First Do No Harm

You will recognise these words from the beginning of the Hippocratic Oath, which is taken by student doctors around the world, and ingrained into their minds even before they touch a patient. The reason is clear. If you can’t make the patient any better, then at least don’t do them any harm. Oh that as believers we would take the lesson to heart.




Some Christians are so used to ‘speaking the truth in love’ that they cannot, or will not, hold their tongue when they should. After all, the argument goes, it’s in the Bible, so it must be right. I would suggest that when the truth is really spoken in love, only good will be done. After all, God does not, and will not, do harm to His own witness. He may convince and convict of the sin in our lives through the Holy Spirit, but He can do that without our feeble attempts to speak for Him in a misguided ‘in love’ pretence.




Sadly, I have come across very few Christians who are loving or lovely, when they speak their version of the truth ‘in love’.

The Journey - Lost

You are having a great trek through some of God’s greatest handiwork, whether mountain, valley or meadow and your walking companion just won’t shut up. That sounds unkind, but you must know what I mean. The two of you have peeled off from the rest of the group, and while you want to drink in the beauty of creation, your companion wants to talk and talk and talk! To make matters worse, when you do try to get into the conversation, it becomes very noticeable that your thoughts are not seen as important. In fact as you talk, your friend is already deciding what they will say next.

Have you ever wondered why some friends lose their way in their own Spiritual journey through life? I have noticed that we have a habit of asking God to step into a situation, and before He can guide us with His answer, we are already mouthing the next request having decided we know how to fix the first problem on our own. We don’t like it when that happens to us, so I wonder how God feels when we do it to Him?

Have you noticed that bad listening companions have few real friends?

To answer before listening— that is folly and shame. Proverbs 18:13