Proverbs - Wisdom For Troubled Times

Now we're looking through the book of Proverbs, and we're gonna look now at chapter 17. So if you want to turn to chapter 17 of proverbs, I think it might come up as well. Proverbs is just after the big book in the bible, the Psalms and then chapter 17. And we're going to read from 9 to 28, wonderful proverbs So problems are lots that we're gonna read from 9, so you don't have to put that up.

Lots of pithy sentences that when you first read them you you have to do a bit of thinking about them and then you see that they they can join up quite a lot. There is 1 proverb that we missed out in to 16 that seems to me to be the central proverb that we ought to remember. It's chapter 16 verse 31, it says, grey hair is a crown of splendor. It is attained in the way of righteousness. So that's 1 with underlining.

Gray hair is a crown interesting of right of of splendor. Thank you very much. Now let's read from verse 9. Whoever would foster love covers over an offence, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends. A rebuke impresses a discerning person more than a hundred lashes a fool.

Eva doers foster rebellion against God. The messenger of death will be sent against them. Better to meet a bear robbed of her cubs than a fool belt bent on folly. Evil will never leave the house of 1 who pays back evil for good. Starting a quarrel is like breaking a dam So drop the matter before a dispute breaks out.

Acquire acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent the law detests than both. Why should fools have money in hand to buy wisdom when they are not able to understand it. A friend loves it all time. And a brother is born for a time of adversity. 1 who has no sense shakes hands in pledge.

And puts up security for a neighbor. Whoever ever loves a quarrel, loves sin, whoever builds a high gate invites destruction. 1 whose heart is corrupt does not prosper, 1 whose tongue is perverse falls into trouble. To have a fool for a child brings grief there is no joy for the parent of a godless fool. A cheerful heart is good medicine.

But a crushed spirit dries up the bones. The wicked accept bribes in secret to pervert the course of justice. A discerning person keeps wisdom in view, but a fool's eye eyes wander to the ends of the earth. Foolish son brings grief to his father and bitterness to the mother who bore him. If imposing a fine on the innocent is not good surely to flog honest, officials is not right.

The 1 who has known knowledge, the 1 who has knowledge uses words with restraint, and whoever has understanding is even tempered. Even fools are thought wise, if they keep silent, and discerning if they hold their tongues. Well, if you could turn back to Proverbs chapter 17, that would be great. And even if you don't have a physical copy of the bible with you this morning, then do do look it up on your phone It would it would just be really helpful to have that whole chapter in front of you this morning, as the verses won't be coming up on the screen. So if you can have them in front of you and you're able skim through the chapter.

That would be that would be really good, both for me and for you. Welcome. My name is Tom Sweetman. I'm 1 of the pastors of the church here. It's lovely to have you.

If you're tuning in, if you're here, if you're new, it's great to have you with us, and this is a wonderful chapter for us to look at together this morning. So let's bow our heads and begin with a prayer. Proverbs 17 24, a discerning person keeps wisdom in view. But a fool's eyes wander to the ends of the earth. Father, we pray that you would help us to be discerning people this morning and that you would help us to have an eye to wisdom, that we would keep wisdom in view.

We don't want to be like the fool whose eyes are wandering to the ends of the earth. The fool is always looking but never finding. He thinks that satisfaction and knowledge will be always over the next horizon and yet it never comes. And we confess that it's so easy for us, even as we gather together to have wandering eyes and wandering hearts to think about everything but what we're doing together. To think back to the problems that we faced last week, to think forward to the things that we've got to do this week.

To look elsewhere and all around, but not to have this discerning laser like focus on wisdom. And so we pray by the power of your spirit that you would give us the ability to concentrate on what you have to say to us this morning. And we ask that in Jesus, his name, our men. Do you ever have those weeks where lots of your relation ships. Just feel strained.

Whether that's your relationships at work, the colleagues you share an office space with, whether that's friends at school, whether that's brothers and sisters. Here in the church that you know, whether that's those precious family relationships, those you share a home with, and you just feel that in some weeks, they're just all under tension. You know, there are disputes that are simmering away and haven't been sorted out. There has been offense received an offense given that hasn't been confessed and sorted out. There are words that have been spoken which really shouldn't have been, and there are words that haven't been spoken, which really should have been.

And you just get a sense, you just get a feeling that all your relationships, the ones that matter most to you are just are just under tension. They feel strained. And it's interesting when you think about that and you come to proverbs chapter 17 because that's that's what it's that's what it's like, and it's horrible, isn't it, when our relationships are like that? In this chapter, there is quite a lot about conflict in relationships and the friction that exists between us and tension and managing strife and disputes. There's lots of it here in this chapter, and maybe it's all in 1 chapter because we often have weeks exactly like that, where it all comes a bit together at the same time, because we're whole people, aren't we in relationship at work will affect relationships at home.

When they're going well, they're going well, when they're hard, they're going hard, and it tends to affect us in all different areas. And Proverbs chapter 17 feels like that. It's a chapter a lot about conflict and strife and how to handle it. But as we're gonna see this morning, there is also really good news for us here, and there is lots of wisdom in helping us to deal with conflict and to maintain peace. And I think you could summarize a lot of the wisdom here with that old garden proverb to nip something in the bud before it develops.

You may have heard that old proverb. It's often confused with nip it in the butt which is actually not an expression. And I think would produce the opposite thing. If you nip something in the butt, that's gonna produce action. If you nip something in the bud, the idea is that you stop it.

You stop it growing and you stop it developing. As I say, it's from gardening world where you would have a fruit or a flower that would be beginning to bud, but then you might get a late frost which would just kill it and stop it in its tracks before it has a chance to grow, and that's what the saying has come to mean, stopping stuff early before it gets bad. Or before it gets out of control. And so you might imagine the youth leader or the youth leaders noticing a flourishing romance in the youth group, And what they say is, I think we better nip this little romance in the butt before it gets out of control. You might hear politicians if they sense there's rebellion on the back benches, they might say, we need to nip that in the bud before that rebellion gets out of control.

That's what it means, stopping stuff before it has a chance to develop. And Proverbs 17, has got that kind of wisdom in it, nipping stuff in the bud, stopping stuff before it gets out of control, stopping a conflict early, before there's nothing you can do about it. And actually, as we're going to see in verse 9, the motivation for that is love. That's what love does. It tries to nip stuff in the bud early because it wants to protect unity.

It wants to maintain relationships. It's a way of showing love to try to stop bad stuff before it gets out of control. We want to drop stuff, we want to forgive, we want to move on, we want to cover over, and not give hostility the chance to grow. So if you've had a proverb 17 style week, you feel you have, or even if you haven't. There's loads of stuff here.

I think that is just very practical for how to look after each other, how to maintain unity, and how to do life together, and and survive it. And the first point that I want to show you this morning is that verse we started with in verse 9, to foster love in order to foster love, cover an offence. Just look at the first half of me. Whoever would foster love covers an offence. And the question I first had when I read that proverb is is that ever right to do?

Is it ever right to cover an offence? I mean, you think about our culture and some of the things that come out, some of the terrible things that come out, because something, an offense has been covered up. There's been some kind of concealment, some kind of cover up, and things have got very nasty. Is it ever right to to do Is it ever right to do that? Well, I think the question which helps to clarify is is this.

If this offense is covered up, what will happen to evil? If this offense is covered up, what will happen to evil. In other words, if I cover over an offence, will it nip evil in the bud? Will it stop it from spreading? Will it have the effect of killing off something that could be really harmful?

Or if I cover this offence, Will it lead to the flourishing of evil? Will it allow evil to grow like rot and mold and spread and destroy. Because some cover ups do exactly that, don't they? We've all heard the stories at some of the highest level some of the top institutions, state councils, governments, senior church organizations, where things are covered up, where often there are the most vulnerable children in foster homes or children in care homes. Or children in church quires or vulnerable people or elderly people, and there's systemic abuse going on but he's covered up why for the sake of reputations and careers and money.

We hate that kind of cover up, don't we? It's never right to cover over an offence like that. We hate it, and so does God. Have a look at verse 15. Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent.

How does the Lord feel about that? The Lord detests than both. So there is a kind of covering up, which does not foster love, it gives birth to wickedness, and it allows the vulnerable to be tortured. Covering up an offence like that, the lord the the lord detests. But that's not actually what verse 9 is is talking about.

If you have a look at verse 9, Let's read the whole thing together. Whoever would foster love covers an offense, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends. Whoever would foster love covers an offense, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends. And often with these proverbs, the second half of them helps us to interpret the first half. They're like a fruit sliced in 2.

You know, the the 1 can help us understand the other. And what is being talked about here is the opposite of covering over an offence, the opposite of fostering love, which is going around repeating the matter. So you go around and you tell others, and you spread your grievance, and you spread your problems, and you repeat it, and there's separation and there's disunity. And so you see what matters here is the intention The 1 who goes around repeating a matter and gossiping has a kind of goal in mind. They want to bring about disunity.

They like the idea of close friends being separated. They wanna see factions in the church. That's their kind of aim. They don't wanna cover over something for love's sake. They wanna repeat it because they've got a goal of disunity.

But the 1 who covers also has a goal to foster love. They want to protect a person. They want to look after friendships. They want to keep unity and they want to stop evil from spreading. It's the same kind of thing in Proverbs 10 verse 12, if you wanna flick up that.

It says hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers over all wrongs. Patriot stirs up conflict but love covers over all wrongs. You see again how the second half explains the first half. Love covers over wrongs. What does it mean?

It means it doesn't stir up conflict. That's what love does. Doesn't want to stir up conflict. For a new testament reference, you think of Paul's famous section on love in 1 Corinthians 13, which is read at weddings up and down the country all the time. He says love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

It always protects always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. You see that? He says that love doesn't delight in evil. It doesn't want to see evil stuff spreading. It doesn't want to see offenses going around and doing harm.

Love protects. And I think that's more than just physical. I don't think he just means a physical protection. I think it's the sort of love which wants to protect the whole. It wants to stop matters spreading and preserve unity, love protects.

So just to think practically about this. Let's say for example then that just in the ordinary course of life together, you become aware of a sin in a brother or sister's life, a sin in the community. Something either told to you, something that you observe, something that you hear perhaps, what are what are we to do? Is this proverb telling us that in all of those cases, we really have to just turn our eyes pretend we haven't seen it, ignore it, leave it, cross our fingers and hope it will fix itself. Well, Jesus gives us a number of different ways to handle situations like that.

So you might know that famous chapter, Matthew chapter 18, where he talks about how we might deal with sin in the life of the church. You know that chapter? And what he says is that the first thing to do is to go privately to the individual, raise the matter with them in love after taking the plank out of your own eye, and you hope and pray that 9 times out of 10, that will be the end of the matter. If it's not, he says, well, the next thing that you can do is either go with a trusted Christian friend or a church leader, and you can go the 2 of you to them, and you can with 2 or 3 witnesses talk about the same thing with the same intention. The hope being that they will listen to that counsel repent and come back into good fellowship.

And then he says, and if that doesn't work, the last and final resort would be to get the church together, to tell it to the church, and let the weight of the gathered community identify this sin. If it has become so characteristic, open and unrepentant, that would be the last step the church would come forward. And you see the point of that, whole process is to leave the door open as long as possible for forgiveness and reconciliation and unity. So Jesus is not saying, look, whenever you see sin, you just turn the turn away and pretend you haven't seen it. There are channels by which we can deal with it.

But this proverb would say, in many many other cases, the wisest thing you can do and the most honorable thing is just to cover is just to cover it over. Just to cover it over. Charles spurgeon, great old Victorian preacher. He said, I think to ministers, but it applies to all Christians that we all ought to have 1 blind eye and 1 deaf ear. To have 1 blind eye and 1 deaf ear.

And his point is, look, in the course of life together, there are many times when there are things you just choose not to see and things that you choose not to hear for the sake of protecting a person and maintaining a good life together. 1 blind eye and 1 deaf ear. It's a bit like family life, isn't it? You know, when you when you're in a family, you've got, you know, kids growing up and whoever lives with you. If you live in an environment where every single off word every single bad motive.

Every single thing out of place needs to be dealt with and addressed and bought up and worked through and disciplined, no 1 can live. No 1 wants to live in that kind of environment. It's it's horrible, isn't it? There is so much in just family life in You know what? We're just gonna cover that over.

You know, love covers a multitude of sins. We don't we don't have to bring up everything and expose everything and air our dirty laundry 25 times a day. There is a time to death. So you see the different ways the bible talks about. There is a Matthew 18 style approach sometimes.

There is just a family covering over sometimes. The 1 thing that we definitely don't want to do according to these provost is just go around spreading the thing. Just go around sort of taking out all each other's rubbish and combing it all over the lawn for everybody to see, you know? That's the 1 thing we don't do because that's what the fall does. That's what the fool loves to do.

You know, he comes and he's got a problem. Someone's offended him. Someone said something that was too sharp. Someone didn't do something that he short, he thought he did the and he just wants others to know about it. He's neither gonna deal with it Matthew 18 properly.

He's definitely not gonna cover it over He wants to spread it. He wants others to know about it. He wants to recruit an angry crowd so that there becomes disunity. All that does is magnify the problem in the church, and it just leads to more and more disunity. It's interesting 1 commentator talks about this phrase repeating the matter.

It can either mean tell, you know, tell tell telling the tale or it can mean harping on about the same thing all the time. And that's an old musical phrase about harping on the same string. It's a person who just plays the same note over and over and over again. Have you ever heard people say, he's always harping on about that. That's where it comes from.

They just play the same string over and over again. Proverbs says there is a type of person who just cannot let stuff go. They can't move on. They always have to circle back around to the same issue, to the same thing, make sure others know about it, they're harping on about the same thing. Well, this proverb says, no, come on.

Whoever would foster love. You want to see love grow. You want to nurture love, provide good growing conditions for love. Then cover over an offence. Love covers a multitude of sins, cover an offence.

It's that nipping in the bud stuff, isn't it? Just stop it early. Stop it early. Cover in the fence. Don't let it grow.

Secondly, more wisdom in handling conflict to stop a dispute drop the matter. To stop a dispute, drop the matter. That's in verse 14. Starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam so drop the matter before a dispute breaks out. Drop the matter before a dispute breaks out.

The other day, I was I was washing up in our in our kitchen, and I had a washing up bowl that was absolutely full of dirty brown slightly soapy dishwasher, dish water. And like I often do, I then took the bowl and I emptied the whole thing quite quickly into the sink. I've done that loads of times, I've never had a problem. On this particular occasion, I don't know if it was the speed at which he was going down or the weight of the water, The pipes underneath the sink decided that would be a good time just to dislocate themselves. And so then there was about, I don't know, how many liters of filthy water, and I looked down, I heard the pipe go, I looked down, and the dirt dirty dishwasher was just rushing out of the cupboard under the sink.

All over the kitchen, under all of the units, and there was nothing you can do about it. I mean, you can reach for as many tea towels as you've got and as much kitchen roll as you can grab, but you cannot stop it because that is the nature of water. Once it's broken loose, it is very difficult to restrain. There's almost nothing you can do about it. The idea that I could somehow gather all that up and get it back in the bowl, is just ludicrous.

Because once water is out, once it's out of control, there's very little you can do about it. Well, that's what it's like starting a quarrel. If you wanna start a quarrel, then that's the illustration you need to have in mind. You wanna breach this dam. You wanna put a hole in this pipe.

You wanna start that debate. You wanna go into battle with someone. Well, just be ready because that's what water is like. You want to start it, then I'm afraid it's very very difficult to put back. And you know Proverbs says there is a sort of person who loves to breach a dam.

They love nothing more than a good quarrel. Proverbs 26 21. As charcoal to embers, and as wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome person for kindling strife. There is a sort of person according to Proverbs who always has to take the opposite view. Their ministry is to work out what the consensus is and to go against it.

They see themselves as having the spiritual gift of disagreement. They must be in opposition. That's what they do. They're quarrelsome people. If you imagine the House of Commons.

You know, there are people who who would hate to be in government because they love the opposition bench so much. They would never want to give it up because that's their identity in quarreling and in opposing the consensus. And you know, Proverbs would say that that is not just a personality type. That is a sin pattern. That's a sinful thing to enjoy doing.

You have a look at verse 19 of this same chapter. Whoever loves a quarrel, loves sin. Whoever loves a quarrel loves sin. That is so perceptive. And the trouble is that people who love strife often sound like they love truth.

It sounds like they want to fight for the truth all the time. They need to let you know what's right. They need to let you know where others are wrong. They have to tell you when you're in error. It sounds like they're really concerned for truth.

That's why they speak so much. That's why they're always grabbing the nettle because they love truth. Proverbs says, no. Hold on a person like that. It may be that what they actually love is strife.

They just love to be on the opposition bench. That's why Paul says to Timothy that an elder should not be a quarrelsome person. Shouldn't have a quarrelsome man as an elder. Now, that's not to say, that you can't have strong disagreements in an eldership. It's not to say that you don't need to argue things out sometimes.

And it's good for us all to be in the losing position sometimes where we lose a vote. It's very good for us to do that. They lose votes sometimes, and for others to know that we're losing votes. And this is not to say that there's never a time to fight for the truth, share strong disagreements correct others when they're wrong. But Paul is saying, look, you can't have an elder whose whole ministry is in opposing others.

They they just wanna quarrel. And if you can't have an elder like that, you can't have a member like that either. It's not just a personality. It's a sin to be aware of. And it's a big deal.

You know, in this chapter, there are 28 verses. There are 56 mini observations There is only 1 imperative. There's only 1 command in this whole chapter. It's only 3 words. It's drop it.

Drop the matter. That's the only command in this chapter. Drop the matter. And I think this is a huge point of difference or it ought to be between the church and the world. You load up the BBC.

I mean, quarrels are everywhere. I mean, this week it's been Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. Then if you've been following that, reading about that case last week is Colleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy. It's Wagatha Christie. It's disputes.

It's who released what when, whose account was private at what time, who said this about who, who sold my story, who spread the hatred, It's sue, it's countersuit, it's countersuit, it's defamation, it's millions of pounds. The whole thing is just is just dispute, strife, breaching dams, no water to put back. But a wise person is trying to say, look, it's not that I don't love the truth. And sometimes a wise person will go to court for the truth. But very often, a wise person is trying to say, okay, look, I feel grieved by this.

But if I start this quarrel now in this mood, then I could do a lot of damage that would take a long time to clear up. You know, it's like the pipe. I might break it in seconds, but clearing up fixing the thing is going to take me hours. So perhaps what I'll do is I'll just wait and I'll just pray. And I'll just ask an honest question about what's inside me at the moment.

What do I really want They just wanna quarrel, don't just wanna strive, don't just want others to know I've been offended, or will I? Can I just cover it over? Should I just drop it, drop the dispute? 1 of the wisest bits of pastoral advice Pete gave me still still gives people is is decided when you get when you get an email that agitates you, or a message, the best thing to do is to put a bit of distance between yourself and the reply. You know, even though we're in an age where instant reply is what's required, the wisdom in just stepping back speaking to your husband or wife about it, sleeping on it and then deciding in the morning.

It's just so helpful. Now that's not advice that I've always followed. I don't know if it's advice you you've always followed. Of course, it is. Yeah.

Yeah. But that that's so it's so sound. It's so sound. Because it gives you an opportunity drop the matter. Before I breach this down, maybe I could drop the matter.

And it's true in conversation. We, you know, we know what this is like, don't we? When you're in a conversation and you get to a point where you think, okay. If I answer back again, if I if I bring another challenge back here, This thing's gonna boil over. Right?

This thing's gonna boil over. And then is the time Proverbs would say, think long and hot. Is that the time to just drop the matter? It's like picking a scab, you know, when you do that when you were young or a kid. You get to a point in scab picking, don't you?

When you think the next 1 The next 1 is gonna really hurt. Okay? The next 1 is gonna hurt, and this thing could bleed and open up again. Proverbs would say, at that moment, Now is the time to drop the matter. Drop the matter.

And so again, it's this nipping stuff in the bud, isn't it? Before it gets out of control, before you breach that dam, Just think about it. Have I got what it takes to put the water back? Maybe I should just drop the matter. For the sake of unity, I'm just gonna drop the matter.

Thirdly, to show knowledge, use words with restraint. To show knowledge, use words with restraint, and that's in verse 27. The 1 who has knowledge uses words with restraint and whoever has understanding is even tempered. A person of knowledge learns when to speak and when to stay quiet. And there's some playful irony in verse 28.

If you have a look at verse 28, last 1 of the chapter. Even fools are thought wise if they keep silent and discerning if they can hold their tongues, there is a way Solomon is saying here, that even a fool doesn't have to be a complete fool, if he keeps his mouth closed. If he can keep his mouth closed, the fool will stop himself reaching absolute fullness. Okay? And so what is this what is this about?

Well, we know not just from proverbs, but from Mark 7, from the book of James, that wisdom and folly show themselves in our words. There is just that age old connection between the heart and the tongue. Wisdom, folly, and our words. Now, we tend to think that a wise person shows themself by speaking a lot. Tell me.

Naturally, You don't always know a wise person. They're the 1 who always knows the answer in the room. They know what to do. They're the speakers, and the preacher hears the warning to himself. Here.

That's what what that's what we think, isn't it? The wise person shows their wisdom by how much they speak. But Proverbs says, no, there there is a time when wisdom shows itself by keeping its mouth closed in what it doesn't say. The wise person has kind of learned that when words are many, sin is not absent, that the multiplication of words can just lead to error and sin. And so therefore, they will sometimes show their wisdom, not in what they say, but in what they don't say, in just keeping quiet.

Now, none of this is an argument for silence. And so this week, when we get to home group, brothers, and sisters, let's not all just sit in silence. Because we all wanna show how wise we are and just sit quietly. That would be really annoying. Okay?

But neither, but this is a good check to those people who do believe that they just always show wisdom by speaking. You just have to speak all the time and dominate with their wisdom. So we don't we don't want that. So what what is this about? Well, again, look at the second half because it just helps us interpret the thing.

The 1 who has knowledge uses words with restraints. And whoever as understanding is even tempered, isn't that something you just desire? And even temper. Well, lovely thing that is. And actually the word means a calm spirit.

To be of a calm spirit. And the word calm is only used a handful of other times in the old testament, and it always means to chill out. Or to cool down. And so this proverb is saying that a person of understanding is chilled out. They have a chilled out spirit.

Now that's not to say they're stoical in that they're literally unaffected by anything. So whether they live or die, have a home or don't, food to eat or not, sickness or healthy, they just don't care. They're not they're not stoical. But Proverbs would say there is a sort of person who is just agitated all the time. They just live in a permanent state of off balanceness.

They're agitated, and that shows itself in its words. I mean, I can't be the only 1. I mean, you must be like me sometimes in the sense that when you get to the end of the day, What is the big thing that you regret? It's often words, isn't it? It's often what we've said.

And when you think about the words that we regret, and ask in what state was I when I said them. Lots of the time, it's because we were agitated. We were angry. We were knocked off balance by something. And instead of trying to cultivate this even temper, our words revealed that we were we were agitated.

And that's why this is so desirable. Because if you've got an even temper, your words are under control. You know when to speak and when to be quiet. You know when to conceal an offence or go a Matthew 18 route. You know when to start a debate and when to drop it because you live from an even temper.

You live from a calm spirit. You're not out of control. You're not agitated all the time. And that is a very desirable thing. I love Proverbs 19 11.

I think it's a great 1 for for marriage, but for all relationships. Proverbs 19 11. Good sense makes a person slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook and and see how those 2 things go together. Good sense makes you slow to anger, even tempered, and it's the glory to overlook an offence. Hard to do that.

Hard to do that when you haven't got an even temper. So 3 bits of practical wisdom, for trying to deal with conflict, for trying to remove friction and heat, and just to do life well together. 2 final applications. I hope many of them have been self evident, but 2 final applications. There's a why and a how.

Why we should live like this and how we can live like this. So firstly, the why the well, the why reasons are everything that we've just said. Because it's the it's a great way. This is the way of maintaining unity and fostering love amongst us. And it's something that we can learn You know, wisdom is not just like a magic stone or a religious charm that we get out to solve problems.

Wisdom is a skill that we can learn. And by God's grace, we can all grow in these kind of skills. These sort of skills of just doing life together. But there's a deeper reason why this matters And that's because to live like this together is a way of imaging God in our community. So we know from the bible that God is 1, and yet he is father, son, and holy spirit.

And that tells us that God exists now and always has in this perfect community of peace and wisdom and relationship and unity. And therefore, when we live like this together, we display something of the glory of the peaceful unified God. We we display him in our life together. You think of John 17, where Jesus prays for local churches that they would all be united just as he and the father are united. That's what he wants for us to be a unified people.

And I think John 17 and Proverbs 17 go together so so well. Because you've got the principle in John 17 and some ways to do it in Proverbs 17. Proverbs 17 helps us to do John 17. To keep the unity amongst us that the father and the son and the spirit have together. That's the deepest reason, because it's about the glory of God.

Lastly, how do we do this? How do we find the power to live like this? And friends, it can only be in the gospel. Of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, verse 9 is such a lovely place to finish, because verse 9 is not only something we need to do for other people, it is something we need God to do for us.

Verse 9, whoever would foster love covers over an offence. But whoever repeats the matter separates close friends. It is not our job to go around exposing each other's sin all the time. You know, God is the 1 who exposes the human heart. That's that's his job, and what he does for us is to cover over our offences.

We are exposed before him, and yet he covers us over and the way he does that is through the sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus Christ. That place where he exposed our sins and condemned them in the person of his son, so that we might be covered by his love. This is the way God covers us. He doesn't take a rug and just look the other way and throw it over us. He doesn't cover us with a rug.

He covers us with blood. He covers over our sin with the blood of his son, so that we might be forgiven. And when we know that, we can treat each other like that. Sometimes we might do a Matthew 18, sometimes we might choose to just forget it and move on. But we basically know this brother or sister who has sinned.

They are already covered like me with the blood of Christ. And that has gotta shape how I relate to their sins. Right? There's something very wrong about a person who is pending upon the blood of Christ to cover their sins, who has such an enthusiasm for exposing other peoples. Those things don't go together.

If you've been covered by the blood of Christ, you want to do what you can to cover over each other's sins. And when we live like that, then the gospel is powering this kind of life. We've been doing this series in Galatians chapter 5. It's a new podcast, and would really recommend it. We've been going through the deeds of the flesh.

You're thinking about the deeds of the flesh. You know, what what is it? It's dissensions, fighting, it's exposing, it's highlighting, sin, it's breaking apart. What is the life of the spirit, it's self control, it's patience, it's love, it's covering over, it's working towards unity. The how we do this is the gospel of Christ and the spirit of Christ, the spirit life.

Which we live in. So there we go. Lots of lots of practical advice, how to nip stuff in the bud, how to do life together, and some gospel motivations for us. Now