Watchword
(Acts 7.55-60; 1 Peter 2.2-10; John 14.1-14)
O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. Psalm 104.24
You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power. Revelation 4.11
Proverbs 26: 20, 21, 22
For lack of wood the fire goes out,
And where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases.
As charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire
So is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife.
The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels;
They go down into the inner parts of the body.
The first thing in responding to this proverb is to hate strife and the drama that it unleashes. And that hatred is all too uncommon. Do you want to hear something surprising? There is something inside of us that enjoys the sparks of controversy. We easily nurse grudges, dredge up old offenses, pounce on the new gossip. Why? Are we bored? Stupid to goodness? Competing? In what game?
We’ve heard before Paul’s insistence that jealousies, slander, and rivalries are markers in the terrain before we come upon Christ. And James goes further in claiming that the sophistication that breeds this chaotic (but remember, exciting!) living is a demonic wisdom. So, even though every once a while our Christianity will require us to enter some strife, don’t develop a taste for the battle. If for no other reason, hate strife for its inefficiency!
But whence the sparks that inflame these passions? Put our finger of those and then avoid them and maybe we can find some calm. Our series of proverbs give the answer to that question as 1) secret words, 2) a particular kind of personality, and 3) even a weird yet universally held appetite for gossip are the things that produce strife and drama.
Let me just say one thing that responds to all three of these nasty sparks: We must find something to do, something that holds our attention, other than gossip. There is an immature Christ-following that is bored or restless or aggressive - constantly monitoring one’s own position against another: “Teacher, we saw someone…and tried to stop him.”
NO! Quit looking around. Serve God! Do something! Produce! And in your doings look neither to the right hand or the left.
Bible Reading: Romans 11:17,18
Think how unusual it is that you, of all people, would be joined to Christ! That’s what Paul is saying. Don’t become cocksure. We “do not support the root, as though Jesus Christ were now the private possession of Gentile Christians. He, Israel’s Messiah according to the flesh, supports them.” (Wright, 685)
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