2005-03-07 - Truthfulness

Marriage & Sexuality, Part 3

Ephesians 4:25, "Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth, each one of you, with his neighbor, for we are members of one another."

I want to thank you for all your responses to the devotionals I have been doing on relationships. I am continuing to teach my class, and I want to share with you what we talked about on Wednesday of last week. I do lecture, but a lot of the people in my class have a lot of relationship experience in relationships, so often I function as a facilitator instead of a lecturer. We only have two weeks left, so if you don't like these devos on relationships, I will be changing format soon.

I want to tell you a little about my class. I only have 11 students, which is a perfect size. Nine women, two men. Both men are married. Of the women, I have one that is a professing Christian (she got divorced during the first week of our class), one is a lesbian living with her partner, three are bisexual, three are unmarried and living with the fathers of their children. Can you tell how important a class on marriage and sexuality is for these folks? This is what is going on in our cities, and I teach at a city college. We need to remember to pray for our leaders and for our nation, and for that matter, we need to pray that the Lord would send revival to this nation. The last national revival was in 1858, with the NYC prayer meeting revival, which spread throughout the nation. And while we have had local revivals since, there have been no national revivals since then.

I also want to tell you what I am offering my class. I did this when I taught theology at St. Joseph's University a few years ago. I am offering a one-grade bump up for anyone who will attend church with me next Sunday. They need to hear the gospel. They get it in class, but as a professor, I am an authority figure, so I never know what they are really hearing. I want them to see the word of God preached. I don't even care if I lose my job and never teach at this school again. The worth of one soul is worth more than any job I ever had or ever will have. If they bring someone with them, they get a two-grade bump up. Several of them need this, because I test hard, and some are not doing well. My prayer, and I hope your prayer, will be that they attend.

I know I have been long-winded here; please forgive me. I want to take a moment and mention how important truthfulness is in a relationship. Truthfulness hides nothing. It says the truth as accurately as possibly. It is hard to be truthful, because being truthful does not neglect important things. Especially in a significant relationship, it means being honest. It means being honest with how our day went, our feelings, our concerns, our desires, our hopes, and our dreams. It means sharing with the other person in our life. This can be a marriage or any other significant relationship.

Truthfulness means we need to consider what we say. When we say, "I'm just giving you the facts," we may not be being truthful. We may be seeking to hurt the person, and that is not being truthful. Being truthful is showing love to the other. Hurting them is not truthfulness. As I said, this takes work. If your motive is to hurt the one you love by what you say, then I have two words for you...Shut Up! Take a moment, sit down, examine your motives, and make sure that what you say is in the best interests of the other person. This is part of being in a relationship. It takes effort, care, and concern for the other person in the relationship.

Is this not how Christ treated us? We are told in Philppians 2:5-8, "Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." This is our example, Jesus Christ. We are to seek to love as Christ has loved us. This is part of being truthful. We love as we have been loved.

Soli Deo Gloria,
T-

tim@cfdevotionals.org
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