Proverbs 15:23 ESV
To make an apt answer is a joy to a man, and a word in season, how good it is!.
[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+15%3A23&version=ESV]
The right word at the right time means a lot. In a story, it’s the proverbial lightning. When you’re in trouble, when you’ve got a problem that’s really not working out, when you cannot for the life of you figure out what to do next, that right word becomes water in a desert. As it is a pleasure to the receiver, so too it is for the giver, if his heart is right, and all around things get better. Then problems start again, a difficulty of application appears, or something else entirely goes wrong. The words of man, after all, are only a temporary fix.
Giving a good answer is a comfort both to giver and receiver. For the giver, he has the chance to aid his neighbor (in the Biblical sense); for the receiver, the relief is welcome. Of course, humans are more complex than a simple ‘apply good answer, get happiness.’ The pleasure of an ‘apt answer’ can come from the pride of the giver, which is of harm to him and not help. The receiver, meanwhile, may find his own pride injured by the help or by the helper, may lose the joy of the resolution. Further, the answer may, on further reflection, turn out to be less worthy than it first looked. In the worst case, we only realize just how bad the answer actually was after we try it out. See many nations’ reaction to Communism for an example.
See, one part of this whole affair that we must not lose sight of is that the answer needs to be a good one for the pleasure to be fitting. If I advise you that the freshly primed landmine ‘really just needs a good kicking’, you should not be feeling particularly ecstatic over the ‘answer’. Landmines have a standard response to being kicked. This advice is bad, and so it brings no gladness. Many times, however, the question and answer aren’t so clear, and the answer can look good, real good.
If we’re talking politics, I’ve already mentioned an instance where the answer looked really, really good to people until they actually tried it: communism. The problem was, for the more compassionate, the suffering of the less fortunate; the answer they were given was to share and share alike. It sounds workable; it sounds virtuous; it sounds like it solves the problem. Then millions upon millions died, and suddenly Communism didn’t look so good anymore (to oversimplify matters immensely). Many saw the problem with its answers beforehand, but many didn’t. How were they to know?
We’ve all faced difficult problems in daily life. It can be a problem of relationships, of judgement, of morals, of plain facts. An answer, any answer, would seem preferable to the uncertainty. When an answer comes along, then, it’s easy to grab onto it. Discernment goes out the window. Mistakes happen. How do we judge these things?
The bad news is that we aren’t ever going to be perfect. We’re finite and fallible, drenched in our own sin and others’. We are going to make mistakes, sometimes mistakes we could have avoided, sometimes mistakes we had no way of anticipating. Even if we know all the rules of what’s right, we may not know enough about the situation to tell how the rules apply; even if we care deeply about the other person in a relationship, we may not be able to fix the break.
The good news is that God has given us His word and His spirit to guide us; the good news is that when all else fails, including all those ‘apt answers’ we were fooled by, He preserves His people. The good news, the best news, is that this is not a temporary but an eternal fix, by His grace, a promise which will heal our souls entirely. No, the Bible won’t give you an ‘apt answer’ for how to fix that leaky kitchen sink. But a life spent in study of it will suit your heart and mind to find somebody who can figure it out. More than any man ever could, God has provided us a guide, an ‘apt answer’ for every moral and relational problem we have. It will very often be a difficult answer, a hard answer, a complicated answer. We’ll come to the wrong conclusion, miss what His word is telling us. We’ll fail, though the answer is already given.
Yet, in the end, the joy we shall have is His doing, not ours, and so all our sin, all our limitations, all our failures will not triumph. Christ promised to His people, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever” (John 6:51), and we cannot overcome that promise. Whom God calls to repentance and faith He will also preserve till the final day. The problem of our sin is one too great for us, but He has given an ‘apt answer’ to it, and our joy must be without end (Rom. 14:17).
God bless.
Written by Colson Potter
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
