09/25/2026
Truth and compassion cannot be separated from one another. Some people say “I’m walking in the truth” but they are rude to their brothers, they browbeat with Scriptures. And they do it in the name of truth. But a key component of walking in the truth is also being compassionate to one another. When Jesus healed the sick, the Bible says He did it because of compassion (Matthew 14:14). Jesus was walking in the truth, and He did it in compassion.
Many people including myself have gotten confused and they think that being rude is acceptable because you are “speaking the truth”. And I have cited and they will cite Scriptures like how Jesus flipped tables and even called people names. But the vast majority of those examples was Jesus correcting people who were not genuinely following God and only pretended.
When Jesus flipped the tables, He did it because money changers were using the safety of the Temple to steal from the people and the rulers allowed it. The very people charged by God to protect the flock of Israel were protecting thieves instead and were corrupt to the very core. These Pharisees didn’t just “make a mistake”. This was a repeated choice over the course of years and it wasn’t something they were “struggling” with like some genuine Christians who are struggling with sin. No this was blatant, and they weren’t trying to get free.
How did Jesus often respond to those who weren’t those religious leaders? With kindness and compassion. He would tell them to go and sin no more, but He didn’t do it in a way that belittled people because “He was speaking the truth brother”. The adulteress woman in John is the greatest example of this. A woman was caught in the very act of adultery. Jesus had every right to hammer her with the truth. But He didn’t do it that way. He was kind towards her. He said that He didn’t condemn her. When I read that story, I don’t read it in the sense that He is saying “why are you living this way huh? You know it’s wrong to live this way”. He could have treated her like that but He didn’t.
So, using “Jesus flipped tables” as an excuse to treat people badly because you are “speaking the truth” is taking that whole situation out of context.
1 Corinthians 13 puts a nail in the coffin of the idea that you can behave rudely while speaking the truth.
Does this mean that we can’t ever speak firmly to people? Absolutely not. Jesus spoke firmly to His disciples several times. But He didn’t belittle them either. Sometimes you do need to speak strongly at times. The other day I got threatened, and when that happened I told them “You aren’t going to intimidate me, do I need to call the police?” Sometimes you do still need to speak strongly, but we need the discernment of when the right time to do that is.
If you are speaking roughly as a rule rather than at certain times, something is probably off.
Colossians 4:6 says that our speech should be with grace, seasoned with salt. The salt in this verse is the truth. We’ve made what is supposed to be a seasoning, the main meal. You can’t survive on just salt, you need a full meal. If you are talking rudely to people in the name of truth, it many times doesn’t impart grace to the hearers. It doesn’t mean, God can’t use it to help people, but I believe we limit our witness if we never talk to people with grace.
I encourage everyone to ask the Lord today, “in what areas am I being rude to people. I say I’m walking in truth, but is there any area where I haven’t been tempered with grace?”
