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Job 16:1-5  Then Job replied: “I have heard many things like these; you are miserable comforters, all of you!  Will your long-winded speeches never end?  What ails you that you keep on arguing?  I also could speak like you, if you were in my place; I could make fine speeches against you and shake my head at you.  But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief.

I was preaching not long ago on Philippians 4:1-9 which includes verse 5: “Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.”  The real meaning of the Greek word translated ‘gentleness’ in this verse is very hard to express fully in English.  Other Engish versions translate it ‘moderation’, ‘forbearance’,  ’reasonableness’, and ‘magnanimity’, and Eugene Petersen in ‘The Message’ spells it out as ‘make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them’.  The Septuagint uses the same Greek word to express the idea of ‘ready to forgive’ or ‘by nature forgiving’ in Psalm 86:5.

Job’s problem with the ‘friends’/‘comforters’ he was trying to respond to was that they were theologically mostly right, but I’m sure if he’d had access to Philippians 4:5, he could have quoted that to them to great advantage!  It’s good to be right on the basis of God’s revealed truth, but it’s not always appropriate to insist on correctness in a pastoral situation where God’s mysterious Providence is beyond our comprehension because of the limitation of our finite perspective.

How often is our gracious, loving Heavenly Father prepared to withhold his fully-justified reproach in favour of his comfort under the circumstances?  Let us, because ‘the Lord is near’, be more ready with words of encouragement and comfort rather than with harsh, and often insensitive and unhelpful, criticism.

A feature of all Paul’s letters is his endorsement of the genuine faith, and acceptance in Christ as fellow-believers, even of wayward church members who also needed his strong admonition – such as Euodia and Syntyche at the beginning of Philippians 4

 Let us remember that at the end of the story (Job 40-42) God commended Job and castigated his ‘comforters’!  We, too, seldom have access to the full picture, so let us always seek to be as understanding, accommodating, and encouraging as we possibly can when God’s correctness is difficult to fathom – to be reasonable, forbearing, moderate and magnanimous, working to build one another up rather than putting one another down with self-righteous criticism.

– Bruce Christian