by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
Paul had no desire to be the enemy of anyone. He had every right to expect that people should and must appreciate truth, even if it hurts at first. The truth teller is telling the truth because that is what love demands.<\/p>\n
Love demands that people help people get out of error by recognizing it and then choosing to disavow it. Truth is the way to freedom from error and condemnation (John 8:30,31). The truth sets you free from ignorance and darkness. But Paul had to ask some brethren, “Have I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?<\/em>” (Galatians 4:16).<\/p>\n Jesus had enemies, not because He sought them, but because people become comfortable in error and darkness and feel uncomfortable when the light exposes the darkness (John 3:17-21).<\/p>\n People should appreciate and love the truth-teller, but they rarely do. So, unfortunately, you have to expect that sometimes even brethren will make you their enemy because you tell the truth they do not like to hear. Like Jesus and Paul, you cannot please everyone!<\/p>\n If you are trying to please everyone, you could not be a servant of Christ (Galatians 1:10). You have to remember to teach the truth, let your purpose be only to please God, and let the people decide if they are going to love you for standing for God’s word or hate you for it. Love them enough to tell the truth of God’s word regardless of how they decide to respond to it.<\/p>\n God will judge how they respond to His truth and how they treat His truth-tellers. Be sure you are a truth-teller and that you have a love of God and His truth. Teach the truth in love.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Terry Wane Benton Paul had no desire to be the enemy of anyone. He had every right to expect that people should and must appreciate truth, even if it hurts at first. The truth teller is telling the truth because that is what love demands. Love demands that people help people get out of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[527,441],"class_list":["post-91062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-honesty","tag-truth"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":64278,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/am-i-become-your-enemy\/","url_meta":{"origin":91062,"position":0},"title":"Am I Become Your Enemy?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 28, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Robert F. Turner Paul had done some straight talking to the Galatian churches. He had said, \"I am afraid of (for) you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain\" (Galatians 4:11). Then, in Galatians 4:16, \"Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45699,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/lies-people-protect\/","url_meta":{"origin":91062,"position":1},"title":"Lies People Protect","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 25, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton In the first century, Paul exposed the lies people were telling each other. It was that an animal is a god to be worshiped (Romans1:18-26) and that such gods allow us to make up our moral standards as we desire. Thus, one lie protected all kinds\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":83213,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/love-of-the-truth\/","url_meta":{"origin":91062,"position":2},"title":"Love of the Truth","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 14, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Everyone does not want to hear God's word. Jesus lets each person determine their destiny and therefore lets each person pick his own interest in truth or error. He did not waste time \"casting pearls before swine\" (Matt.7:6). When a person reveals that they have no\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40367,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-paul-have-been-embarrassed\/","url_meta":{"origin":91062,"position":3},"title":"Should Paul Have Been Embarrassed?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 22, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry W. Benton Matthew wrote a book that aired the \"dirty laundry\", so to speak, of his Jewish nation, just as the earlier prophets had done before, only now it was worse because God's great \"blessing to all nations\" was now being rejected as a \"troubler\" in Israel. Matthew\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":84565,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/your-preaching-is-offensive-to-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":91062,"position":4},"title":"Your Preaching Is Offensive to Me","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 14, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Tom M. Roberts via Truth Magazine, Vol 43, 1999 \"Then His disciples came and said to Him, 'Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?'\" (Matthew 15:12). The history of speaking \"the oracles of God\" (I Peter 4:11) is a history of controversy. There\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89786,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/truth-and-love\/","url_meta":{"origin":91062,"position":5},"title":"Truth and Love","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 27, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Truth and love are not at odds. Both are needed simultaneously. Truth without love can be unkind, cold, and heartless. Love without truth will be arbitrary, compromising reality, and without standards. However, together, united, truth and love will be purposeful, compassionate, and committed to what is best\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91062\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}