As we continue our lessons from the Apostle Paul focus, today we turn to speaking the truth. We live in an era where many believe truth is relative. The Apostle Paul had encountered Jesus Christ in a vision and new the truth of who Jesus was. While we may debate whether that encounter really happened, for Paul it changed everything. His prior reality was Jewish teaching was true, and Jesus was a pretender. He was not the Messiah, the long-awaited deliverer of Israel, and the church was not a sect of Judaism, but a heresy that needed to be eliminated. After his meeting with Jesus, Paul became an all-in believer. He devoted the remainder of his life to teaching the truth that salvation comes through no one else, but Jesus Christ.
During his final conversation with the Ephesian church leaders, Paul made this powerful statement: 26Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, 27for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Acts 20:26-27 (ESV) What Paul was saying was if anyone failed to trust Jesus as Savior and Lord, and ended up eternally dead, he was not responsible, because he had spoken the whole truth to them about God. Speaking the truth as leaders is an absolute essential to our being and becoming great leaders. All meaningful leadership is built on the foundation of truth.
While our focus may not be promoting the cause of Jesus Christ, whatever our area of leadership may be there is a body of truth that is necessary for success. In business, for example, telling the truth may cost a company sales in the short run, but over time, when a customer knows he or she can trust your word, the long-term benefit is tremendous. I am not naive enough to assume that every successful company tells the truth. I am aware enough to know Mark Twain was right when he said, “If you tell the truth you can have a short memory.” In other words, if you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember what you said, because you don’t have to remember the first lie you told, so you can back it up with another lie.
In business, by being straight-forwardly truthful with a customer or a supplier from the beginning, we lay a foundation for the future that allows them to say, “I know I can depend on what I heard. A deadline is just that. If they say it will be ready on Thursday, it will be Thursday or before, or they will let us know why it wasn’t.” Certainly, many companies have prospered in the short-run by cutting corners, and by telling outright lies. Others have prospered over time, but as leaders we all sleep better at night when we know we have said and done our best to be truthful.
It’s interesting that even though we live in a culture that holds less and less esteem for the truth, the truth-tellers, who are humbly so, still hold far greater credibility than those who espouse the idea that truth doesn’t matter. As leaders, nothing is more important to us over time than our character. Integrity, which literally means that our lives are integrated in the sense of consistency with ourselves requires truth as its foundation. Being that I am a pastor, the foundation of truth is even more important in my life, because I hold there is truth and falsehood, that truth results in goodness over time, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
So, how are you doing at speaking the truth consistently? Even more basic than that, do you hold truth as a value to be lifted up, valued and lived out in your dealings with people? If the leaders don’t value truth and champion it, the organization won’t either. The Apostle Paul looked the Ephesian leaders in their eyes and reminded them he had always spoken the truth. He didn’t “shrink back” from it. That’s a tough position to hold in our world today, but it has never been an easy position to hold. As you consider your responses to these questions, how are you going to make certain you lift truth to its proper place in your leadership? Who will hold you accountable? That last question may be one for another post, but the legacy we leave as leaders will start with what we did and do with the truth.
Here’s to leading better, by speaking the truth–today, and always!