Proverbs 10:11-12, What Marvellous Grace!
April 24, Proverbs 10:11-12
1 Corinthians 13 “Above all things have fervent charity: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins” (1 Pet. 4:8).
What Marvellous Grace!
1. Saints – A well-Spring of Life! What Grace that makes the mouth of the righteous a well of life, resulting in wells of living water (Jn. 4:14) to flow from this once polluted source! What a vivid contrast this presents! The world is a barren wilderness. There is no help there, but Heaven’s supply makes saints a spring, overflowing from the Heart of God. The well gets its water from heaven through secret veins till it flows out, making all around it green. So must saints seek their supply from the Lord. What an encouragement for the saint, who can affirm, all my springs are in thee, and then goes on to experience the overflow (Jn. 7:38-39)! Only thus can saints spread the refreshing, life-giving waters to all wherever they go. They are like streams or oases in the desert, giving comforting shade, and life-giving refreshment to the weary traveller. Oh, that all who name the name of Christ would be such streams, that the world might see that life-giving flow, and come and taste and see that the Lord is good. Who can estimate how much you owe to God’s marvellous grace, which has made your mouth a well of life?
2. Sinners – A Poison-Pool of Death! Violence covers the mouth of the wicked. As in v.6, violence is clearly the subject, as is the parallel love in v.12. The wicked man never opens his mouth without pouring forth violence. Their mouths are covered with violence, and they live to stir-up hatred. How appalling is this contrast! The saints are as streams in the desert, while the wicked are like the troubled sea, ever casting up mire and filth (Isa. 57:20). They leave only wastelands everywhere their polluted minds touch. As the sea cannot rest, so they never rest in their evil, producing nothing but the devil’s works. While saints feed on the showers of blessing from above, the wicked get their power-source from beneath, even from the subterranean fires of hell! Sadly, there are many counterfeit Christians who bring dishonour to God and disgrace to the Gospel! They are both useless and destructive. Jude calls them clouds without water (Jude 12).
3. Sinners Aggravate, Saints Conciliate! Hatred stirs up (incites) strife, but love covers all sins (v.12). Hatred and malice are behind all strife. Ye shall know them by their fruits, and their fruits are everywhere. The more deceitful are usually the more unforgiving. To cover here does not mean to conceal, to cover-up. It means rather the covering of atonement by which God covers the debts of him who has confessed all his guilt, and pleads only God’s mercy and grace. Surely what we have against a brother is nothing compared to what God has against us. Bridges asks, “How can we hesitate to blot out a few pence, who look for the covering of a debt of ten thousand talents?” We should accord to our fellows the forgiveness we daily crave from God. The proof that divine love has forgiven us is the measure in which we, in our turn, forgive the debts of others. This is no sentimental love, but an ardent, keen, critical, far-sighted love that can be satisfied with nothing less than defending and speaking God’s truth in love, whatever the cost.
Prayer: All that I was, my sin, my guilt, my death, was all my own;
All that I am I owe to thee, my gracious God, alone. (Bonar)