Need of Speaking the Truth
W. Graham, D. D. Ephesians 4:25 Why putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another. The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, is one of the best characteristics of the Christian conversation. The reason is, "For we are members one of another" — that is, we all belong to the same body of Christ — to the same human family — to the same universe of God, and the life that pervades it all is truth, the circulating medium in the celestial corporation. In speaking lies you vitiate the blood by the infusion of a foreign, poisonous element, and, as it flows through the whole, it will weaken the whole. A hint, an innuendo, uttered in the privacy of the tea-table, may ruin the character at the distance of thousands of miles. We are wonderfully knit together in the wide-spreading, entangled, many-coloured web work of humanity; and the great bond of union is the TRUTH, is the TRUE ONE, in whom, as a centre, all that is truthful, and beautiful, and serene, find their resting place and their home! (W. Graham, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. WEB: Therefore, putting away falsehood, speak truth each one with his neighbor. For we are members of one another.