Doesn’t the idea of delivering souls sound wonderful? Think for a minute at what it might take for God to use you in this capacity. You would need to be patient, gentle, and kind. However, all of the patience, gentleness, and kindness in the world is not sufficient for the task of delivering souls if truth is not present. You can be sure that honesty without love is just as ineffective as kindness void of truth. Why is it so difficult for us to mingle truth and love? Part of the reason is that many times we are out of practice. We tell ourselves that we are not naturally good at doing that sort of thing. The truth is no one is naturally good at speaking truth in love. Those who become skilled in this are those who have practiced it and failed, yet thought it worthy enough to continue pursuing. The other side of the coin is that we tend to have a fear of man. How would so and so react if I were to be truthful about their error? Who am I to confront someone, I have enough problems of my own. We can come up with many reasons to avoid being truthful, but if we were to remind ourselves that flattery or lying is destructive not only to us, but to the hearer, it may change our perspective. One version of the Bible translates the last half of this verse “a false witness is a traitor”. That is powerful language! What will you be today, a deliverer of souls, or a traitor?