The Fly Dead flies putrefy the perfumers ointment, and cause it to give off a foul odor; so does a little folly to one respected for wisdom and honor. Ecclesiastes 10:1 In a training manual used at the United States Naval Academy, a short creed is included, originally written by John Wayland in 1899 and titled The True Gentleman. The first line says, The True Gentleman is the man whose conduct proceeds from ... an acute sense of propriety. A trip to the dictionary reveals that propriety is the quality of being socially appropriate -- doing and saying the right thing at the right time. The Bible speaks of a similar idea when it talks about speech seasoned with salt (Colossians 4:6). Always graphic, Solomon said an angry woman is like a gold ring in a pigs nose (Proverbs 11:22). And later in life, the king put it a different way: All it takes to ruin the beautiful odor of a vial of perfume is one dead fly floating therein (Ecclesiastes 10:1). All these verses say the same thing: It only takes one small, inappropriate word or deed to tarnish an otherwise respectable person or moment. James would agree: Be slow to speak and slow to anger (James 1:19). Ask God to give you a Spirit-led sense of propriety, today and every day. Grace is the salt which seasons our discourse. Matthew Henry
Posted on: Sun, 15 Jun 2014 21:00:38 +0000
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