Proverbs 15:1 - Homiletics

A soft answer and a bitter word

Both of these are regarded as replies to angry words. They represent the wise and the foolish ways of treating such words. They give us a bright and a dark picture. Let us look at each.

I. THE BRIGHT PICTURE .

1 . The answer. A soft answer need not be a weak one, nor should it imply any compromise of truth, nor any yielding of righteousness. It may be firm in substance, though soft in language and spirit. Very often the most effective reply is given in the mildest tone. It is impossible to resent it, yet it is equally impossible to answer it. But often we may go further. When no vital interest of truth or righteousness is at stake, it may be well to yield a point of our own will and pleasure in order to secure peace.

2 . Its inspiration. Such an answer might well be prompted by wisdom, for it is suggested on the ground of prudence in "Proverbs." Yet there is a higher motive for softness in reply to wrath. Christian love will inspire the kinder method, for love is more desirous of peace and good feeling than of securing all that might be justly demanded. To stand on one's rights and resent the slightest intrusion upon them is to act from self-interest, or at best from a sense of self regarding duty. A higher feeling enters and a larger view follows when we are considering our brother's feelings, the sorrow of a quarrel and the blessedness of peace.

3 . Its results. It is successful—not, perhaps, in gaining one's own way, but in allaying wrath. It turns away wrath. The angry opponent is silenced. For very shame he can say no more; or his wrath dies out for want of fuel; or he is won to a better feeling by the generous treatment. At the worst he can find little pleasure in fighting an unarmed and unresisting opponent.

II. THE DARK PICTURE . The ugly contrast of this second picture is necessary in order to emphasize the beauty of the former one. But however interesting they may be in art, Rembrandtesque effects are terrible in real life; for here they represent agonies and tragedies—hatred, cruelty, and misery. Yet they need to be considered if only that they may be abolished.

1 . The bitter answer. This is more than an angry retort. Bitterness is more pungent than wrath. While rage thunders, bitterness stabs. It contains a poisonous element of malice, and it means more ill will than the hot but perhaps hasty words that provoke it.

2 . The root of its bitterness. No doubt this springs from a feeling of injury. The angry man has wronged his companion, or, at least, wounded him, and the retort is provoked by pain. But pain alone would not engender bitterness. A new element, a virus of ill will, is stirred when the bitter word is flung back, and it is the outflow of this ill will that gives bitterness to the answer.

3 . The anger that it rouses. This new anger is worse than that which commenced the quarrel. Each reply is more hot, more furious, more cruel. Thus a great wrath is roused and a great fire kindled by a very little spark that has been fanned into a flame when it should have been quenched at the outset.

There is no question as to which of these two pictures best accords with Christian principle. The gospel of Christ is God's soft answer to man's rebellious wrath.