“A fool finds no pleasure in understanding, but delights in airing his own opinions.” Proverbs 18:2
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Ouch!
When I picked up David Powlison’s book Speaking Truth in Love I of course imagined myself speaking truth with love to people I love! This Proverb is probably closer to what the book’s theme is intended to communicate concerning truth speaking.
It is loving to bring truth to people’s hearts. Not as the world does with callous belligerence and a Simon Cowell attitude that is unwilling to weigh the impact of harshly spoken words. That habitual “truth hurts” speaking style is evidence that love is not his motivator.
Okay, so I just turned the “Proverbs Spotlight”off of me and onto Simon! There I go being a fool again…delighting in airing my opinions. Like Simon, I think I was giving an honest opinion! Listen to Powlison’s take on that:
“Raw honesty is always perverted by the insanity of sin. Should you ‘get in touch with your feelings and say what you really think’? Honesty in the raw is always godless, willful, opinionated, self-centered. And personal honesty never actually faces reality if it does not simultaneously face God.”
Powlison presses his readers to drink in Scripture not to just rub shoulders with a text but with the idea of getting face to face with the Person who speaks truth in love.Â
His words speak about you, your circumstances, about the way you think about things, more importantly about how God thinks about things.
The result is that raw godless candor can be transformed into loving healing truth.Â
Using Psalm 119 as his illustration he states,
“Our self-help culture is preoccupied with ‘self-talk.’ But Psalm 119 gets you out of the monologue business entirely. It gets you talking with the Person whose opinion finally matters. The problem of self-talk is that we aren’t talking to anyone but ourselves. A conversation ought to be taking place, but we repress our awareness of the Person who threatens our self fascination.” ((Powlison, David, Speaking the Truth in Love, Counsel in Community, New Growth Press, 2005, p.15-17))
I guess I will keep reading and find the pleasure in understanding rather than delighting in airing uninformed opinions!
Lesson #1 – Remember when I talk to myself, I am counseling with a sinner!