Lesson7-Day 3 Healthy Churches Speak TheTruth in Love

Although the title says "Speak The Truth in Love", which I am not disagreeing with, I want to maybe take it to a another level. Do we understand this love? In the lesson for today it is stated that "too often our churches become like big dysfunctional families. Instead of handling difficult issues directly, honestly and graciously, too often we avoid conflict by stuffing our feelings and then allowing them to leak out in the form of gossip, backbitting or inappropriate expressions of anger.

I am currently reading a book called "Crisis of Caring" by Jerry Bridges. Mr. Bridges gives a very good alleglory on this. First, we must realize that we are all one body. Romans 12:5 says: "so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others." And 1 Corinthians 12:13 says: "For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body. . ."

With the one body in mind here is the alleglory. Imagine the ear saying to the eye, "can you believe what that foot did last night. Kicking the bedpost (stubbing toe) in the darkness all because the blander needed to be relieved. I cannot believe he was so angry at the bladder that he would actually do something like that."

This just does not happen in our body. Rather all parts of the body ache or feel the ache or look at the ache of the stubbed toe. The whole body rallies to the toe/foot. There is no slander or distancing themselves from the occurance. It is not minimized or ignored.

The body of Christ needs this kind of truthful love.