01/31/2022
By Pastor Vinnie Cappetta
"A Time to Be Silent"
Have you ever been in a discussion and said to yourself, “Why doesn’t that person just be quiet? They never stop talking!” Or maybe you are the person whose tongue never stops. Solomon points out that there is “…a time to be silent and a time to speak” (Ecclesiastes 3:7).
Jeremiah 8:14 questions, “Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defenced cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.” Jeremiah shows that our sin should silence us before God.
On the flipside, 1 Peter 2:15 concludes, “For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.” Though our sin ought to cause us to be silent and think about the mistakes we have made in the sight of God, our good works and godly living can silence our critics and those who do not believe.
Non-stop talking can have unintended consequences; people may label you as a busy body or gossip. Paul exhorts us to “make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you…” (1 Thessalonians 4:11). Paul suggests that being silent at the right time doesn’t come easily.
What word does he use in the first part of the verse to show that being quiet is something to be sought after and learned?
What other commands does he give in this verse?
God wants us to “lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty” (1 Timothy 2:2).
How are you doing with this?
It is your ambition to lead a quiet life or be in other people’s business?
Are you being productive with your time or wasting it by inserting yourself places where you have no business being?
May Christ help us hold our tongues when it is time to be silent.
