Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.
The apostle Paul wrote this letter to the church in Ephesus, a diverse community of early Christians in a major Roman port city. In this section of the letter, Paul is getting very specific about what it means to live as a transformed person — not in abstract spiritual language, but in the daily texture of relationships. His call to "put off falsehood" includes not just outright lies, but the full spectrum of dishonesty: half-truths, careful evasions, and the kind of polite silence that keeps conflict away but also keeps genuine connection out. His reason is strikingly practical: we are all "members of one body," a metaphor for the church as something like a living organism where every person is connected to the others. Deceiving one another, Paul implies, is a form of self-harm — like your left hand hiding something dangerous from your right.
God, I'm more comfortable with convenient silence than I usually want to admit. Grow in me the kind of love that tells the truth — not to score a point, but because I actually care about the people around me. Help me say the true things gently, and the hard things with grace. Amen.
Most people are reasonably good at avoiding obvious lies. You wouldn't fabricate a story to someone's face. But the subtler dishonesty — "I'm fine" when you're quietly falling apart, the feedback you soften until it has no useful edge, the conversation you've needed to have with someone for two years but keep finding reasons to avoid — that's where this verse actually lives. Paul's reasoning is unusually pragmatic for a spiritual letter: you're all connected, so your dishonesty hurts the whole structure. Think about a friendship where both people only say what the other wants to hear. It might feel safer, but something slowly hollows out. The kind of truth Paul is asking for isn't brutal honesty deployed without care — it's truth that actually serves the relationship, spoken because you care about the person and the connection more than you care about your own comfort. That takes more courage than silence usually costs. It also takes more trust.
Paul says to "put off" falsehood like removing old clothing. What kinds of everyday dishonesty are hardest for you to even recognize in yourself — not the obvious lies, but the small evasions and comfortable silences you've normalized?
Think of a relationship in your life where greater honesty would likely strengthen it over time. What specifically is holding you back from having that conversation?
The verse grounds truthfulness in community: "we are all members of one body." Does your motivation for honesty usually come from concern for others, or is it more about your own integrity? What is the real difference in practice?
How do you navigate the tension between honesty and kindness, especially in a moment when the truth has a real chance of hurting someone you genuinely care about?
Is there one specific thing you have been avoiding saying truthfully to someone in your life? What would it take to say it — and what is the very first, smallest step toward that conversation?
But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
Matthew 5:37
But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
Ephesians 4:15
Lie not one to another , seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
Colossians 3:9
He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.
Psalms 15:2
Lying lips are abomination to the LORD: but they that deal truly are his delight.
Proverbs 12:22
Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
Titus 2:12
That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
Ephesians 4:22
So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.
Romans 12:5
Therefore, rejecting all falsehood [whether lying, defrauding, telling half-truths, spreading rumors, any such as these], speak truth each one with his neighbor, for we are all parts of one another [and we are all parts of the body of Christ].
AMP
Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
ESV
Therefore, laying aside falsehood, SPEAK TRUTH EACH ONE [of you] WITH HIS NEIGHBOR, for we are members of one another.
NASB
Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.
NIV
Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another.
NKJV
So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body.
NLT
What this adds up to, then, is this: no more lies, no more pretense. Tell your neighbor the truth. In Christ's body we're all connected to each other, after all. When you lie to others, you end up lying to yourself.
MSG