Paul McKenzie

Memory Verse, Saturday, Oct 31, Ephesians 4:25

"Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another."

Isn't that interesting? The first habit given to "put on" by one who puts on the "new self" is putting away falsehood and speaking truth to one another. And this is doable for a believer, because they serve He who embodies the truth:

"Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Set your affections on Him, and you will walk in the truth.

In the small letter of 2 John, we hear this: "The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth, because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever" (1-2).

And godly truth is inextricably linked with godly love: "I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father. And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it" (4-6).

You've heard the word "true love" bantered around by the world. I've heard dumb stuff like "True love means never having to say you're sorry", or tolerating sin out of "love", or "unconditional love", meaning you bail out the irresponsibility of unruly loved ones, putting yourself in the same hole they've dug for themselves.

Love without Truth is an empty love, just as truth without love can turn into a legalistic nightmare, and remove one from a living relationship with their heavenly Father to a life of dead works, and an excuse to neglect others for the sake of "truth".

Allowing deception in the name of "love" is the absolute worst thing you can do for someone. John was so concerned that he wrote in the same little letter: "Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works" (9-11).

Yikes! Right after all of that nice stuff on love? But love without truth puts one in all sorts of trouble: "For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist" (7).

As we close, we are reminded of what Paul wrote just before putting on "the new self": "So that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ" (Ephesians 4:14-15).

And the proving ground God has given us is in the church, working with each other, loving each other, speaking truth to one another, so we may grow into mature believers whose headship is Christ. Not just a dead book of rules, but a living, functioning body of believers whose affections are set on things above, not on things on the earth (Colossians 3).

For if we tolerate evil, we are not being honest. We tell the truth, and live in the love of God, loving one another in Spirit and in truth.

Today if you hear His voice, harden not your heart.

Memory Helps

"Therefore, (1 word)
having PUT AWAY FALSEHOOD, (4)
let each one of you (5)
SPEAK THE TRUTH (3)

with his NEIGHBOR, (3)
for we are MEMBERS (4)
ONE OF ANOTHER." (3)

I split this verse like this just to help me first remember the section of "falsehood/truth", and then concentrate of the similarity of "neighbor/members/one of another".

Word actions often help. I replace "falsehood" with "fingers crossed" in the back of me. I may point to my "tooth" for "truth", because it rhymes. I think you get it.

Also, it helps me sometimes to see the word counts: Section A: 1453, and B: 343. These are just little helps I use that hopefully can help you. It helps me focus. If you need to link verse numbers to the contents, I do that on my website because it can get tedious to write, but easy to picture.

Linking verse numbers:

My friend "Niel" is my "memory character" for verses 25, so I include him in all of my verse 25 word pictures (N=2, L=5, vowels fillers in the phonetic alphabet I use). I may have him flipping a "quarter" to also emphasize 25.

Well, he is going to act this out on stage, and he walks through an "F-Door" to get there. "F" stands for the "EPH" of Eph-esians, and Door rhymes with Four, so when adding my friend Niel I have "Ephesians 4:25 to link to the "act".