Ephesians 5:15-25

God has given us as human beings an incredible capacity to communicate–not only sophisticated languages but also facial expressions, gestures, imagery, and music. With a tremendous capacity to communicate comes a tremendous responsibility, and that’s what the 9th commandment addresses. Most plainly it requires that we avoid deceit and speak the truth, but more so, it requires that we are trustworthy in all our communication (and there are lots of ways to violate trust without speaking a word of a lie (e.g. gossip)). In Ephesians 4, Paul identifies trustworthy communication as an essential attribute of our new selves in Christ (see v. 15, 25, 29, 31). The reason trustworthy communication matters so much to God is because it’s a distinguishing attribute between himself (the truth) and the devil (the father of lies). The devil is a slanderer and accuser who wishes to destroy us with his words. In Christ, God proves both how true he is to his promises, and the depths of his willingness to silence the devil’s slander against us.