Pondering Proverbs – Witness (4)
“Like vinegar to
the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the lazy one to those who send him.” Proverbs
10:26.
We hit “send” on
our email or click on the send icon on our text message, and our message is
sent – whether to someone across the street or across the world. We are accustomed
to instant communication, and as such people, Proverbs 10:26 may be a verse
that we gloss over. After all, when is the last time we sent a message by messenger?
Yet, there are
still messages better communicated by speech over the telephone or in a video
meeting than via email or text; and there are still messages best communicated
in person. When God wanted to communicate the depths of His love for us, He sent
His Son, and as John wrote, “we’ve heard Him, we’ve seen Him, and we’ve touched
Him” (1 John 1:1).
Furthermore,
even though God has given us the Bible, His Word, this Word is to be communicated
in person by speech, as Paul writes, "And how will they hear without a
preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent?” (Romans 10:14 – 15). Communicating
the Gospel is a marriage of the Word written and the Word spoken – it is the
Word incarnated continuing in its Incarnation.
And so Jesus
commands us to “go” and to “teach,” making disciples among all peoples (Matt. 28:18
– 20). The question then, in light of Proverbs 10:26, is whether we are a “going”
people or a lazy people. Is my life one of “going” to others with God’s
message, or am I lazy? Are our churches “going” churches? Has your life, dear
reader, been one of going for Jesus Christ, taking His message to others
wherever you are?
Going with the
message of God in Christ means going out of myself and extending myself to
others. It means opening myself up to others in devotion to Jesus Christ, conveying
the words of Jesus, demonstrating the actions of Jesus. In means, to use a
current phrase, “Putting myself out there” for others.
What is it like
to have a mouthful of vinegar? What is it like to have our eyes filled with
smoke? This is what it is like when someone sends a message by a lazy messenger
– it is irritating, it is an experience we want to end as soon as possible – it
is an experience that is bitter and brings tears to our eyes.
While this is
decidedly anthropomorphic, what kind of messenger am I toward the One who sent
me? Am I bringing vinegar and smoke to the Trinity, or am I faithfully – by God’s
grace – going out of myself to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to others?
Do I have
coworkers with whom I have never shared Jesus Christ? How lazy must we be to
sit in the same office with others, or work in the same store with others, or
labor in the same trade with others – and yet never share the amazing love of
God in Christ with them? How lazy must we be to sit in the same classroom, to
teach in the same school, to play at the same sport, to live on the same street
– and yet never share the message that God in Christ sent us to share with
others. What kind of messenger does such a life make us?
I know what it
is to be a lazy messenger, and I know the sickening realization that I have
been one. I also know what it is, by God’s enabling grace, to go out of myself,
out of my cocoon of what I think is safety, and share Jesus Christ with my
neighbors – at school, at work, in my community. As we saw in a previous post, Jesus promises
us that He will always be with us, even to the end of the age…we can always and
forever trust our Lord Jesus to be with us when we go out of ourselves and
bring His message to others.
And here’s a
thing we should remember, we are not messengers on our own authority – we have
been sent to others by our Lord Jesus Christ – the One to whom we belong. We go
to others not with our own message, but with the message which Christ Jesus has
entrusted to us – our call is to be obedient and not lazy; our message is His
and not ours. We are called to please God and not humanity, to obey God and not
man.
Are our lives a
sweet aroma to God, or are they irritating smoke?
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