Today’s Passage Ecclesiastes 10:1-3
1 Dead flies putrefy the perfumer’s ointment,
And cause it to give off a foul odor;
So does a little folly to one respected for wisdom and honor.
2 A wise man’s heart is at his right hand,
But a fool’s heart at his left.
3 Even when a fool walks along the way,
He lacks wisdom,
And he shows everyone that he is a fool.
In today’s passage we see Solomon heading back in to his proverbial wisdom, offering us more insight on a variety of topics. I’ll be honest as I saw this, by first thought was to speed through it, to reach more of a solid teaching style. But then I started reading, and right away it grabbed my attention. Pause for a second and reread verse 1; if that didn’t catch your attention the first time, I hope it did the second and it offers the same great truth today that it did thousands of years ago.
There’s an old saying that says "you never get a second chance to make a first impression". Yet the same can be true of all the impressions we leave with people. Once we gain the respect of men, that respect is easily ripped from us, by a simple mistake we may have made. Much like the dead flied stink up the sweet smelling ointment, one stupid decision can stink up our reputation and eventually our entire testimony.
We’ve all had those moments. Those times we do stupid things, that for some reason people never forget. When I was 21 years old I was a youth pastor at a small country church on one of my earliest activities I was driving the kids down a country road, I turned to tell someone to quite down a bit, and drove through a stop sign. I immediately realized my mistake and took the ribbing from the kids, followed by the anger of the parents. After that time, we saw a revival in the youth group, the numbers went from 6 or 7 youth up into the 60’s kids were getting saved, kids were coming themselves to serve the Lord. Yet here I am 10 years later, and when I see kids from that original group, many of them remember me as the Youth Guy who ran the stop sign.
That perhaps may never be a big stumbling block, but sometimes those follies we make can limit our testimonies for ever. For example a little slip of the tong at work, and you may be though of as the hypocrite who goes to church and swears. You may see no problem with alcohol, but if someone sees you bringing that 6 pack home you may be thought of as that Christian who drinks all the time. Often times 1 small mistake can change someone’s opinion of you forever.
Romans 14:21 speaks somewhat to this subject as well "21 It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak."
This passage although speaking about food (clean or unclean) as well at later in 1 Corinthians (may or may not be offered to idols) tells us to not do anything in which a brother is offended or made weak. Once again we see that that dead fly can stink up the ointment.
As we conclude today let me say we have all made mistakes and have some dead flies stinking up our reputation. And if the Lord tarries we will all add a few more dead flies to the pot. But it is important that we remember this and carefully weigh all our decisions in the light of eternity. It is important that we guard our tongs and our actions against such falls. It is important we strive not to offend a brother with something that doesn’t matter in light of eternity.
Out Action point today: Let us strive to keep the ointment of our testimonies smelling as sweet as we can.
Comments