Avoiding conflict can feel like keeping peace — but it often costs more than it saves. These verses are for finding the courage to engage.
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“But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.”
Ephesians 4:15 (KJV)
“Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.”
Matthew 18:15 (KJV)“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
2 Timothy 1:7 (KJV)Ephesians 4:15 gives you the two rails to hold at once — truth and love, not one without the other. Speaking truth without love wounds. Loving without truth enables. But the verse doesn't say you have to choose: it says speak truth in love, and it's that combination that leads to growth. Matthew 18:15 makes the instruction even more concrete: go, directly, between you and them alone. Conflict engaged wisely is not the opposite of peace. It's often the path to it.