Welcome to Day 177 of the “Manna for the Mind” devotional! This series is about finding nourishment in the Word of God to get us through the day. In each devotional, I take a variety of scripture passages (typically 1-3 verses each) and build our understanding of what they teach via their context and connecting scripture. My goal is to help you understand how to be the type of human God created you to be. Today’s passage is Proverbs 17:9.

Proverbs 17:9

NASB	NLT	VOICE
9 One who conceals an offense seeks love, But one who repeats a matter separates close friends.	9 Love prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends.	9 Those who forgive faults foster love, but those who repeated recall them ruin relationships.

This proverbs talks about how we should disregard the faults of others. That we don’t use the past, the faults, the sins, and related items of other people as a label and identity of who they are. Forgiving those faults and overlooking offenses helps to rebuild and restore relationships. Often, we can allow the stories of others or the misinterpreted understandings of the past of others to determine how we view them and shape the person of who they are. We may even be tempted to use their pastor according to our knowledge in an argument.

Love keeps our mouth shut – difficult as it may be. When we get into an argument with someone, or even talk about or to someone in general, we should never make a personal attack. We should focus on the issue at hand. The issue may involve those personal issues, but don’t pull one out of your hat in order to seek revenge or to cause harm. As we grow to be like Jesus, we will obtain God’s ability to overlook the offenses of others. We can learn how to forgive and forget, in order to deepen our relationship with them. When we learn to be in relationship with the human behind the issues, we see God’s community strengthen to greater places.

James 5:20

NASB	NLT	VOICE
20 let him know that the one who has turned a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.	20 you can be sure that whoever brings the sinner back from wandering will save that person from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins.	20 Know this: If you turn a sinner back from the error of his ways, then you will rescue him from the grips of death and cover the pain and consequences of untold sins.

The book of James describes faith in action. Godly living is the evidence and the result of one’s faith. Believers must serve with compassion, speak with love and truth, live in obedience in God’s commands, and love one another. We must be able to serve one another in a self-sacrificing method that meets their needs with love, just as Jesus did. We must be able to use our words to speak love and truth to those around us, even when those truths are difficult to hear. We must follow the commands that God gives to us, even when those commands pull us out of our comfort zone. We must love one another, just as Jesus loved us.

The church should be the greatest example of what heaven is like here on earth, drawing people to Christ through love for God and community. If we truly believe in what God commands, we will live it out each day. God’s word isn’t a philosophical piece of wisdom that gives us something to think, discuss, debate, and read. It’s something to do. It’s, again, a command to go and live the life that he created us to live.

Next slice of Manna: Manna for the Mind #178