LISTEN ONLINEA ride-sharing customer shared that he had endured a driver eating the world’s smelliest fruit, another driver who was bickering with a girlfriend, and one who tried to get him to invest money in a Ponzi scheme. In each case, instead of a poor rating, he gave the drivers five stars. He explained, “They all seemed like nice people. I didn’t want them to be kicked off the app over my bad rating.” He gave false reviews—keeping the truth from the drivers . . . and others.
For different reasons, we might withhold the truth from others. But the apostle Paul encouraged the Ephesian believers to lovingly speak the truth to one another as new creatures in Christ. This required cultivating habits of “righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24)—living lives that were set apart for Him and that reflected His ways. They were to replace lying with telling one another the truth because lies divide and disrupt while truth unites us as believers. He wrote, “Each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbour, for we are all members of one body” (v. 25).
Jesus empowers us with the courage to resist lying and giving one another “fake ratings”—things that can disrupt our unity with other believers. Living a life of love, as He guides us, will lead to our sharing “kind and compassionate” expressions of truth (v. 32).