Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How Should We React to Hatred and Anger? | Scott Sauls | Proverbs 15:1

Starting point is 00:00:05 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. And I'm Patrick Miller. One of our favorite things to do is invite on our friends to be guest hosts for 10-minute Bible talks and share about their favorite verses. So here you go. Today's guest is Scott Salz. He is a pastor in Nashville. He's also a husband and a father and the author of five books.

Starting point is 00:00:31 I think you'll enjoy learning from him today. Earlier this year, I had the honor of releasing my fifth book called A Gentle Answer, and the subtitle of that is Our Secret Weapon in an Age of Us Against Them. The book was written not only for individuals, but also for small groups, campus ministries, and entire churches, denominations, and networks who are trying to figure out how to navigate the current polarized and sometimes hostile climate in which we find ourselves. Each chapter is followed by questions for reflection and discussion for this very purpose. The book is built around the verse that is one of my favorite verses.

Starting point is 00:01:12 I'm not sure I could say it's my favorite verses. I don't know if I have a favorite, but it's become one of my favorites. And it's Proverbs chapter 15 verse one, which says, A gentle answer turns away wrath. This generation is the first to turn hate into an asset. When Dr. John Perkins, the 89-year-old Christian minister and civil rights icon and activist, said these words at a leaders' gathering in my hometown of Nashville, things I've been feeling about the current state of Western society came into sharper focus.

Starting point is 00:01:48 For many years now, I've grown increasingly perplexed over what feels like a culture of suspicion, mistrust, and us against them. Whatever the subject may be, politics, sexuality, immigration, income gaps, women's concerns, race, or any other social concerns over which people have differences. Angst, suspicion, outrage, and outright hate increasingly shape our response to the world around us. John Perkins knows suffering. His mother died when he was a baby. His father abandoned him when he was a child. His brother was killed during an altercation with a Mississippi police officer. As a black man during the civil rights era, Perkins endured beatings and imprisonments and death threats.

Starting point is 00:02:36 And since that time, he is faithfully confronted injustice, racism, oppression, and violence, while also advocating valiantly for reconciliation, peace, equality, healing, and hope. If anyone has a right to be bitter, and if anyone has a right to turn hate into an asset to use Perkins' words, and to use it to his own advantage, it is John Perkins. And yet, instead of feeding the cycle of resentment and retaliation, Perkins spends his life preaching against these wrongs while advocating for forgiveness and moving toward enemies in love. With the moral authority of one who practices what he preaches,

Starting point is 00:03:16 Perkins' life is a sermon that heralds reconciliation and peace between divided people groups. He has built his life upon the belief that his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, has left no option except to advance neighbor love through the tearing down of what scripture calls dividing walls of hostility. This is an essential task for those who identify as followers of Jesus Christ, who laid down his life not only for his friends but also for his enemies. Jesus is a God of reconciliation and peace, not a God of hate or division or us against them. He is the God of the gentle answer. He said about himself,

Starting point is 00:03:57 I am gentle and humble in heart. While some people do not understand what it feels like to be ostracized, belittled, or persecuted, John Perkins reminds us all that every person bears the image of God and is a carrier of the divine imprint. Because of this, every person is also entitled to being treated with honor, dignity, and respect. The inherent dignity of personhood makes the prophet's description of neighbor love that much more essential in our dealings with one another. He has told you, oh man, the prophet Micah says, what is good? And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness as an

Starting point is 00:04:41 overflow of walking humbly with our God? Hurtful behaviors like violence, scorn, gossip, and slander injure both the victim and the perpetrator. The hurtful behavior certainly devastates its target, but the hate that lies beneath eats the haters alive. clouding their thinking, crippling their hearts, and diminishing their souls. In the end, those who injure become as miserable as those whom they injure. Those who vandalize someone else's body, spirit, or good name, also vandalize themselves. Perhaps for this reason the Bible is careful to warn that all anger, including the constructive and righteous kind, should be arrived at slowly and not from a reactive hair trigger. Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak,

Starting point is 00:05:31 slow to anger, the apostle James writes, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls. That's James 1 19 through 21. And being slow to anger through a spirit of meekness, we express the image of God in us, who being both perfectly righteous and the universe's chief offended party forgives all of our iniquity and crowns us with steadfast love and mercy, and is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. That's all from Psalm 103. If God's default response to human offense is to be slow in his anger, even the righteousness,

Starting point is 00:06:23 kind. How much more should this be true of us, even when expressions of righteous anger may be entirely justified? Jesus renounced outrage and advanced the power of a gentle answer throughout his ministry. In one instance, as they were traveling through a Samaritan village, Jesus' disciples were met with rejection, hostility, and scorn, feeling offended and incensed by the Samaritans' inhospitable posture and disregard for their Lord. The disciples, James and John, the so-called Sons of Thunder, suggested that Jesus retaliate by calling down fire from heaven to consume them. Jesus responded to the two brothers by rebuking them.

Starting point is 00:07:05 You can find that story in Luke chapter 9. John Perkins' response to the injuries perpetrated toward him and other people of color honors our Lord in ways that the sons of thunder did not. Rather than calling down fire on his enemies, Perkins concluded that the best an only way to conquer outrage was with what he called a love that trumps hate. And I quote, yielding to God's will can be hard, Perkins wrote in 1976, and sometimes it really hurts, but it always brings peace. You have to be a bit of a dreamer to imagine a world where love trumps hate. But I do not think being a dreamer is all that bad. I'm an old man, and this is one of my

Starting point is 00:07:51 dreams, that my descendants will one day live in a land where people are quick to confess their wrongdoing and forgive the wrongdoing of others and are eager to build something beautiful together, end quote. Building something beautiful together will require participation from all sides. For those who are prone to injure, the call is to repent and to engage the noble work of renouncing hatred and exercising love. For those who are vulnerable to becoming injured, the call is to participate in the noble work of resisting bitter and retaliating roots of anger while embracing truth-telling, advocacy, and forgiveness. For all of us, the universal call is to lay down our swords, listen, learn from our differences,

Starting point is 00:08:39 and build something beautiful as John Perkins has encouraged us to do. So then, shall we get started? Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe. and give us a rating. That helps other people find this podcast more easily. Also, ask yourself, who could you share this podcast with? Texting an episode to a friend or a family member is a great way to help them grow spiritually. If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How Should We React to Hatred and Anger? | Scott Sauls | Proverbs 15:1

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