A TIME TO BE SILENT

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Acts 13:15 And after the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them, saying, “Men and brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.”

I searched for today’s verse across multiple versions of scripture to see if it is rendered using any other wording. However, to much surprise, across board, one word uniformly appears in the text ‘IF’. In terms of function, it serves as the prefixes to a conditional statement. That is, it is not an imperative hence, you are only to execute the action or carry out the instruction should you meet the requested criteria.

So while in the temple, Paul and his companions were asked to speak words of exhortation ‘IF’ they had any. The Psalmist was so concerned about saying things anyhow that He made this prayer “Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips [to keep me from speaking thoughtlessly] (Ps 141:3)

You don’t always need to have something to say- there are moments in time when the best to offer is your silence. Ecc 3:7b is clear ‘there is a time to speak and a time to remain silent’.

#sly