Sue J Love
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- Joined
- Mar 27, 2015
- Messages
- 4,331
“A gentle answer turns away wrath,
But a harsh word stirs up anger.
The tongue of the wise makes knowledge acceptable,
But the mouth of fools spouts folly.
The eyes of the Lord are in every place,
Watching the evil and the good.
A soothing tongue is a tree of life,
But perversion in it crushes the spirit.” (Proverbs 15:1-4 NASB1995)
As I was reading this today, I immediately began to see how such words as these are being twisted today in a way that is contrary to the teachings of Christ and of his New Testament apostles. And starting with the first verse, I contemplated how the English words here, first of all, may not be capturing the original thought intended, and how this doesn’t always play out that way, i.e. that there are exceptions to this. So I want to take a look at this to see what was intended and how this is possibly being misconstrued today.
“Gentle,” in English, can mean soothing, soft, mild, weak, indulgent, lenient, tolerant, as well as compassionate, merciful, and forgiving. Another word for gentle is humble or meek, and Jesus was meek, but he was not weak, and he did not compromise truth and righteousness, but he spoke truth to the people. And he got a lot of harsh and angry responses to his words from people who did not want to hear what he had to say. The prophets of old and the New Testament apostles experienced many of the same responses, too.
So my point here is that we can speak the truth of the gospel to people, and we can answer them and their responses to us in gentle ways, but if they don’t like the message, or if they don’t like our answers, there is nothing to keep them from striking out at us in rage and anger if they don’t like the message and if they find the truth of the message offensive to them. But we are not to soften the truth of the gospel, and we are not to compromise the truth of the message just so people don’t get upset or angry with us.
And this goes right to the next verse about the tongue of the wise making knowledge acceptable. We have many people today making the knowledge of the Scriptures acceptable to the people of the world by compromising truth and righteousness, and by being tolerant of sinful practices and worldliness among those professing faith in Jesus Christ. They make the gospel acceptable to the people by teaching the gospel out of context to where it requires no death to sin and no obedience to God, as required.
And verse 4 continues on the same line of thought if we take these words to mean what they do not mean if taught in the correct biblical context. For “soothing tongues” today are often those of wolves in sheep’s clothing who relax God’s biblical requirements, and who appease human flesh, and who pacify professing Christians in their addictive sinful patterns. They lessen God’s biblical requirements for salvation and eternal life with God to make faith in Christ more comfortable and more acceptable to human flesh.
Now, should we be kind? Absolutely! But kindness is not lying to people, and kindness is not compromising the truth of the gospel to make it more appealing to human flesh. We can still be kind and yet speak the truth that people don’t like, which may get them to return our kindness with hate, bitterness, wrath, and even false accusations against our character. For the most kind thing we can speak to people is the gospel truth which can free them from their sinful addictions and give them hope and new life in Christ.
But some people consider it “harsh” if we speak the truth of the whole gospel message which includes God’s directives that we must deny self, die to sin daily, and follow our Lord in walks of obedience to his commands as part of faith which saves and which delivers us out of our bondage to sin. They consider it “harsh” if we teach the truth that Jesus and his apostles taught that says that if we profess Jesus as Lord, but then we continue in deliberate and habitual sin, that we will not inherit eternal life with God.
But the soothing and pacifying and appeasing feel good messages which so many are teaching today are what are truly harsh and hateful, for they speak lies to the people which, if they believe them, will send them straight to hell on a false promise of heaven for eternity. For they are giving them a false hope based on a lie that tells them that a mere verbal profession of faith in Jesus will assure them of salvation from sin and eternal life with God. But lip service only will get no one into heaven. We must obey God!
For Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).
[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]
The Heart of Man
Based off Matt. 15:1-20; Mk. 7:1-23
An Original Work / April 4, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
Listen to me ev’ryone and
Understand this teaching of Christ:
Why do you break the commands
Of God for the sake of tradition?
When you follow the ways of man,
And don’t obey the words of Christ,
You nullify the words of God,
And you hold to the ways of man.
What comes out of a man’s mouth is
What makes him unclean and dirty.
The things that come out of the mouth
Come from the heart, from within him.
The heart of man is so sinful;
From his nature, out comes evil:
Lying, cursing, greed and malice,
Lust and lewdness, deceit, slander.
Jesus calls us to obey him;
Turn from our sins; follow His ways.
Yet, his people honor him with their lips,
but their hearts not with Him.
Their worship of God is in vain.
Their teachings are rules taught by man.
Jesus calls us; gently leads us
To return and follow His truth.
What’s a Harsh Word?
An Original Work / October 22, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
But a harsh word stirs up anger.
The tongue of the wise makes knowledge acceptable,
But the mouth of fools spouts folly.
The eyes of the Lord are in every place,
Watching the evil and the good.
A soothing tongue is a tree of life,
But perversion in it crushes the spirit.” (Proverbs 15:1-4 NASB1995)
As I was reading this today, I immediately began to see how such words as these are being twisted today in a way that is contrary to the teachings of Christ and of his New Testament apostles. And starting with the first verse, I contemplated how the English words here, first of all, may not be capturing the original thought intended, and how this doesn’t always play out that way, i.e. that there are exceptions to this. So I want to take a look at this to see what was intended and how this is possibly being misconstrued today.
“Gentle,” in English, can mean soothing, soft, mild, weak, indulgent, lenient, tolerant, as well as compassionate, merciful, and forgiving. Another word for gentle is humble or meek, and Jesus was meek, but he was not weak, and he did not compromise truth and righteousness, but he spoke truth to the people. And he got a lot of harsh and angry responses to his words from people who did not want to hear what he had to say. The prophets of old and the New Testament apostles experienced many of the same responses, too.
So my point here is that we can speak the truth of the gospel to people, and we can answer them and their responses to us in gentle ways, but if they don’t like the message, or if they don’t like our answers, there is nothing to keep them from striking out at us in rage and anger if they don’t like the message and if they find the truth of the message offensive to them. But we are not to soften the truth of the gospel, and we are not to compromise the truth of the message just so people don’t get upset or angry with us.
And this goes right to the next verse about the tongue of the wise making knowledge acceptable. We have many people today making the knowledge of the Scriptures acceptable to the people of the world by compromising truth and righteousness, and by being tolerant of sinful practices and worldliness among those professing faith in Jesus Christ. They make the gospel acceptable to the people by teaching the gospel out of context to where it requires no death to sin and no obedience to God, as required.
And verse 4 continues on the same line of thought if we take these words to mean what they do not mean if taught in the correct biblical context. For “soothing tongues” today are often those of wolves in sheep’s clothing who relax God’s biblical requirements, and who appease human flesh, and who pacify professing Christians in their addictive sinful patterns. They lessen God’s biblical requirements for salvation and eternal life with God to make faith in Christ more comfortable and more acceptable to human flesh.
Now, should we be kind? Absolutely! But kindness is not lying to people, and kindness is not compromising the truth of the gospel to make it more appealing to human flesh. We can still be kind and yet speak the truth that people don’t like, which may get them to return our kindness with hate, bitterness, wrath, and even false accusations against our character. For the most kind thing we can speak to people is the gospel truth which can free them from their sinful addictions and give them hope and new life in Christ.
But some people consider it “harsh” if we speak the truth of the whole gospel message which includes God’s directives that we must deny self, die to sin daily, and follow our Lord in walks of obedience to his commands as part of faith which saves and which delivers us out of our bondage to sin. They consider it “harsh” if we teach the truth that Jesus and his apostles taught that says that if we profess Jesus as Lord, but then we continue in deliberate and habitual sin, that we will not inherit eternal life with God.
But the soothing and pacifying and appeasing feel good messages which so many are teaching today are what are truly harsh and hateful, for they speak lies to the people which, if they believe them, will send them straight to hell on a false promise of heaven for eternity. For they are giving them a false hope based on a lie that tells them that a mere verbal profession of faith in Jesus will assure them of salvation from sin and eternal life with God. But lip service only will get no one into heaven. We must obey God!
For Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).
[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]
The Heart of Man
Based off Matt. 15:1-20; Mk. 7:1-23
An Original Work / April 4, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
Listen to me ev’ryone and
Understand this teaching of Christ:
Why do you break the commands
Of God for the sake of tradition?
When you follow the ways of man,
And don’t obey the words of Christ,
You nullify the words of God,
And you hold to the ways of man.
What comes out of a man’s mouth is
What makes him unclean and dirty.
The things that come out of the mouth
Come from the heart, from within him.
The heart of man is so sinful;
From his nature, out comes evil:
Lying, cursing, greed and malice,
Lust and lewdness, deceit, slander.
Jesus calls us to obey him;
Turn from our sins; follow His ways.
Yet, his people honor him with their lips,
but their hearts not with Him.
Their worship of God is in vain.
Their teachings are rules taught by man.
Jesus calls us; gently leads us
To return and follow His truth.
What’s a Harsh Word?
An Original Work / October 22, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
