Posted on 05/16/2022 7:29:28 PM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress
“A gift is as a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it: whithersoever it turneth, it prospereth. He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends” (Proverbs 17:8-9).
There are a number of ways of looking at this. The gift of life. If you have the gift of everlasting life, that is pretty precious. It is hard to believe that some do not truly appreciate what they have and do not use it to the glory of God, but it is a fact that there are some like that. In the sense of that gift, we might think about this. Notice that it does three things:
- First, the gift of God, the gift of salvation is precious. How much is it worth? How much would you sell it for, if you could? What kind of price tag would you put on it? How much is the Blood of Jesus Christ worth? You couldn’t put a price tag on it. It is priceless: “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers” (I Peter 1:18). Jesus Christ compared it to gaining the whole world, and yet that is not worth an exchange for a single soul.
- Second, the gift is purifying. “. . . withersoever it turneth,” your salvation will turn you. It will turn you from sin unto righteousness. If you will cultivate your salvation and take a hold of it in your life, it will purify you. It will help you to turn from things that are wrong as a Christian grows in the Lord. Our thankfulness to Him and our desire to please Him will turn you from those things that displease Him to things that do please Him.
- Last, it will prosper you. It will prosper you and it will be prosperous to others. Now, this idea of prosperity has been hijacked by the “Name it and Claim it crowd.” These bunch of howling wolves have turned God into a Vegas slot machine that only pays out and never loses. John tells us what it means: “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth” (III John 2). It is one that recognizes and enjoys his spiritual blessings in Christ to the fullest measure. It is good health, and Proverbs tells us over and over how to have good health through God’s Word and sound biblical wisdom.
“He that covereth a transgression seeketh love,” Here is the case of another person, he is covering the transgression of someone else other than himself. We are told that “charity covereth a multitude of sins” (I Peter 4:8). In Proverbs 16:28 we are told of the whisperer that separates chief friends; he is telling everybody he finds everything he knows about others. He is a master gossiper. Rather than hide something another has done wrong, he is gladly exposing it.
How many of us can remember back to when we first dated the woman we would marry, or vice versa if you are a lady reading this. We would see no faults in that other person. Weren’t we seeking love? Once we found it and secured it, we started seeing the blemishes—but there was a time when those things just could not be seen—because we didn’t want to see them. On the other hand, some of us have been saved for many years, and we have yet to see even one blemish in our Beloved Saviour.
Of course, God has covered our transgression with the Blood of Jesus Christ: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement” (Romans 5:8-11). Since God refuses to look beyond the Blood of His Son, He has yet to see any of our blemishes as well—and He never will! He chooses not to see them.
“. . . but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends,” this takes us right to and drops us off at the whisperer’s doorstep.
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