In Ephesians 4:15, God says, paraphrasing, “speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become the mature body of Christ.”
Now, he could have said, “Loving, we will grow to become the mature body.” He could also have said, “speaking the truth, we will grow to become one body.” But he didn’t. He said both. God said it requires both speaking the truth and doing it with love in order to become mature.
I say this because there are many Christians who believe telling people the truth about what’s a sin is the best way to love your neighbor. But if telling the truth was exactly equal to loving, I don’t believe that God would have used both words in Ephesians 4:15. God does nothing without reason. He chose to specify “telling the truth with love” rather than just “telling the truth,” and therefore I believe there must be a distinction.
Scripturally, it must be possible to tell the truth in an unloving way.
What that means for us is simple: we have to be careful how we speak. If you’re telling the truth about sin and the person you’re telling it to doesn’t feel loved, there is room to do better.