Sharpen Your Iron

I love the scripture in Proverbs (NASB) 27: ¹⁷ As iron sharpens iron, So one person sharpens another. NLT - ¹⁷ As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend. ESV - ¹⁷ Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another. When reading these three different versions of scripture, it is easy to see that the correct kind of friendship is a must. In other words, there are proper and soul-building friendships that cause us to grow stronger in our faith walk, and there are other friendships that could draw us further away and weaken our faith walk. In this close, intimate relationship, there is a closeness that is connected many times from the heart, and that connection can influence our mind to make that relationship something less than what God desired from it.

I am talking about male-to-male friendships vs. male-to-female. When a man begins to share feelings, an improper connection can be the result, especially if the female has a very kind and encouraging type of personality. Sadly, many well-intentioned friendships result in taking the place of a deep relationship that is formed with your wife or husband. Remember, the two become one in everything, and any relationship that interferes with that order of things is not good, but evil. In the best-case scenario, a husband and wife will share deep spiritual insights with each other as they grow in their individual faith walk, and that marriage will have the Holy Spirit as the strengthening agent in it. That spiritual relationship will supersede any other relationship, and they will be a "team," and our enemy hates that result. I hear different people not say husband and wife, but use the term "partners" when speaking of their marriage relationship. If you think of it as a partnership, then the two haven't become one, because the two are still two. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 6: ¹⁴ Do not be mismatched with unbelievers; for what do righteousness and lawlessness share together, or what does light have in common with darkness?¹⁵ Or what harmony does Christ have with Belial, or what does a believer share with an unbeliever? If one or neither is not a born-again believer, they cannot be the "one" God is speaking about. Thus, not a team at all.

In our present world, the marriage relationship has been beaten on by too many liberal ways of looking at it. If the two are one, then they think as one before the Lord. If they remain two, then the result will be less than what God intended. A marriage where two are one is best seen in the results of how the husband and wife view their marriage. Paul wrote the following to the church in Ephesus in Ephesians 5:²² Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. ²³ For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. ²⁴ Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. A lot of Christian wives do not like these verses, but they are there for a reason. These verses show the difference between a "partnership" where the two remain two and a marriage where the two become one. If you are one, you see the heart of your spouse in a different light, and you want to bow to the one who created marriage, and that would be God. A marriage where two are one is a powerful thing, and the enemy wants to break up that marriage by making one or both take on a selfish attitude, and that just won't work.

Never look for excuses to not follow God's plan for marriage because satan will give you some really good ones, and he is pure evil. Develop your oneness and see the other in the marriage grow more and more in how they view each other. It will change everything!!

I know in men's ministries the Proverbs 27 verses are used to draw men into a deeper fellowship with each other so they can grow in their faith walk. The versions I listed above did not specifically say "men", so I default to the relationship of oneness found in a Godly marriage. The true sharpening of our lives will come through the person we are "one" with, and that is our spouse. No other man or woman will take the place of the one I am "one" with, and it comes down to priorities, and my wife is my priority. Next to Jesus, she is my number one, and I am hers as well. Keep things in perspective, and we will get more Godly results from marriage than ruined families.

Sharpen the iron of the one you married and let that oneness grow into a strong faith walk for both.

The Pilgrimage Continues,

David Warren