8/26/19
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.
Proverbs 25:7b-10 provides our society with a much-needed corrective. Here we are told not to be too quick to testify about something, realizing that there may be contrary witnesses, and we are told to keep disputes as private as we can. This flies in the face of a popular culture in which almost everyone has a videocamera in his pocket and already posts pictures of food before eating it. When someone is injured it seems all the onlookers are more intent on posting the injury on live social media than helping the person who was harmed. In cases of military or law enforcement activity we presume that the authorities are up to no good, acting in a discriminatory or oppressive manner, trying to abuse their power.
This is an arrogant attitude. While vigilance is appropriate, and while we want to bring a healthy skepticism to our interactions with others, especially when they have been known to abuse authority, we do not know the information the police officer does any more than he or she knows what we do. There may be a very good reason for someone to do what appears to be nonsense. We want to gather as many facts as we can before rushing to provide testimony, and especially before passing judgment.
In the end, we are assured that God is able to govern this world for the best. He uses our service, our testimony, our wisdom as we try to unravel a complicated story. But ultimately God is the authority. He will bring all our trials to their end in one way or another. We try to help those who are in trouble, rather than taking pictures of them. We try to respect authorities but we realize that they are almost as likely to abuse their abilities as we are. We try to render fair judgment, but we recognize that we will not know the whole truth from the start. Above all, we ask the Lord for wisdom and guidance. He alone can open our eyes to unravel the mysteries we see.
If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.
Proverbs 25:7b-10 provides our society with a much-needed corrective. Here we are told not to be too quick to testify about something, realizing that there may be contrary witnesses, and we are told to keep disputes as private as we can. This flies in the face of a popular culture in which almost everyone has a videocamera in his pocket and already posts pictures of food before eating it. When someone is injured it seems all the onlookers are more intent on posting the injury on live social media than helping the person who was harmed. In cases of military or law enforcement activity we presume that the authorities are up to no good, acting in a discriminatory or oppressive manner, trying to abuse their power.
This is an arrogant attitude. While vigilance is appropriate, and while we want to bring a healthy skepticism to our interactions with others, especially when they have been known to abuse authority, we do not know the information the police officer does any more than he or she knows what we do. There may be a very good reason for someone to do what appears to be nonsense. We want to gather as many facts as we can before rushing to provide testimony, and especially before passing judgment.
In the end, we are assured that God is able to govern this world for the best. He uses our service, our testimony, our wisdom as we try to unravel a complicated story. But ultimately God is the authority. He will bring all our trials to their end in one way or another. We try to help those who are in trouble, rather than taking pictures of them. We try to respect authorities but we realize that they are almost as likely to abuse their abilities as we are. We try to render fair judgment, but we recognize that we will not know the whole truth from the start. Above all, we ask the Lord for wisdom and guidance. He alone can open our eyes to unravel the mysteries we see.
If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.
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