"If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength: but wisdom is profitable to direct."
The practical wisdom is before us as Solomon states it clearly. A dull ax, more work! If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength - I want to take this straight forward wisdom and apply it to our spiritual life; The simplicity of the truth for any one that has used an ax is certain. If the ax is dull, sharpen it; if you don't sharpen it, then you have to hit more and harder to make up for the dullness. The spiritual truth is just as real for us. If we be dull in our spiritual activity, and do not daily sharpen ourselves, then the flesh tries to compensate for it all. The difference is found in an A W Tozer quote, 'IF the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today; 95% of what we do would continue on, and nobody would know the difference. But if the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the New Testament church in the book of ACts, 95% of everything they did would have stopped, and everybody would have know the difference.' The basic question that the church, and we as Christians, must ask is where does our strength come from? Humanism has taught the people today to look to self; but we know the Scriptures say, 'look to Jesus'.
The evidence is found in what men do and why they do it. Listen to the pronouns, 'I devised this plan'. 'I want to do this.' there is very little, 'Thus saith the Lord' today. 'The Lord spoke and I obeyed'. For the church and far too many personal Christian lives, the iron is blunt. Dull in our spiritual knowledge, our spiritual practices, and our void of holiness for too many. To 'whet the edge' must mean the sharpening of what we are and what we have. God enables us with our bodies, minds and abilities. These are all gifts from Him. WE choose what we want to do for Him by these precious gifts. Many take the gifts of life and spend it on vanity and self induglence. This only seeks to dull the soul more. and there is a point that you dull it so bad, it is beyond use or repair. The soul that sinneth it shall die, and they have reached that point.
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