Open to wounds from a friend

Just a footnote to the footnote on David’s life.  🙂

I won’t be touching most of 1 Chronicles 1-9.  It’s mostly just a list of names. 

I will touch on a few stories from there, and I’ve already pointed out some things from chapter 9 in talking about the gatekeepers’ duties.

Aside from that, please read the passages on your own, and if you find anything else of interest, please feel free to write a comment on it.

On to the footnote of David’s life. 

It’s found in 1 Chronicles 3:4, and it does show that it’s good to pay a little attention to these lists. 

It says here that there were four sons born to David and Bathsheba.  One of them was named Nathan.

This is really amazing to me. 

Nathan was the prophet who confronted David with his sin concerning Bathsheba and her husband Uriah.  He was the one who pronounced judgment from God. 

And yet years later, when David and Bathsheba had a son, they named him Nathan.

I think it speaks to the character of David.  That though Nathan scorchingly chastised him for his sin, David not only accepted it and repented, but continued to consider Nathan a friend, to the point that he would name his son after Nathan.

I think it also speaks to the character of Nathan. 

I think if I had a friend that had done what David had done, I would probably have distanced myself from him afterwards, particularly since David was still with Bathsheba.

And yet, because he saw true repentance in David, and he saw that God had extended grace and mercy to David, Nathan extended that same grace and mercy to David.

And as has been noted before, it was actually Nathan who later warned David and Bathsheba when Adonijah tried to seize the throne from Solomon.

I think there are two key things to learn from this. 

First, when God extends his grace and mercy to a repentant Christian, do we offer that same mercy and grace?

It’s so easy to judge that person.  It’s so easy to hold that sin against them, especially if it was extremely bad as was with the case with David.

I think of a Christian man who left his wife for another woman.  At that time, he also seemed to have a problem with truth as well.

From some accounts I’ve heard, he has since repented, although he eventually married another woman. (Not the one he left his wife for.).

But to be honest, I’ve kept my distance from him, even so.

I’m starting to think now that I’m wrong.  If he has truly repented, then God has forgiven him and shown him grace.  And I need to do the same.

But the second thing is how open are we to the rebuke of our friends when we are wrong? 

Do we embrace that rebuke, and let it change us?  Or do we reject it…and our friends?

Solomon wrote,

Better is open rebuke than hidden love.   Wounds from a friend can be trusted… (Proverbs 27:5-6)

I like another version that puts it,

Faithful are the wounds of a friend.  (KJV)

Love doesn’t always mean telling a person what they want to hear.  Love means telling them what they need to hear.  And sometimes it hurts. 

But if we are willing to accept it, God can use that rebuke to make us more like him.

How about you?  Are you open to wounds from a friend? 

And when your friend is wrong, do you openly rebuke them in love? 

Or do you just keep silent because you “love” them too much to hurt them?

May we be faithful friends to the people around us.