Daily Lesson for February 8, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Proverbs chapter 27 verse 5:

          "Better is open rebuke
than hidden love."

and John chapter 18 verses 15 through 18:

15 Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he entered with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, 16 but Peter stood outside at the door. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the servant girl who kept watch at the door, and brought Peter in. 17 The servant girl at the door said to Peter, “You also are not one of this man's disciples, are you?” He said, “I am not.” 18 Now the servants and officers had made a charcoal fire, because it was cold, and they were standing and warming themselves. Peter also was with them, standing and warming himself.

Most of the betrayal in life is not of the willful and active sort, but rather of the passive and silent kind. To betray is to "prove false"; and we can be proven false either by action or inaction, words or silence. Most of us are not Judas; but we are all Peter.

In a speech in the last year of his life, Dr. King said, "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends."  This was the same sentiment written in Book of Proverbs two millennia before: "Better is open rebuke than hidden love."

Last week at school my daughter Gabrielle was on the playground when she was confronted with a group of her classmates belittling another kind of classmate for something that was deemed disgraceful.  Would she speak up or keep quiet?

We're not on the playground anymore but the same choice remains; and it doesn't get any easier.