SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTAND GOD
Read His word, learn His ways.
“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” - Matthew 11:29 KJV
THEN TO BE UNDERSTOOD BY MEN
Do not be afraid of their faces
“Be not afraid of their faces: for I [am] with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD.” - Jeremiah 1:8 KJV
"Seek first to understand, then to be understood"
is not a Bible verse.
How might we relate this to sharing the truth of the Gospel that will set men free?
Proverbs like this can be easily twisted because people are not aware of a larger body of work against which to compare them, be it from the same author or such.
When people twist Bible verses, at least, we can go to God's Word and find a counterbalance or reproof.
Since God's Word supersedes all, why can we not check the propositions of men by it as well?
Mankind likes to judge God's Word by their standards, so why should we not judge man's word by God's standard?
This is what I have done here, but I've pulled it out of a relativistic framework of people following people following people–the blind leading the blind–since that is no way to come to a knowledge of absolute truth.
And I have placed our responsibility towards God at the top, and our responsibility to relay that to our fellow man after.
With meekness we must share the truth, not slacking for cowardice.
God's Word is truth, regardless of whether man wants to hear it.
How we present truth matters to God, and we must not be ashamed to extend to mankind the truth that will set them free.
2 Timothy 1:7-8, 12 KJV “7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 8 Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; ... 12 For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”
Matthew 10:32-33 KJV “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.”
~Eric Druist
This was first posted to Social Media on October 3, 2024
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