Let's Be Sharp

Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.

(Proverbs 27.17)

I went through a period of my Christian life when I thought I could go it alone. I was disillusioned by a church I was attending and figured I would just study and worship on my own. It was a very bleak part of my walk with Christ where I didn’t attend church for a couple of years. I developed some bad habits like getting lazy about reading the Bible. I spent more time reading novels and adventure stories than reading and studying the scriptures. I wasn’t gaining in my knowledge of Christ during that time. I was more like a stagnant pond that wasn’t being replenished by fresh water.

Because I’m a fickle human being, like most people, I go through peaks and valleys. When I’m in the valley, my faith is tested. During that period of time I wasn’t involved in a church, I backslid into many of my old sinful behaviors. I still believed in Jesus, but you wouldn’t have been able to tell by my life. I wasn’t growing in my knowledge of or my relationship with Jesus. I was actually very miserable, both with myself and the way I was behaving, and not having that uplifting fellowship I once felt from church. I finally realized, my unbelieving friends weren’t helping me be a better believer, I needed Christian friends. I guess you could say I wasn’t very sharp. (pun intended)

Going to a church service every Sunday is good but that can’t be the extent of what it means to follow Jesus. I need other believers to help me see when I’m straying from the path or developing ideas about the scriptures that are incorrect. When I was saved, God didn’t suddenly download all the knowledge of the Bible into my brain. God gave us the scriptures to constantly build on our knowledge of him and his plan for us. It is our responsibility to be sharpened by reading the scriptures and to hone each other in fellowship and mutual study.

A carving knife doesn’t sharpen itself while sitting in a drawer. It has to be sharpened. When a blade is sharpened the rough edges get smoothed out, chips are knocked off, and the blade gets sharper. The same goes for me growing in my walk with Christ. When I study and spend time with other Christians my rough edges get smoothed out. All the chips on my shoulders get knocked off when I worship with other believers and my walk becomes sharp and straight.

Heavenly Father, you sit on the highest throne in the highest heaven because you are the sovereign of the universe. We want to know you as intimately as we know each other, which we do through the study of your Word. However, since we are fallible humans, we sometimes misinterpret what we read. Please put mature believers in our lives to correct our mistakes in understanding. Help us to willingly listen to their warnings and corrections without animosity. If we are giving correction to someone else, help us to be loving, and never use a haughty tone. Give us all a spirit of love and willingness to be sharpened by each other. Not one of us is perfect. We all need each other to compel us to be better examples of Christ’s love. Sometimes, that involves being rebuked when we are way off track in our Christian walk. If we can listen to an honest criticism of our behavior and make changes in our actions, we will be better followers of Jesus Christ. It’s in his name, we pray. Amen!