Faithful Wounds

For Monday, November 19, 2007
Proverbs 27:6

Faithful are the wounds of a friend;
profuse are the kisses of an enemy.

A friend cares about our good. Thus, as a doctor who will inflict some pain to heal, so a friend is willing to do the difficult task of "wounding" for our good. He will tell us hard truth; he will not flatter us about what is false. He will not cater to our vanity. He will speak the truth in love, and he will be there for us when we fall, even if he must let us fall to awaken us to our senses.

The enemy is only too happy to greet us with kisses, to spill out flattery, whatever he takes to stoke our vanity and lead us astray. As a friend is single-minded in desiring our good, so an enemy is single-minded in our destruction.

"Why would he lie?" "Why did he pretend to be my friend?" Because he hates you.

"Why did my friend not speak as well of me?" "Why did he say things that would hurt my feelings?" Because he loves you.

Both act in keeping with their motive. What we need to do is exercise discernment to understand, which is easier to do than we admit. The only reason we are not discerning is when we let our vanity cloud our thinking. We are blind to what others easily see because of our pride. But if we love our friends, we will listen to them and consider carefully what they see. If we desire honoring God, we will be cautious of flattery and kisses from strangers or those who have not proven their friendship.