“Verbal Abuse, Victorious Availing” Conclusion

    

    This brief series of messages involving the believer's response to unkind or unjust words has dealt primarily with the internals of our relationship with God, along with our reciprocal response of how to respond, think, believe, and relate to our Lord in this challenging matter.  A final thought regarding the matter concerns relating to our offender, particularly regarding the attitude in which we act and express ourselves toward him.

  "Bless them that curse you" (Luke 6:28).  We determine that our response will not originate according to the characteristics of the world, the devil, and the flesh from which the attack proceeded, but rather from the indwelling Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ.  That is, we determine to seek the glory of God and the offender's benefit - "bless" - in how we respond and what we say.   This does not mean that we cannot address the "curse" of which we have been the victim.  There is no fault in informing another person that their words have been hurtful and unfair (we may also in some cases follow the pattern of response mandated by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 18:15-20).  We do so, however, not from the wound of our hurt feelings, but rather from the solace and strength received because we have sought the Lord and His truth - "This is my comfort in my affliction, for Thy Word hath quickened me" (Psalm 77:2).  We remember that the Lord Jesus well knows the pangs of verbal abuse to a far greater measure and degree than we will ever experience.  He overcame them all, and now dwells within us by His Spirit to lead us accordingly.  "Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator" (I Peter 4:19).

    In essence, we respond in love, the love of Christ.  This involves the devotion to our Heavenly Father that constitutes His honor and will as the primary issue in the matter of verbal abuse.  As the Lord Jesus declared, "I do always those things that please Him" (John 8:29).  The Spirit of our Savior dwells in us to motivate and enable the same response.  "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us" (Romans 5:5).  The path paved from such reality involves the determination to walk in the Spirit rather than the flesh for the purpose of pleasing and honoring our Father, as opposed to punishing and hurting our offender.  Indeed, a great Truth presents itself to us in this challenging matter, namely, that walking with God involves seeing our relationships with people, whether pleasantly or unpleasantly experienced, as opportunity to relate to Him.  In blessedness, we give thanks for the wonder of knowing our Lord and His love as revealed in humanity.  In difficulty, such as the verbal abuse we presently consider, we give thanks in the recognition that the weaknesses of humanity provide opportunity to seek our "faithful Creator" in the assurance of His comfort, His leading, His enabling, and His provision of an opportunity to know and express His wondrous love not only in pleasantries with people, but in persecutions.

   Few more challenging paths lies before us in our walk with the Lord.  Unkind and unjust words hurt.  However, few more blessed paths offer to us a walk with God in the love of His grace, mercy, and truth.  Responding to Him when verbally abused leads and enables us to respond to our offender in a manner that reveals the living Word, the Lord Jesus.  As always, the challenge provides the opportunity for victorious availing that would not otherwise exist.  This is the Christian life, the life of Christ, as presently experienced in a fallen world wherein "the Light shineth in darkness" (John 1:5).

"As it is written, For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.  Nay, in all these things we are more conquerors through Him that loved us."

(Romans 8:36-37)

Weekly Memory Verse

    I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels more principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height not depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

(Romans 8:38-39)

"Verbal Abuse, Victorious Availing" Part 3

    

    "When He was reviled, He reviled not again" (I Peter 2:23).

    "Walk, even as He walked" (I John 2:6).

    "I will dwell in them, and walk in them" (II Corinthians 6:16).

    The most important aspect of suffering verbal abuse concerns not the fact that it has happened, but rather our response to the fact of its happening.  We cannot control what people say to us or about us.  Through Christ, however, born again believers can determine whether we will respond in a manner faithful to God and His Word.  We must determine to avail ourselves of the power of the Holy Spirit so that we may "walk, even as He walked" through the power of His dwelling and walking in us.

    Such determination does not minimize the fact of cruel words, or their effect.  They hurt and the communicator of them bears responsibility toward God and the recipient of sinful verbal abuse.  That which hurts worse, however, involves our reacting after the flesh rather than the Spirit when we are the victim.  If we revile those who revile us or succumb to bitterness, we are no better than the original perpetrator as we join him in the dark reality of verbal and attitudinal sin.  We allow him to hurt us twice, as it were.  Moreover, this "second sin" will prove more harmful than the first, since it affects our fellowship with God.  We can bear the sword of people who hurt us.  "In God I have put my trust.  I will not fear what flesh can do unto me" (Psalm 56:4). We cannot, however, bear the breach of fellowship between ourselves and the Lord when we distrust and disobey Him.  "O God, Thou art my God… my soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth for Thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is" (Psalm 63:1).

    I shared this truth with one who responded, "But that doesn't seem fair!  Why should somebody else's sin have the power to affect my relationship with God?!"  The answer is simply that it doesn't.  We rather give the sins of others such power when we wrongly perceive their words or actions as more consequential than our Lord's glory and will.  I am reminded of the Roman soldier summoned to go to war.  A friend asked him if he feared the possibility of death in the conflict.  "It is necessary that I go" responded the soldier.  "It is not necessary that I live."  In similar manner, we must all acknowledge that our comfort does not presently constitute the most important aspect of our existence.  To honor, trust, and obey our Heavenly Father serves as our reason for being, and as the quenching of our soul thirst.  Nothing more.  Nothing less.  Nothing else.  "To live is Christ" (Philippians 1:21).  Thus, we must prepare ourselves for hurtful words by hiding such Truth in our hearts, and by drawing this sword of love, faith, and submission to God when others draw against us the sword of sin.

    The childhood chant, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me!" is not true.  Words do hurt when used against us cruelly and unjustly.  However, they also provide opportunity to follow in the steps of our Lord, who "when He suffered, He threatened not, but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously" (I Peter 2:23).  I would submit unto my heart and to yours that anything which provides such opportunity to know, love, trust, obey, and glorify the Lord Jesus ultimately serves rather than damages us.  This is not easy truth.  But it is Truth, the Truth of the Savior, the Spirit, and the Scriptures whereby we discover a path of faithfulness as paved by foe rather than friend…

"Lead me in Thy righteousness because of mine enemies, make Thy way straight before my face."

(Psalm 5:8)

Weekly Memory Verse

    Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

(I Corinthians 15:58)

“Verbal Abuse, Victorious Availing” Part 2

"Verbal Abuse, Victorious Availing"

Part 2

     

    

    Cruel words hurt.   God made us to feel, including the keen pain experienced when we find ourselves on the receiving end of unjust criticism, ridicule, slander and mockery.  

    "Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked, from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity, who whet their tongue like a sword and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words" (Psalm 64:2-3).

    There is no more wrong in being hurt by the sword and bow of verbal abuse than by the pains known when attacked by the physical version of such weapons.  Regardless of how strong we may grow in our relationship with the Lord, we will feel the edge of the blade and the point of the arrow when friend or foe directs unkind words toward our hearts.  We do not, however, want to remain in the pain by dwelling on the injustice.  We must do something about the matter, first within our mind and heart, and then by walking in accordance with our proactive determination.  For born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, difficult challenges provide holy opportunities.  Of our Savior, the Apostle Peter declares that "when He was reviled, reviled not again… but commited Himself to Him that judgeth righteously" (I Peter 2:23).  Rather than respond in kind, the Lord Jesus responded in faith, looking to His Father's care and keeping.  He realized that the verbal abuse of people made possible the victorious availing of God's realized presence, compassion, guidance, and overcoming power.  For Thou art My lamp, o Lord, and the Lord will lighten my darkness.  For by Thee I have run through a troop, by my God have I leaped over a wall (II Samuel 22:29-30).

     Our Father foresees every challenge that will ever confront His trusting children in Christ.  He has already heard, as it were, the painful words of unkindness and injustice that will find their way to our ears, and to our hearts.  He knows they will hurt, and as the God "full of compassion," He cares about our pain more than we can imagine (Psalm 86:15).  Just as importantly, however, the Lord has already prepared the grace whereby we may journey upon the path of light that proceeds from the point of darkness.  Herein lies the challenge: if we fail to trust and submit ourselves to God in times of verbal abuse, the darkness will become a path rather than a point.  We will unnecessarily dwell on how we feel rather than looking away to the truth of how God purposes to reveal His glory in this foreknown sorrow.  We will fail to journey upon the path of light that provides the possibility of knowing and experiencing the living Word in a manner that would not have been possible had deadly words not been fired in our direction.  "His words… were drawn swords.  Cast thy burden upon the Lord and He shall sustain thee.  He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved" (Psalm 55:21-22).

    Such faith constitutes the spiritual proaction by which believers live the entirety of our lives.  Unkind words present a particularly difficult challenge because of the God-formed sensitivities of our hearts.  Thus, they also provide a particularly blessed opportunity because of the presence and power of His heart that dwells within us by His Spirit.  Sharp points of verbal darkness beckon us to the path of victorious Light that illuminates the way of those who trust and submit to the Lord Jesus.  Upon this basis, our Heavenly Father then leads us to a walk of grace and truth whereby we honor Him not merely in spite of our challenges, but because of them.  We will consider aspects of this overcoming in tomorrow's message.

"As it is written, For Thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us."

(Romans 8:36-37)

"This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith."

(I John 5:4)

Weekly Memory Verse

    Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

(I Corinthians 15:58)