Hurts So Good
I’m not one to enjoy hurting very much. I had a friend in high school who thought it was great fun to stick pins under the skin of his hands and fingers. I don’t really care for hurting myself. I guess if I had to have surgery in order to save my life, that would be okay, but I really would rather avoid pain.
The Bible says that some kinds of pain are actually good. Proverbs 27:5–6 says, “Open rebuke is better than secret love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.” So there you have it: it is better to be “hurt” by a friend than to be flattered by an enemy. That’s usually the opposite of the way we see it. If somebody, whether professing friend or not, says hard things to us, we don’t like them and consider them our enemy. Those who say nice things to us are our “friends.”
The Bible says it is more important to hear the truth than to hear what sounds good to us. This verse says that it is better for someone to be honest and rebuke us or call us down than to “love” us in secret and never tell us what we need to hear. Imagine if you had a booger on your lip or your fly was down. Would you want your friend to tell you about that? Of course you would! What if you went around all day like that and then found out and your friend said, “Hey, I didn’t want you to get upset at me for telling you so I didn’t say anything”? Open rebuke is better than secret love.
Those who really love you and care about you will tell you what you need to hear, not just what you want to hear. The same is true in youth group: you may want to come and just hear nice, positive things, but your youth group leaders care about you far too much to do that. We want you to see yourselves as God sees you, and if that means you need to change some things, then it may hurt, but we want to be your true friends and tell you. Are you an honest friend or an “undercover friend”?
The Bible says that some kinds of pain are actually good. Proverbs 27:5–6 says, “Open rebuke is better than secret love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.” So there you have it: it is better to be “hurt” by a friend than to be flattered by an enemy. That’s usually the opposite of the way we see it. If somebody, whether professing friend or not, says hard things to us, we don’t like them and consider them our enemy. Those who say nice things to us are our “friends.”
The Bible says it is more important to hear the truth than to hear what sounds good to us. This verse says that it is better for someone to be honest and rebuke us or call us down than to “love” us in secret and never tell us what we need to hear. Imagine if you had a booger on your lip or your fly was down. Would you want your friend to tell you about that? Of course you would! What if you went around all day like that and then found out and your friend said, “Hey, I didn’t want you to get upset at me for telling you so I didn’t say anything”? Open rebuke is better than secret love.
Those who really love you and care about you will tell you what you need to hear, not just what you want to hear. The same is true in youth group: you may want to come and just hear nice, positive things, but your youth group leaders care about you far too much to do that. We want you to see yourselves as God sees you, and if that means you need to change some things, then it may hurt, but we want to be your true friends and tell you. Are you an honest friend or an “undercover friend”?
posted by Mark Perry at 7:17 PM
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