25 Like cold water to a weary soul
is good news from a distant land.
26 Like a muddied spring or a polluted well
are the righteous who give way to the wicked.
Don’t Back Down
Recent writing has said how gentle persistence could wear down a hard leader. A gentle answer does turn away wrath. However, there are also times when a person has to make a stand. When something is done that is wrong, it can not be called right. When someone is leading a group into danger, it can not be called a safe path. When someone pretends that they agree with wrong or evil, they have made a serious error. What happens is that the good of the godly person becomes mixed with error and misconception. The result of the compromise is not good – when evil is mixed with anything the overall concoction is toxic. The problem becomes how to deal with a world where toxic sin has been mixed in with everything. We need the grace to deal with others who are sinful like us, but we need the strength to resist making the toxicity more potent.
Questions
- What is like cold water?
- What is the danger of polluted well water?
- What is the danger of giving in to a person who is wrong?
- How confident are you in your own opinions?
- How could you know when to give in and when to stand firm?
Plymothian 
One way to resist toxicity is to lead by example. If a person stands firm against those who muddy the spring, that spring will be slightly less muddy. Because of the strong temptation to conform to evil and un-Godly things, I believe the well will never be fully clean. But if a well is a little cleaner and a little more translucent, isn’t that better than cloudy, dark and hopeless?
It seems to me that when Christians come together in a congenial atmosphere, it’s must easier to give a group member a gentle nudge in the right direction. It is much more challenging to nudge a person whom one is less acquainted with or has a less developed relationship- positive reciprocity is less likely in our culture.
Perhaps when we have no further options, we pray for those who don’t listen to our suggestions, the same suggestions derived from God’s word. We can pray like Jesus and ask our Father to ‘forgive them for they do not know what they are doing’ (Luke 23).
Good thoughts. Hope your day goes well at Paradise Cars 😉