Recently, I had a fairly lengthy conversation with someone at church who is struggling in several relationships. In more than one of these relationships, truth had been withheld from her friends because she was trying to avoid conflict. Now the tension was so great that is was literally eroding the foundation of those relationships. I was reminded that Proverbs 12:26 says,
The godly give good advice to their friends; the wicked lead them astray.
Most of us have the tendency to avoid truth telling in our relationships and if you want to do that you can, but don’t complain about your relationships being superficial because that’s exactly what they’ll be without truth. Don’t complain about your marriage being stagnant because that’s exactly what it will be without truth. Don’t complain about the small group being sterile because that’s exactly what it will be without truth.
Community without truth is artificial harmony.
In fact if you’ve surrounded yourself with community that won’t speak truth to you then you don’t really have community as much as you have a gathering of convenient relationships.
On a scale of 1 to 10. How honest is your community?
