FBC Daily Devotional – Dec. 2, 2020

Faith Baptist Church

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day of December 2020 and marching toward the end of another year and I know we're all looking forward to that, looking forward to ushering in a new year.

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But between now and then we have the holidays to enjoy and I hope you're gearing up for those in some way or another.

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I hope especially that your Christmas celebration this year will be a cross -centered one.

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We're emphasizing that in the Sunday morning messages through the month of December that Christmas is really to be a time of year when we not only focus on the birth of Christ but the whole purpose of his birth and that is the cross.

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Well this is December 2nd and kind of a significant day in my life.

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It would be my dad's 86th birthday and knowing that that was coming, seeing that last week,

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I got to reflecting on my dad and his impact and, you know, what kind of a man he was and all the rest of that.

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I wrote a pastor's page article this week on that very subject regarding honoring the dishonorable.

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My dad was, in so many ways, not a very honorable man and yet I'm exhorted in the moral law of God, the

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Ten Commandments, to honor your father and your mother. And so I really kind of grappled with that as I thought about that command in Scripture in the

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Ten Commandments and it's therefore a moral law. And my responsibility as it relates to my own father who, you know, wasn't all that honorable.

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So how do I do that? What do I do? How do I honor my father when it seems he's not worthy of that honor?

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I'm probably not the only one who struggles with that because, you know, there's a whole couple of generations probably, quite a few maybe, generations where, you know, fathers were somewhat aloof and I'm speaking great generalities.

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That's not to be construed as true of every man, every father, but I think there was quite a period of time in our nation's history when fathers were somewhat aloof and, you know, they were harsh, they were hard to their kids, maybe a bit brutal, meting out discipline, you know, in a harsh way and not all expressing all that, you know, that loving spirit that you would like to experience.

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So I know a lot of people have grown up with this sort of tension in their heart and their attitude.

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They knew their father loved them and have a measure of love for their father as well, but, you know, how to honor?

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How to honor? So as I thought about that, there were several things I wrote in that article, but I kept thinking on it some more.

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And one of the ideas that came across my mind dovetails with a couple other passages of scripture.

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And the basic idea is this, that one of the ways that I can honor my dad, who was not very honorable, is by not rehearsing all of the things that were so dishonorable, not parading them out for all the world to see.

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There is biblical precedent for that and principles involved. I think of 1

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Peter 4, verse 8, which is quoting one of the Proverbs, where Peter writes, you know, love covers a multitude of sins.

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So the love that I ought to have for my dad would compel me to cover a multitude of sins.

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Now, just to be clear, that love is not necessarily talking about a touchy -feely thing.

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It's not talking about that there's a great deal of affection or affinity in that regard.

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It's choosing to do what's good for the benefit of another.

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And it is of no benefit to my father's memory or his life and history.

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It's no benefit to anybody for me to parade before the whole world all of the sins of my father.

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It's far better to just cover that multitude of sins.

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And that choice of doing so is an expression of love.

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There's another verse in the Proverbs that kind of comes to bear on this, I think. Proverbs 11, 13 says, a tale bearer reveals secrets, but he that is of a faithful spirit conceals a matter.

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So if I just start spouting off all the things that my dad did that were dishonorable, that very few people in the scope of this world know about, then what am

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I doing? And why am I doing it? I'm being a tale bearer and I'm revealing secrets, but to what end?

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You know, some secrets ought to be disclosed. If they're crimes, they ought to be uncovered and they ought to be dealt with.

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But does everything have to be disclosed? Do all secrets have to be unearthed and opened up and put in a book for all to see?

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No, I think not. I become a tale bearer if I just, for the sake of gratuitous expression, lay out all of that salacious stuff.

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Proverbs 12, 23 bears on this as well. It says, a prudent man conceals knowledge.

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A prudent man conceals knowledge, but the heart of fools proclaims folly. Okay, so there are a lot of things

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I know about my dad. A lot of things I didn't know until I was well into adulthood, in fact, just a matter of maybe 20 years ago.

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But I know a lot of things. Do I need to reveal all those things?

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A prudent's wisdom conceals knowledge. It doesn't have to share everything that one knows.

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A fool, on the other hand, proclaims folly. A fool will be glad to spout off all of the folly committed by somebody else.

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And what good is that? Of what value is that? Now, by the way,

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I think there is a difference between sharing parental flaws in a controlled manner to help others and to help them to maybe learn from those mistakes, those errors, those sins, and to avoid them.

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Such sharing of those flaws is purposeful.

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It's designed to be helpful and beneficial. I'm not talking about that.

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That takes place in a very limited scope. I'm talking about the venting when

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I've been wronged and my dad has wronged me or others, and I want to vent and indiscriminately proclaim all of those failures and foibles just to make me feel better.

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Well, of what value is that? Whom does that really help? And does that do more harm than good?

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So I think one of the ways that children, adult children who have had parents that have been dishonorable can still honor their parent and fulfill that command in the

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Decalogue, the fifth commandment of the Ten Commandments, the first commandment in the commandments that God gave to us in our relationship to others.

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I think one of the ways that we can honor our parents who have been dishonorable is just simply by keeping it to ourselves.

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Now, again, let me be very clear. I'm not talking about keeping to myself if my parent has committed a crime against me or against somebody else.

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I'm not talking about that. I'm not talking about criminal abuse or anything like that. That should be disclosed, and it should be disclosed to the authorities, and that parent should pay for that crime.

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I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about those personal affronts, those sins that have been committed against me, those flaws of character and flaws of behavior and flaws of attitude and ways of thinking, those kinds of things.

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I can honor my dishonorable parent by concealing, by covering a multitude of sins.

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We say when it comes to matters of confession that the circle of confession is the circle of knowledge, and I think that principle, that idea comes to bear on this kind of situation as well.

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So if you struggled with that matter of honoring a parent that has maybe been cruel or mean or hurtful or whatever to you, maybe these few thoughts are a little bit helpful.

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I trust so. Let's pray and ask God to give us wisdom in some of these difficult matters.

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And so, our Father, we do recognize today that we oftentimes face difficulty in our relationships, even with our own parents.

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You've given us a command in your word, and we need great wisdom sometimes in fulfilling that command and doing the right thing by our parent.

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Give us wisdom, we pray, and we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, well,

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I hope you have a good rest of your day today. We will be having a service this evening online.

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I'll have a Bible study and a brief time of prayer, probably about 30 minutes tonight at seven o 'clock.

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You can see this on Facebook Live or at the church website. If you can tune in, be glad for you to do so.