Prov. 27
“Whoever blesses his neighbor with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, will be counted as cursing” (Prov. 27:14). An interesting verse to me, and I can see two applications of it for myself. First, good intentions are fine, but it is important to consider timing and delivery. A loud, hearty blessing might be fine at a more appropriate hour. Likewise, an early morning blessing would likely be better if delivered in a soft and quiet manner. If I truly wish to bless someone, I need to be considerate to them in doing so. Otherwise, it might not be a blessing.
Second, if I happen to be the one on the receiving end of this raucous, early morning “blessing”, it might do me well to consider the intention, rather than how it came across, before I react to it. That being said, one could, and maybe should, question the sincerity of a person who calls themselves “blessing” someone in such an inconsiderate way. Who is that supposed blessing really intended to benefit?
“As in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects the man” (Prov. 27: 29). It’s true – we cannot hide who we really are for long. Our hearts will give us away eventually. As with my last comment on the verse above, a person’s sincerity often reveals itself in their actions. Look at the Pharisees and other religious leaders in Jesus’ time. They acted all high and holy, but their hearts were blatantly revealed in the way they treated those around them. Good actions do not make a good man.
Jesus also pointed out in Matthew 15:18 that what comes out of our mouth comes from our heart. So those times when we say what we really think and feel are the times we need to examine ourselves. What is it our hearts are reflecting in those moments? If we have truly and fully given our hearts to Jesus and the Holy Spirit dwells in us, then our words and actions, even when nobody else is around, should reflect not our old selves, but Christ.
Prov. 28-29
Solomon was right when he said in Ecclesiastes that there is nothing new under the sun. The heart of man has been corrupt from the beginning, and it shows in every time and culture. The truth of two verses in particular is evident to me everywhere right now.
“Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law strive against them” (Proverbs 28:4). When the highest officials in the land are praising and encouraging a small sector of society as they engage in lawlessness and destruction, while they arrest those who peacefully stand up to the nonsense, something is very wrong. And, “If a wise man has an argument with a fool, the fool only rages and laughs, and there is no quiet” (Proverbs 29:9). When you see people calmly trying to engage others in rational conversation about Truth and all they get for their efforts is scoffed, yelled at, cursed, and even assaulted, something is very wrong.
Yet these are behaviors that wise Solomon, so many thousand years ago, saw in his time and culture as well. Good will fight evil until the last day. But on that day, no matter how much or how often it seems that evil is prevailing, Good will win. So let’s not focus on the evil, but on our God and on standing firm in His Truth regardless of the situation. Let us be the ones who strive with wickedness, because it doesn’t dwell in us. And let us be the ones who calmly speak the Truth to any who might hear, even if faced with ranting and raving fools. Let us be steadfast in our commitment to our God in every aspect of our lives.
Acts 5:1-21
Ananias and Sapphira – it is easy to think that God struck them down because they didn’t give all of the profits from the sale of their land to the Church. But that wasn’t the case at all. If you really read the story carefully, you will see that their sin was in trying to make the Church believe that they were giving the entire profit amount even though they kept some of it for themselves. Peter pointed out that their land, and the proceeds after its sale, belonged to them and were at their disposal. They were completely free to keep or give as much or as little of that profit as they chose. Why, then, the charade of generosity?
This comes back again to attitudes over actions; the motives behind the deed. Maybe they were merely putting on a show to look good to others. Or perhaps they were afraid of the potential criticism of others. Either way, their primary concern was not in being generous or in following God’s tug on their hearts, whatever that might have been. It is impossible to say whether they were keeping some money back to meet a need or because of greed or because God was speaking to their hearts to hold back that part. And part of the point is that it doesn’t matter. It is not for us to judge the motives behind someone’s honest actions.
But because Ananias and Sapphira both pretended that they gave it all, their actions were not honest. They were posturing, and in lying to the Church, they were being dishonest with God. Honestly, I don’t even think it would have mattered if they had sold their land, kept all the profit, and lied about how much they made on the sale. It was the posturing, the feigned generosity, the acting out of some self-serving motive while trying to make it look like a Godly deed, that caused the problem.
That could get me started on a whole rant about any number of non-profit type entities that hide behind “good” causes – be it suffering animals, or abused women, or disabled children, or even good stewardship of the planet – for selfish, personal gain. But I will stop at noting the correlation. God hates it when we attribute His works to the Devil or the Devil’s works to Him. Go and study Jesus’ interactions with the Pharisees to confirm that point.