No Gloating

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

NO GLOATING

Prov 24:17-18

17 Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice, 18 or the LORD will see and disapprove and turn his wrath away from him.

NIV

If we ever think we are special just because we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we might well be guilty of this gloating spoken of here. The truth is we are but sinners saved by grace. We are not any better or worse than anyone else. We have heard with our own ears someone say, “I cannot remember the last time I sinned”. What a boast, and it might have been a gloat. We are admonished not to think more highly of ourselves then we should.

Rom 12:3-4

3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.

NIV

This poor fellow who said that was in the midst of a sin while speaking them. The sin of pride, the sin of thinking more highly of himself then he should. Not only that he was most likely lying about it, or at least completely deceived by the devil. The truth be told, anyone without sin can cast the first stone at us sinners saved by grace. No, the rest of mankind who has yet to accept Jesus are simply people who need Jesus. If they are experiencing difficult lives, hard times, troubled moments in life, we should be offering them a solution. It is not that all their troubles will go away, although they may, but it is the troubled heart within them which can be healed. Inner turmoil is what destroys a person. Living without inner peace, contentment, serenity is what causes all sorts of emotional, mental and even physical problems for a person. Just as the Apostle Paul said that he learned to be content in whatever circumstance he was in, we have that same peace, that same contentment. But the unsaved do not. We cannot gloat about that, but should want to help them. We should be giving them the peace of Christ, the grace that is available to them as it was to us. How can we gloat over someone’s pain and suffering? How can we gloat because we have eternal life and they do not? How can we gloat because our sin is forgiven and theirs is not? How can we rejoice because somebody has fallen? Another idea here is who is our enemy in the first place that we should gloat when they fall or stumble? Are we not to make every effort to live in peace with all people?

Heb 12:14

14 Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

NIV

Surely Solomon had enemies. There were all sorts of wars among the kingdoms in his time. We have had wars among nations in our time. Yet how can we gloat over those nations who have fallen under the power of the United States military might? Even during our Civil War, brothers considered brothers enemies. But, knowing what we know about the scriptures, how we can consider anyone an enemy, except he who wars against our soul. Are not all peoples the creation of God? True some have suppressed the truth by their evil deeds, but that does not mean they are not his creation. We should be seeing all people as he sees them, in need of his grace, therefor we have nothing to gloat about.