The First Chapter in the Book of Wisdom

The First Chapter in the Book of Wisdom

by | Jun 25, 2017 | Knowledge & Wisdom

Something to think about: 

“Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.” – Thomas Jefferson

The Bible shows that honesty is of primary importance in any society. It is represented by many biblical concepts such as truth and faithfulness and is used as the opposite of negative and destructive qualities such as lying, cheating and deceit.

But in today’s world we see dishonesty in every aspect of life – from “fake news” and false claims made in resumes and job applications to failure to report income that would be taxed.  Lack of honesty is so widespread that we have a situation strikingly similar to that described by the Old Testament prophets. The prophet Isaiah wrote “… justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter” (Isaiah 59:14), and Jeremiah affirmed that “Everyone deceives his neighbor, and no one speaks the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves committing iniquity” (Jeremiah 9:5).
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It is always easy to find reasons why being dishonest might seem to be advantageous, but Thomas Jefferson’s statement that “Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom” is solidly rooted in what the Bible has to say about this vital quality.  The Book of Proverbs – the Bible’s own “book of wisdom” – contains more references to aspects of what we call “honesty” than to any other quality associated with wisdom.  The proverbs reflect the fact that sooner or later dishonesty always brings unhappiness to ourselves and to others, and it is truly wiser to simply make honesty a practice in every aspect of our lives.  Anything less than honesty is not only wrong, it is also a tragic lack of wisdom.  

Active and Passive Forgiveness

Active and Passive Forgiveness

by | Jun 18, 2017 | Forgiveness

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​Most people tend to think of forgiveness in a somewhat limited way,  as though it were a matter of choice – we either choose to forgive those who wrong us or we do not.

But even as Christians, knowing  that we must forgive if we expect to be forgiven ourselves,  we do not always realize that there are different degrees of forgiveness and that we must be careful not to accept something that feels like forgiveness on our part, but really is not.

The simplest way to understand this is to realize the difference between what we might call active and passive forgiveness. 

Passive Forgiveness

When we find it difficult to forgive someone, we sometimes forgive them passively.  This means that we may stop ourselves from talking and thinking negatively about the person and certainly from considering any kind of revenge or “getting even”  with them.  Yet the level of forgiveness stops there – at a kind of “letter of the law” level.   Ultimately we may settle into a kind of indifference toward the individual. We do not see the  person  who has wronged us as either a friend or an enemy, but we feel  content in not actively being negative about him or her.  Unfortunately, if we fall into this kind of passive attitude, we may never cross over into a more positive attitude of true forgiveness toward the person.
  
How do we know if we are guilty of this kind of minimal, “passive” forgiveness?   We can often determine this by considering how we react to the person.  Do we tend to keep interaction with them to a minimum, or at least to a lesser degree than before they hurt us in some way?  Do we never really say or do anything positive to them?  If someone else says something complimentary about the person, do we simply smile and not comment?  Any of these reactions can indicate that our relationship with them is a passive compromise and not the result of true forgiveness. 

Active Forgiveness

Unlike passive forgiveness, true active forgiveness goes beyond  emotional and spiritual indifference.  That is why true forgiveness is so hard to accomplish when we have been deeply hurt. It’s not human to want to help the person who hurts us – especially if the person who hurt us clearly did so intentionally.  Yet completely forgiving someone means that, regardless of what they have done, we treat them in the same way we did before they hurt us, that we live with a feeling of compassion for the other person.
 
That is the kind of forgiveness demonstrated by Christ in his words on the cross: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34),  by Stephen  regarding those who killed him: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them”  (Acts 7:60), and by countless Christians who have been wronged since that time.   In fact, these two prayers show us how we can know that our forgiveness is active and not passive.  We do not pray for those we only nominally forgive.  If we can pray for those we need to forgive, we are actively forgiving them.

Active forgiveness does not mean we need to stay in abusive or hurtful relationships or situations. We must certainly forgive endlessly and without restriction (Matthew 18:21-22), but sometimes it is necessary to forgive from a distance in order to stop the wrongful cycle of hurt or harm (Acts 12:17, etc.).

But whether we are able to stay in situations or it is wiser to remove ourselves from them, our forgiveness must always be active and full. Whenever possible our forgiveness should be accompanied with active love: “… Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 26:27-28).  Such a fully active demonstration of forgiveness is not always possible, but as we saw in the prayers of Jesus and Stephen, we can always forgive actively by praying for those who have hurt or offended us.   Anything less is passive forgiveness.
 
* See also our article “The Second Step of Forgiveness.”

Books, Books, Books

Books, Books, Books

by | Jun 11, 2017 | Updates

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​We have uploaded three titles to our “Books in Brief” page – a classic, a recent title, and a new book.  You can check out the micro-reviews of these books here. 

And if you haven’t read it yet, don’t forget our own latest – free –  e-book Your Call: Using the Direct Private Line of Prayer.  You can download that directly here.

Root and Branch

Root and Branch

by | Jun 4, 2017 | Overcoming

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“Root and branch” is an ancient Hebrew expression, but one that is easily understood today. The “roots and branches” of something represent its entirety, just as the roots and branches of an actual tree represent the whole plant – as when we read in the Book of Job “His roots dry up below and his branches wither above” (Job 18:16), or in Malachi “…Not a root or a branch will be left to them” (Malachi 4:1).

Sometimes the expression can also mean the beginning and end, the past and future, as when it is used metaphorically to represent Christ himself as the “Root and branch” – the one who both lived before and was also the descendant – of David, the son of Jesse (Revelation 22:16).

But let’s go back to the basic meaning of “root and branch” meaning “the whole thing” or “every part.” It’s a simple metaphor for completeness that can remind us of an important lesson in Christian living. When we read how Jesus told his disciples “If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away…” (Matthew 18:8), we understand that this does not mean literally, and that Christ was talking about sin rather than literal body parts.  But we may miss the fact that “hand and foot” was a parallel expression to “root and branch” – it could mean every part of something. Christ’s clear teaching was that we should become perfect (Matthew 5:48), and sin must be cast out of our lives in its entirety – no part of it must remain in us.
 
Now let’s take that understanding back to the idea of “root and branch.”  Most people know that if you cut down a tree you must also dig out the roots or the plant may grow back up from the roots left in the soil. But it is also true that if we cut down a  tree and even dig out the roots, but leave some of the branches lying around on the ground, sometimes the branches may produce roots from which the tree will grow again.

What does all this have to do with Christian living?  Simply that we must always remember that sin must be torn out of our lives “root and branch” or, like a partially cut down tree, it will return again.   Digging out the roots of sin is equivalent to removing the thoughts that initiate the growth of sin in our minds. If we remove the outward visible branches – for example, pornographic materials from our home – the problem will still grow back again if the wrongful thoughts are not completely removed from our minds.  In the opposite way, even if we decide, for example, that we will turn from alcohol dependency, but we leave “branches”  such as wine “for cooking” around our home, it will only be a matter of time before those “branches” take root again as they initiate thoughts – the “roots” of the problem – in our minds. 
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These examples are obvious ones, but the principle applies in many situations. As the apostle Paul wrote: “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough” (Galatians 5:9 and 1 Corinthians 5:6). Leaving either a few roots (thoughts) or a few branches (anything that triggers the thoughts) in our lives will result in the problem growing back again.   There is only one way to fully put a sin out of our lives – it has to be removed “root and branch.”