Perhaps we will realize why we put such an emphasis on the truth as we have in the past as we move forward. The world serves the lie 1st in denying God and putting themselves over their neighbor. But the lie is also found in the church and James says this ought NOT to be. It is because we are still in the flesh, but we are called to control our members and God knows we need to be warned in this regard. We must love the TRUTH, confess it, speak it, and control the little member that is able to cause great and destructive disaster.

This is a gift. We are distinguished from creation in that we are able to fellowship and communicate with each other. But more than that we can communicate with the Living God! Imagine this very fact once. We are able to do this with that little member in order to have fellowship with Him and to serve Him! We can speak and make confession in our office of all believers. It is a beautiful thing by creation, but what went wrong? In the fall in the garden God's gifts were turned into the opposite and it now is full of the lie and "man sets himself against the heavens enslaved to the lie." The lie runs rampant in the world and you and I both are called to task here!

We too have a problem with the lie and controlling our tongue with the flesh coming to the fore. This Lord's day explains in practicalities these various problems with the flesh. Back biting, slander, condemning a man, falsifying or resting a man's words, and the list goes on and on. It now gives us much to talk about in regards to ourselves! Actions and gestures that speak falsely, slander and back biting the neighbor even though they may be very true things and we say them in a nice way even while the damage is done. And these things we find in the church even and we all stand condemned! We are called to subject our member to the new man in Christ as it is fitting of our office. We often too judge rashly not knowing, never having talked about or to the person, or speak of another while we have not even heard from them. How can we be "tapped" into Christ yet have the lie in our mouths? It CANNOT be beloved except for the flesh. And our words MUST be fact and be reality! We must walk in truth, speak it, seek it, and here is the "kicker" we must speak the truth IN LOVE! It needs to be the truth of God concerning God, the neighbor, redemption, EVERYTHING! We live in a world of palaginism that does NOT believe in total depravity and we are called to speak the truth in love in EVERYTHING we say! We even speak for the neighbor in building him up and edifying! Before we speak we must ask ourselves if it shows God's love or is it for or reflect our own motivation?! Then we will speak or we will not speak and hold back. Speak the truth and speak it in love! We must honor, promote, and defend our neighbor. Defense only comes when we are assaulted and we must defend each other with the TRUTH! Honor one another. If we do not honor one another we will not speak nicely about each other.