Theological Commentary: Click Here
Discipleship Focus: People of Peace
- People of Peace: A person of peace is someone whom God has prepared to hear God’s message through you. God does all the work of preparing that person for your presence in their life. Because of this preparation, these people will like you. They will listen to you. They will serve with you as you live out God’s calling for your life.
It’s been
a while since I’ve spoken about people of peace. While it may not seem like it at first, this
chapter has people of peace theory all throughout it. The idea of people of peace is the idea that
we must be willing to listen. A person
of peace is someone to whom you can speak because they are open to what you
have to say.
If we
look at this chapter in Proverbs we hear several different perspectives on this
topic. The first perspective are all the
verses that speak about listening to the wrong voices. The companion of prostitutes squanders. The fool rages against the wise. The ruler who listens to falsehood has
officials that are corrupt. When we keep
the company of sinfulness, we become sinful ourselves.
Another
perspective that this chapter gives is our response to other people speaking
into our life. If we are rebuked and we
stiffen our neck, we are asking for things to go poorly for us. If we love wisdom, our elders are made
glad. The rod and reproof brings wisdom;
but if we seek to be left alone from these things we will only bring shame into
our life.
Finally,
we have words to the speaker. The truth
is that we are not only to go through this life looking for those people that
can influence us but also those whom we can ourselves influence. Kings should seek justice for the poor – or otherwise
oppressed. Parents should seek to bring
up their children rightly. When
speaking, we would do well to consider our words and hold our tongue.
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