THE SIN OF STINGINESS

          Have you ever known someone who was stingy with words of praise?  Many years ago I worked with an elder in the Lord’s church who once gave me a compliment - - once over the span of a decade and a half.  Everybody needs words of encouragement, and preachers are no exception.  Perhaps the intent was not to give me the BIG head.  I have thought about that posture over the years and I have concluded that it is sinful to be stingy with our words of encouragement.  Solomon wrote, do not withhold good from those to whom it is due (Prov.3:27).  Paul echoes this senti-ment, saying:  render to all what is due them…honor to whom honor (Rom.13:7).  I respect those who are slow to speak (Js.1:19); those who weigh their words carefully (Prov.15:28); those who refuse to engage in flattering others (Ps.5:9).  On the contrary, I feel sorrow for those who fall silent when an opportunity arises to build others up.  A (positive) word fitly spoken is like dispensing a golden apple (Prov.25:11), but such reticent stingi-ness is anything but golden.  How dark and dismal it would be to live in a world filled with such verbal tightwads.  How anti-Christian and ungodly!  

          It is always a good thing to edify one another (let all things be done for edification/1Cor.11:26b).  In a society where put-downs have become common-place, the church needs to be a breath of fresh air.  By our frequent words of encouragement we can extend grace to those who need it (Eph.4:29), and who among us doesn’t need it.  In a prayer song, Francie Havergal petitioned God - - Lord, speak to me that I may speak in living echoes of Thy tone.  When we think of God and Christ, the word stingy never comes to mind.  Some three-thousand years ago King David affirmed:  Thou, O Lord, wilt not withhold Thy compassion from me; Thy lovingkindness and Thy truth will continually preserve me (Ps.40:11).    

                                                                                        Terry Siverd / Cortland Church of Christ