We read in Proverbs 27:6, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.” This sounds great, but is difficult to practice in reality. A true friend cares more for you and will risk hurting you for your good. But most prefer to surround themselves with “yes” men and women. By agreeing with everything you stand for and are doing, they will naturally like you more. We read in Ephesians 4:15, “but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head - Christ-“.

We read in 1 Kings of two different groups of prophets. The first group simply agreed with King Ahab which we read in 22:6-7, “Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, “Shall I go against Ramoth Gilead to fight, or shall I refrain?” So they said, “Go up, for the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king.” The king of Judah, recognized the false prophets for who they were and we read in 22:7, “And Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not still a prophet of the Lord here, that we may inquire of Him?” We see Ahab’s response in 22:8, “...There is still one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord; but I hate him, because he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil.” We see the interaction as Micaiah is summoned in 22:13-14, “Then the messenger who had gone to call Micaiah spoke to him saying, “Now listen, the words of the prophets with one accord encourage the king. Please, let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak encouragement.” And Micaiah said, “As the Lord lives, whatever the Lord says to me, that I will speak.”

Many mistakenly believe that the role of the prophet was to speak about future events only. Their purpose was to speak forth the Word of God as was given them directly by God. We should never forget who we are, those called according to Christ, as we read in 1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;”. This means we should not waste our position by arguing over ungodly issues in sports, politics, etc. We should be His light in a very dark world. We should be straightforward speaking forth the Word of God as clearly presented in the Bible without wavering. If we truly love others, we know this is what they need, and we also know they will not hear it from most others. We should be concerned for their eternal souls. If speaking forth the truth of God’s Word means their choosing to distance themselves, then we are in good company as witnessed by so many true Christians who went before us. May we truly show our love for those in our mission field by speaking the truth in love.