Keeping Your Word Is Keeping His Word
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘Whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him.’ (1 John 2:5a)
In our daily interactions with others, we want to be nice to each other, living in the motto my Dad kept on his dashboard, printed on a business card, ‘It’s nice to be nice.’ (He needed the reminder.) Usually, when we meet each other, our compliments are sincere and truthful, as they should be.
However, once in a while, we are ‘nice’ when we shouldn’t be. We meet with someone who is a bit edgy or nasty in their demeanor. They complain in bitter discourse, and then pop the inevitable question, either ‘Am I right?‘ or ‘You see what I’m saying?’, expecting a positive, affirmative acknowledgement of their stance. Not wanting to further fan the flames, we sometimes drop the answer, ‘Sure‘ or ‘Yep‘, hoping they’ll stop their diatribe and move on to a more pleasant subject.
Of course, this gets you out of their issue quickly, but the problem is they still possess their issue as your affirmation didn’t provide the proper feedback. Providing them the truth (‘You’re not right in your assumption, pal’) may turn their angst toward you, and we are geared to avoid confrontation, but confrontation may be what that person needs at that moment to correct course and fix the issue they’re having.
Conversely, we are also wired not to burden others with our personal issues. Every Sunday morning in church, tens of thousands lie in the Lord’s House. How do so many lie in the presence of God? By answer the question, ‘How are you doing today?‘ with the response of either ‘Fine!‘ or ‘I’m good!‘ with a smile, when in reality you are hurting, physically or emotionally. The person asking may want to pray with you or over you for your burden, but in being falsely ‘fine’ doesn’t allow them that opportunity.
Truth is always a casualty in human interactions. My wife asks me if the dress looks nice on her, or if the earrings complement her eyes, and I’ll say yes even if the combos have me thinking the look is better suited for the year 1525 vice the year 2025. (This avoids the discussion of my lack of fashion sense.) Although I’m certain no one else will say anything about her Medieval ensemble (in her presence anyway), am I right in allowing her to leave the house in this manner?
In a more serious tone, we see a lot of manipulations of truth, where what is said may be true but the actual context is not, especially in today’s educational institutions and the mainstream press corps. Think of the headline ‘China 2nd, USA next to last’ – in a two-nation comparison in levels of freedom and liberty. Looking at this at first glance, the gist is China ranks above the US. But then re-read and think about what it really says, and you’ll see how manipulative the statement, though truthful, is. Satan often works in the same manner.
But when you say ‘I will do this’, or ‘I will not do that’; it is important that we keep our word. People are depending on you to keep your word when you say, ‘I’ll be there to help!’; if you don’t show up it can cause as cascading effect to the detriment of others.
You said you’d come help your friend patch a leaky roof, but you didn’t. It ended up your friend waited for your help, did nothing, and the next storm came and the leak caused the ceiling to get waterlogged and cave-in, and now the friend has to now get the roof and the ceiling fixed, and possibly a pay a hospital bill if under the collapsing ceiling.
It is even more important to keep God’s Word; you have proclaimed to be a Christian and you have asked for His forgiveness and mercy. Jesus asked us to simply work with Him for the sake of the Gospel, to only worship Him and nothing else. This is the Truth we cannot escape from or take it and twist it out of context. When we twist God’s Word out of context, it can cause that detrimental cascading effect in Faith.
Take the ‘name it and claim it’ gospel that some preach. This is not true, yet we have many preaching it, and we find people who believe it is God that let them down by not making them millionaires or providing them their Bentleys, and they turn away from Jesus – perhaps lost forever. But it wasn’t God who let them down, it was the preacher of the false gospel who let them down.
You are not perfect, but God’s Word, His son, Jesus, is perfect. Keeping your word and keeping His Word is the best help you can give. Be truthful, especially in God’s Word, as what shines is being genuine with the Gospel and the love of Christ. (And your spouse won’t look like someone out of the Dark Ages when going out.)
