  And so we end up with interpretations of the verse that go something like, "Well, you have to tell people the facts (that's the "speaking the truth" part), but if they're unpleasant, you find a way to sugar coat them (that's the "in love" part).  And from there we end up with a lot of church folk who equate "speaking the truth in love" with "telling people bad news with a sweet tone of voice." Or, equally popular in our day, sometimes people will use the phrase as justification for something terribly judgmental or harsh to someone else, and then insist that they're saying it "because this is me speaking the truth in love to you..." Sometimes it seems like the popular Christian understanding of the phrase is that genuine "truth" will always upset people, and thus we need to find pleasant ways of upsetting people so we can say it was all done "in love."

But honestly, all of that spiritual sugar-coating and well-intentioned (maybe) busybodying seems to be missing the point when we hear this like it originally hit first century ears.  If the writer to the Ephesians isn't just telling us to find a nice way to condemn others to hell (often done by Respectable Religious People in the name of "speaking the truth in love"), but rather directing us to live truthfully in love--then this passage makes a lot more sense.  It's about being authentic--about actions that line up with our words, and words that line up with the love we've met in Jesus.  It's not permission to be a jerk as long as you do it with a smile; it's about being people of integrity, whose actions and choices align with the way of love.

Look, I know how easy it is for any of us to get up on our personal soapboxes and start railing against whatever is our pet peeve or personal hobbyhorse, and then tell people who are upset by it, "Sorry--I'm just speaking the truth in love."  I know how tempting it is, too, when someone else is upset or hurt by my words, to dig my heels in and assume that I was "only speaking the truth in love" and that, therefore, the other person is just being too sensitive, or doesn't want to be forced to see how wrong they are, or that they don't want to "repent" of what I think they need to repent of.  But maybe this is about something more than giving me a permission to have a persecution complex or buttering people up.  Maybe it's always been about actually doing what I say is important to me.

If we are willing to dare to do the truth, our choices will line up with the words that come of our mouths and the beliefs to which we hold.  "Doing the truth" will root out the hypocrisy Jesus was always calling out the Respectable Religious people of his time for, when they would talk in pious phrases but miss out on doing justice or practicing mercy.  It will mean, too, that we move beyond empty talk (like the language of "thoughts and prayers" thrown around glibly and casually after a disaster, a tragedy, or a shooting) to action that is consistent with what we say we believe.  It will mean we don't just talk about having "godly values" but actually rediscovering how the values we find from Jesus will lead us to associate with all the ones labeled as "sinners" and to share our resources with the empty handed.  It will mean we don't get to just slap a cross on our self-interest and assume whatever we do is blessed by God--we'll keep going back to the shape of Jesus' words and actions to bring us back in line with him.

So maybe the question for this day is something like, "How well do my choices and actions fit with the character of Jesus?" And when we get in the habit of asking that over every hour and every decision, we'll find we are a lot less hyopcritical and becoming a lot more authentic.  We'll find ourselves growing in love that is more than a show.  And maybe then we'll know what it looks like to "do the truth" as a verb, even if we never had the words for it before.

Lord Jesus, align our actions with our words, and align all of it with your love.