If we are not speaking the truth in love, we need to stop what we are doing and disengage our voice from the conversation. To continue on with an agenda other than the sound of love, we will end up doing more harm than good, all in the name of God. 

Paul wrote the Ephesians and said the evidence a person has been matured under the influence of the five equipping gifts – apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher – is their ability to speak the truth in love, not parrot a political party line or allow their voice to be molded by fear in conversations around the latest hot-button cultural issue. 

A follower of Christ is not left, right or center on the political spectrum or the issues of culture. We are from above. Our citizenship is in Heaven and so is the source of our information. Our passport to walk the Earth has been issued from above – above petty and demeaning arguments and mocking statements and a never-ending series of gotcha pictures or statements taken out of context to prove our point. We are diplomats of another Kingdom. The solutions we bring to the table are not yet on the table. They are Kingdom solutions to complex issues that only love can solve. 

Today, recheck your spiritual passport. Confirm your identity and your place of allegiance. Those from above will not always align with the demands of a religious or political spirit. Every alignment must be examined by love. This love may cause us to step away from the line of an assumed position to go and stand in places of opposition where our loyalty to the party line will be questioned. Speaking the truth in love is dangerous. It was so dangerous it got Jesus killed and most of His early followers. This happened while the Church was in its purest form and nearest to its source of Life.