“Love prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends.” Proverbs 17: 9
Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, is telling us in this verse that we must be willing to disregard the faults of others. Talk about something being easier said than done… forgive AND forget! So that means not throwing a past offense or hurt back in someone’s face. Forgiving faults is necessary in any relationship. I struggle with this, and if you’re being honest, so do you. When we’re in the middle of an argument is when the temptation comes to bring up all the mistakes the other person has made. However, Love keeps its mouth shut—as hard as that may be. Here’s some good advice… Try never to bring anything into an argument that is unrelated to the topic that is being discussed. Forgiveness is an act worthy of praise! It imitates God. We as believers have the promise of the Holy Spirit. The Bible says we are ‘stamped and sealed’ by the Holy Spirit proving that we are children of God. Ask for His help when we find ourselves in the middle of an argument.
“If you repay good with evil, evil will never leave your house.” Proverbs 17: 13
Wow—this verse couldn’t be any clearer. The New Testament teaches us to go beyond this, even to return good for evil… “Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.” Romans 12: 17, 21
These verses in Romans, summarize the core of Christian Living. Grace is undeserved… but if we experience the grace of God, it’s natural to want to pass it along to others. Remember when Jesus said by giving a cold drink to the least of our brothers? By giving our brother or sister a drink, we aren’t excusing their misdeeds. We’re recognizing, forgiving, and loving him/her in spite of their sins—just as Christ did for us.
“It is senseless to pay tuition to educate a fool, since he has no heart for learning.” Proverbs 17: 16
Wisdom cannot be bought; you must internalize it. This verse makes me flashback to when I was a Girl Scout… for a very short time, I might add. It was a very short time because I discovered I couldn’t just buy the badges to put on my uniform, I actually had to go out and earn them! That verse just reminded me of that. I mean… if you know or have ever read anything about my past or the girl I used to be, you’ll see that I was a person fixated on my image and appearance. Just like the latter part of this verse says, “…no heart for learning.” Praise God that my life has done a 360⁰ since He came and took over!
There are a few more verses we can go over in Proverbs 17—we’ll get to them next week. Have a great weekend.
