Matins Devotion: June 17, 2025

Proverbs 17

Why is gossip such a challenge for Christians? Why do we struggle so much to keep our mouths shut when we encounter the sins of our neighbors, even the sins of our friends? Well, we struggle because, in the end, we buy into the devil’s lie that, deep inside the guts of your neighbor’s reputation, is the prize called “righteousness.” There, within the bowels of your neighbor’s honor, you can find the stuff that will make you good and acceptable, both to God and to man. So we repeat the matter of our neighbor’s sin to all who will listen. We uncover his sin and decry it so others will praise us for being so much holier by comparison.  We tell all who will listen about the sin our neighbor has committed so they will be disgusted by him and find us all the more appealing. We reach into our neighbor’s guts and reveal the viscera to the world, convinced that God will be pleased with us for being nothing like the sinners we’re robbing of their dignity and honor.

But Solomon offers us a better way when he tells us, “Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.” And in Christ, we have the One who does exactly this, the One who refuses to repeat our sins before the world, but remains silent about them as He remains silent in His journey to the cross.

There, at Calvary, your Lord did not rip open the reputations of the sinners who put Him on that tree. He didn’t shout about their sins while nailed to the cross to show that they were unworthy to accuse Him and that their righteousness was nothing compared to His own, even though both of those things were true. And when you were utterly unworthy of His love, when your guts were cancerous with your betrayal and hatred of Christ, Christ Himself covered your sins by pouring out His blood upon you. He hid your sins from the eyes of His Father by drowning them in the flood of His righteousness. Jesus didn’t expose your sins, but forgave them. And when you were His enemy, entirely worthy of having your evil aired before the world, Jesus destroyed your evil and made you His friend.

Whoever covers an offense seeks love. Jesus Christ did this for you. Do it for your neighbor.