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Bible Notes - Tabernacle Commentaries
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Proverbs 24:28
Comments
The specific fault identified in these two proverbs is the piece of dishonest reasoning that takes place when a person attempts to justify revenge by trumped up charges against another. He deliberately perverts his faculty of judgment to find fault when there is no significant fault. There may be some minor issue but he exaggerates it in a way that he would not do if dealing with a friend and treats it as much more than it is. This deliberate distortion of his faculty of judgment is a mask that hides his inner feelings. The real cause of his seeking to hurt the other is a desire for revenge. The second verse explains that the other one has done some act of evil to him and now he is determined to repay it. This desire for revenge is so strong that it becomes a source of temptation. ‘What if I turn this minor fault on the part of this individual whom I hate into a major crime? I will go and embellish what he has done in such a way that it becomes something which the law enforcement authorities are interested in. I will convince myself that it is not totally without cause, because there was at least some fault there to begin with.’
Application
Strict honesty is required in all dealings among the Lord’s people. We are to be as honest with others as we are with ourselves. Just as we excuse minor misdemeanours that we see in ourselves, we are to overlook the same in others and not to impose another standard on them, since this is not to love our neighbour as ourselves. Do we hear that someone has said something critical of us? Well then, we do not simply respond in kind, upping the temperature by reporting some alleged misdemeanour with fictitious details added. This is the basis of all gossip which is the opposite of the spirit that should exist in the church of Christ.
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