Our church is preaching through a sermon series on the One Another commands of the New Testament. This post is adapted from a message in that series.
If I were to ask who is the most honest figure in American history, many people might point to President George Washington. And if I were to press them as to why they think that, they would likely point to the legend of the cherry tree.
If you’re not familiar with the story, a young George Washington supposedly got a new hatchet for a gift. So he set out doing what any young boy would do when you give him a new hatchet – he went around and chopped some stuff up, including his father’s cherry tree.
When his father found out, he was angry. So young George went to his father and said, “I cannot tell a lie. It was I who cut down the cherry tree.”
The story goes that Washington’s father was so moved by his son’s honesty, that he said, “Your honesty is worth a 1,000 trees.”
Even though that story is just a myth, it serves as a good reminder for us in the church today about how our Heavenly Father loves the honesty of His children.
Our God of Truth
God is a God of truth who longs to see His people cultivate hearts of honesty (Exodus 20:16; Leviticus 19:11; Proverbs 6:16-19, 12:22, 14:15; Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18, and many others). God longs to see us be honest before Him, honest with ourselves, and honest with each other. In Jesus, we find the source of all truth (John 1:17; John 14:6). Therefore, the truth of Jesus (the saving, redemptive power of the gospel) should transform us into truthful people.
God wants us to be people who value honesty. One of the ways God calls us to do this within the church is by speaking the truth to one another. Ephesians 4:25 says, “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.”
3 Good Things
As we obey this command of speaking truth to one another, it produces three good, transformative things within us.
Renews Our Minds
First, speaking the truth to one another serves to renew our minds.
I think this is true of every act of obedience to Jesus. Ephesians 4:23 calls us to be “renewed in the spirit of your minds.” The Apostle Paul described people living apart from Jesus as living in the “futility of their minds.” In other words, their thinking was unable to produce anything good because all their thoughts would just lead them toward sin, self-promotion, and sinful desires.
But when our faith is in Christ, our hearts are regenerated so that our minds can now be renewed. We can now begin to think differently about ourselves, our relationships, and the world around us. So speaking truth to one another feeds that renewal of our minds. When we place our faith in Jesus, we now have the power to tell the truth, but we still have the ability to lie. That hasn’t been purged from our lives yet. So the more we are able to be honest with one another in love, the more we kill that old self and kill the temptation to give into lying and deceit.
For example, if you’re trying to lose weight, but every morning you get up and have 4 or 5 cream-filled chocolate donuts for breakfast, you’re completely working against your goal of losing weight. But each morning that you deny that temptation of the donuts and have something else for breakfast instead, it gets easier and easier to make that healthy choice in your mind.
And it’s the same with renewing our minds to tell the truth. The more you routinely make God-honoring small decisions over a long period of time, the more your mind is renewed for the glory of God. As you persevere in that obedience, God continually renews your mind away from sin. When you fail, you acknowledge it and confess it, ask God and other people for forgiveness and you start again. That’s what living within God’s grace looks like. You can start again each time you fail.
Forms Us To Jesus
A second good thing that’s produced in us as we increasingly speak the truth to one another is that we are increasingly conformed to the likeness of Jesus.
Ephesians 4:24 says “to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” The more consistently we do this, the more the image of God in us that was distorted because of the fall is restored. We become more and more like Christ.
Strengthens Unity
A third good thing that is produced in us by speaking truth to one another is unity. Paul writes in Ephesians 4:25 that we should speak the truth to one another is “because we are members one of another.”
Paul repeatedly illustrates the church as a human body. Each person who has placed their faith in Jesus is like a body part. They are one part but also part of a larger whole. So since we are all part of one body together, speaking the truth to one another strengthens the unity of the body.
Lying or deceiving each other therefore weakens the body. Speaking the truth to each other fosters unity among us. Lying and trying to deceive one another only pulls us apart from each other. It destroys trust. And without trust you destroy relationships. So speaking the truth strengthens our body by strengthening unity. It pulls us together instead of pulling us apart.
So speaking truth to one another renews our minds, forms us to Jesus, and strengthens our unity as the church.
Our Heavenly Father Loves Our Honesty
Just like George Washington’s father allegedly telling him that, “his honesty was worth 1,000 trees,” the great thing is we have a heavenly Father who loves the honesty of His children. And that’s not a myth or legend. That’s the truth.
God calls us to speak the truth to one another because doing so reflects His faithful, truthful character to the world. God cares that we live truthful lives because it reflects Him as the source of all truth.
We need to remember that the gospel frees us from living false lives. The truth of Jesus should transform us into truthful people. So we can let go of every falsehood. We can instead love each other well by speaking the truth to one another.
A Thrill of Hope 