Pro 27:6,9,10,17,19
Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so doth the sweetness of a man’s friend by hearty counsel.
Thine own friend, and thy father’s friend, forsake not; neither go into thy brother’s house in the day of thy calamity: for better is a neighbour that is near than a brother far off.
Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.
As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.
Iron sharpens iron. There are several ways this works in our lives. It happens when we interact with each other and share ideas back and forth. We are not intended to work our way through this life alone. We are social creatures created to support each other with encouragement and honesty. The reality is that we will have only a handful of close friends and confidants in the course of our lifetime. Those are the ones who hold us accountable and help us stay on track because they care for our soul. These are the people who we turn to as a sounding board. We can trust them to give us honest feedback or bring us back to reality when necessary. Its important to have trusted counselors and advisors. When we talk and when we listen our thoughts become clarified whether its our understanding, our plans for the future or the way we handle the circumstances of our life. It is important to have a trusted source to bounce thoughts off of to check the legitimacy of our thought process. Being able to talk it through helps keep us healthy and happy.
When we express an idea that is challenged by someone else it gives us the opportunity to rethink what we have said or the way it was expressed. We can consider their response and how it compares to our idea. That allows to us to find any holes or fallacies in our thought process or it can solidify our belief. Often their input enhances our understanding making it much more rich because it adds depth and breadth to it by bringing a perspective we don’t have. That may not always happen in the moment during the conversation, but it frequently comes later as we think about it and it germinates in our mind. We then incorporate their thoughts into our understanding. We are blessed by what they have added to us.
Part of the reason that God instructs us to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together (Heb 10:25) is because iron sharpens iron. Every time we repeat our understanding it helps us trim the wick so that we can explain the ideas more clearly. It gives God opportunity to bring revelations and connections to our understanding. When we express our ideas we can hear the logic in ways we don’t hear it in our thoughts. Sometimes it makes sense, sometimes it needs to be modified, sometimes we need to start over. Every time we explain something again the idea becomes more clear, the explanation becomes more full or more simple and easier to be entreated.
Civil discourse is the idea of being able to discuss beliefs and convictions without being made to feel judged for the ideas expressed. Our knowledge becomes refined when we have the freedom and opportunity to discuss things openly and have others present their ideas in response. At a time when we were able to preach to each other and consider the ideas presented we were all blessed by it because it expanded our understanding in many ways we were unable to do on our own. We should all look for opportunities today and in the future to do the same on a variety of topics so that God can continue to refine us and bring us to spiritual completion.