Proverbs 27:6. Faithful are the wounds of a friend.
Faithful friends are a gift from God. A faithful friend is one who sticks with you no matter what. They will always love you, always support you, and always encourage you. Do you have any faithful friends? I pray that you do.
But Proverbs 27:6 says that a faithful friend will also wound you. Wound? That doesn’t sound right. Friends shouldn’t wound each other, should they?
This proverb is not unlike the previous one. True friends rebuke. True friends confront. True friends are honest. True friends are faithful. A faithful friend won’t lie to you just to spare your feelings. They won’t only tell you what you want to hear. Because a faithful friend wants you to grow and become all that God wants you to be, they will let you know when they think you are doing something wrong, or living in a dangerous way.
This kind of faithfulness bears the image of God. God is faithful. When God revealed himself to Moses on Mount Sinai, he described himself as full of steadfast love and faithfulness. In his love, God will forgive sins, he said. But in his faithfulness, God will punish sins. Because God is faithful and true, he will never look the other way in regards to our sin. Why not? Because then he would not be loving. True love simply won’t tolerate sin.
We said yesterday that we avoid rebuke out of fear of harming the relationship. We learn today that this is a valid fear. Love wounds. So yes, there is always a risk that the wounded friend may not be able to take the truth to heart. Jesus says that when we tell our brother his fault, IF he listens to you, you have regained your brother. There are no guarantees from Christ.
Are you a faithful friend? Are you able to wound when necessary? Not nitpick. Not judge. Not keep score. Remember, love keeps no record of wrongs. Love covers a multitude of sins. Love forgives. Therefore, wounding with faithfulness is never to be a tit-for-tat, self-protective form of sin management. We are not our friend’s priest sitting in a booth demanding daily confessions. But we are Christ’s instrument of righteousness, speaking the truth in love, confronting the unbelieving heart, exhorting in the faith.
Hebrews 3:12-13. 12Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
Christ in us is love. We already know this. Christ in us is faithfulness. This we may still need to embrace. In Christ we can be faithful to the sanctifying cause of Christ, allowing him to use us to prevent the deceitfulness of sin in our spiritual friends, our brothers and sisters in Christ. And in Christ, may we receive the wounds of the faithful friends God has given to us. Wounds that will never destroy us, but only heal us. Wounds, that like the wounds of Jesus himself, bring life from death. The suffering of godly grief over our sin and the glory of God’s grace in repentance.
You: Are you a faithful friend, or do you avoid any and all confrontation?
You in Christ: How does our union with Christ both allow us to be faithful in confronting our spiritual friends and in receiving the wounds of our spiritual friends?
Christ in you: Is there a spiritual friend that you need to “wound” with the truth in love? How can Christ in you give you the courage to confront?
Pray: Jesus, you are truth and love. I know you always tells me the truth even when it hurts. Help me to speak the truth in love to my friends even when it might hurt them for a bit. Amen.
To Live is Christ 