I want to talk to you about Ephesians 4:15, which is all about speaking the truth in love to someone you are developing. If you’re speaking no truth and no love, you are an antagonist. You are not a developer.
If you’re speaking no truth but speaking love, you are not a developer. You are an enabler. You are only enabling that person to continue in some of the bad habits they may have. You may have a great relationship, but your job is not to be their best friend. Your job is to develop them.
If you are bringing the truth but not speaking love, you are a critic. Without that empathy, it’s very unlikely the person you are trying to develop is able to receive critique and take that feedback then change their behavior to a new place in their leadership.
The sweet spot is speaking a balance of truth and love to someone. In that case, you are a developer and helping that person develop. It’s a balanced approach. You may not be their best friend and you’re not their worst critic, but you are focused and concentrated on doing a balanced work to develop that person into who God has created them to be.
Now that you have this framework for speaking the truth in love, what are you going to do about it?
