“5. Open rebuke is better than secret love. 6. Faithful are the wounds of a friend: but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.”
How are your friendships today? Do you have good friends? Are you a good friend to others? There is a thought that floats around to make people believe that good friends are those who agree with you on everything. Do you notice how the Word of God always corrects us in our normal fleshly thoughts? Proverbs 27 gives great wisdom concerning what a good friend is! Open rebuke is never fun, but it can be for the best! Rebuke simply means to reprehend (to blame) for a fault. Make sure your friends that you walk with are believers that will encourage you in the Word of God and not their own thoughts and their own ways! Amos 3:3 “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” That’s an easy answer! Its hard to walk with others that don’t agree or live by the Bible. Make sure your counsel and your friendships are people who will guide you in the will of God! Proverbs 27:9 “Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so doth the sweetness of a man’s friend by hearty counsel.” A wound is never a good feeling, but many times in the lives of a believer, it takes a wound from a friend to stop foolish decisions that are being made. Can you handle wounds from a friend or maybe even your pastor? If you go to your pastor for counsel, or another man of God or woman of God, why do you get upset with them when they are honest with you? We don’t always like to hear advice that make us look stupid and wrong, but God’s Word says that we need those of types of friendships. Proverbs 27:17 “Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.” There are people in your life right now that you may be ahead of spiritually. God has put them in your life so you can be a help to them, so you can pray for them, don’t be one to always chastise, but be one to give good spiritual advice when they ask for it. God has put some people in your life that may be more spiritual than you, listen to them when they try to help you! Don’t get upset at them when they give you advice that will help you. There is a difference between one who is always looking to correct you verse those who may be giving you some faithful wounds! What kind of friends do you have? Are they spiritual or worldly?
Memory Verse Week 3/4/19
Proverbs 27:17
“Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.”
