Proverbs 14:4, When Cleanliness Is Not Next To Godliness!
July 31, Proverbs 14:4
Ephesians 4:1-6 “Let truth break forth of controversy.”
When Cleanliness Is Not Next To Godliness!
There is no good achieved without some drawbacks. “This proverb is not a plea for slovenliness, physical, or moral, but for the readiness to accept upheaval, and a mess to clear up, as the price of growth” (Kidner). There are no gains without pains, at least none that can be relied upon! Windfalls are generally rotten apples. All progress has a price. The only question is this: Is the good to be gained worth the price we have to pay or not?
1. No Mucking because the crib is clean! The absence of controversy may be a sign, not of life, but of death. Where a church is always at peace, it may be the “Rest in Peace” of the cemetery! Controversy dirties the crib, but is that not a price we must sometimes pay? Those who despise all controversy cry Peace! Peace! Love! Love! Yes, let us have peace, but not the peace of indifference, of stagnation, of lack of conviction, not peace at the price of purity! Let us have love, by all means, but never love divorced from truth! At one point Luther held to that position. “Peace if possible,” he said, “but truth at any rate.” That great Puritan scholar, John Owen, who suffered greatly for his stand, said: “It is truth alone that capacitates any soul to give glory to God.” Spurgeon, in the heat of the downgrade battles, declared: “Long ago I ceased to count heads. Truth is usually in the minority in this world.” He also affirmed: “Men, to be truly won, must be won by truth.”
2. No Mooing because there are no oxen! In the hottest disputes, God also raised up hot preachers. Where are God’s oxen today? Modern churches avoid doctrinal debate, while harbouring known heretics. Could that be why there is a dearth of great preaching and true revival today? Where is the indignation at error, the vehemence of holy love, the devotion to God and truth that sent the Saviour to Calvary? The crib is clean for want of oxen! Where is there a Cranmer, a Ridley, a Latimer, a Bunyan, a Wesley, a Machen, a Spurgeon, a Shields? Where are the oxen to take forth the precious from the vile? In Jeremiah’s day the Word of God was a neglected Book (Jer. 15:15-19). What about ours?
3. No Mooching because much increase is by the strength of the ox! Shall we defend the truth in the face of widespread apostasy within churches today or be moochers? Is it worth fighting for, worth being labeled bigot, unloving or hate-monger? Certainly, controversy must not be for mere party-bias, or in a spirit of bitterness. Yet, anger is hard to avoid when the issue is the eternal destiny of men’s souls (Mk. 3:5). The truth, when the chips were down, was more important than life itself to the first Christians. Rome exiled John. The Jews hounded Peter and Paul to death, and there is that whole army of martyrs whose blood is still the seed of the church. God’s truths, like roses, have thorns about them to prick us awake. May God grant us much increase by the strength of the ox today.
Thought: Truth silenced, permits false doctrine to prevail.
Prayer: Lord, save me from falling into sloth.