“Good sense makes one slow to anger and it is his glory to overlook an offense.”
– Proverbs 19:11
Think about that. Mediate on that. Good sense makes one slow to anger and it is his glory to overlook an offense.
Think about that first part, good sense makes one slow to anger. We are so prone in our lives to be quick to anger, but wisdom causes us to be slow to anger, to not jump to anger as an emotion. We need God’s grace to be slow to anger. We think about our reactions to things around us, to circumstances around us, to people around us, how often we can be quick to anger, how short we can be with our fuse, with our temper, to jump to anger.
Proverbs 19:11 Calls Us to Be Slow to Anger
We are prone to be quick-tempered, but wisdom causes us to be slow to anger.
Good sense makes one slow to anger, and then this phrase, “It is his glory to overlook an offense.” It is good, glorious in a sense, to see an offense, to be even offended and to have the ability to overlook that, to say, “Hey, I’ve seen something here that should cause me in one sense to be angry, or should bring offense to me, but I’m going to overlook that in love. I’m going to care for that person. I’m going to not react with quick anger. I’m going to overlook that offense, and that is a glorious thing to do in many circumstances.
Proverbs 19:11 Leads Us to Overlook an Offense
I’m not saying, and Proverbs is not saying here that whenever someone offends you, you should just overlook it. That’s not the way Proverbs work. But this proverb is saying that sometimes it is wise when you are offended to say in wisdom, “I’m going to overlook that. I’m not going to jump to anger about that.”
Oh, this does not come naturally. We need God’s grace to be slow to anger and to overlook offenses, when that’s appropriate. God, we pray for your help in this. We need your help. We pray today for good sense that makes us slow to anger. Lord, we know that we may experience this or that and people around us, kids around us, family around us, spouse, co-workers, there are so many possibilities where we could be quick to anger in our lives. So, help us to be slow, we pray. Help us not to not react in the moment and jump to anger. Guard us from that, we pray, and give us wisdom and self-control to be able to overlook offenses, when that’s appropriate.
This Verse Instructs Us to Confront Offenses
God, we know sometimes, and your Word clearly instructs us to confront offenses, to address them, to talk about them with people around us, so we know that’s not something we should always do, but we also are hearing in your Word that there are times when we need to overlook offenses, when we don’t need to react to them. We don’t need to respond to them, we need to overlook the. Help us to know when that it and help us to do that, we pray, in a way that is good for us and good for others. Lord, we pray for good sense that makes us slow to anger today, and for glory to overlook offenses. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
