Favor

Proverbs 3:3-4 – Don’t let love and truth ever leave you. Tie them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will find favor and a good name in the eyes of God and people. (NIrV)

All of us at some level are looking for favor with either God or people, or if you are like me, both! I often find myself returning to the verse in Luke, which speaks of Jesus growing in favor with both God and people.

Luke 2:52 – Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people. (NLT)

In our passage from Proverbs, we are told the way to find favor and to develop a good name is to hold on to love and truth. As we saw last time, wisdom is connected to honesty. In Luke, we are told that Jesus grew in wisdom and favor. We again see the connection between truth and wisdom, but there is also an additional benefit to truth; not only will God protect us, but we will also gain favor with people.

We must also remember love in our pursuit of truth, or another way we might phrase it is grace. Our truth-telling must not condemn, but ought to bring light and conviction. I recently watched Glass Onion, the Knives Out sequel, and was struck by a conversation between the detective character, Benoit Blanc and one of the murder suspects, Birdie Jay. Jay starts the dialogue by saying, ‘I am a truth-teller; some people can’t handle it.’ Blanc replies, ‘It is a dangerous thing to mistake speaking without thought with speaking the truth. Don’t you think?’

Our truth-telling should be bounded by love and grace. It is with both love and truth that we will find favor with both God and people.

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