#166 - Kyle Thompson // A Time to Keep Silence, and a Time to Speak

We explore Ecclesiastes 3:7, focusing on the wisdom of knowing when to keep silent and when to speak up in our Christian walk. The challenge of controlling our tongues affects all men, whether it's saying hurtful things or failing to speak truth when needed.

• The Serenity Prayer offers a framework for discerning when to accept things and when to take action
• God's wisdom through Scripture and the Holy Spirit helps us navigate when to speak and when to stay silent
• In Habakkuk, God reminds us there are times to be silent and submit to His sovereignty
• Ephesians 4:15 teaches us to "speak the truth in love" as part of spiritual maturity
• Christians must balance both speaking truth and doing so with love—not choosing just one
• We have a responsibility to confront sin, false teaching, and spiritual deception in others' lives

Join us tomorrow as we continue our journey through Ecclesiastes.

Chapters

• 0:01 Welcome to the Daily Blade
• 0:21 Exploring Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
• 1:09 The Serenity Prayer Wisdom
• 3:22 Biblical Examples of Silence and Speech
• 5:04 Speaking Truth in Love

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

Speaker 2: 0:20

Alright, welcome back. This week on the Daily Blade, we are focusing on Ecclesiastes 3, verses 1 through 8. I'll read it again here and a time to sow, a time to keep silence and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. So, specifically, today we're keying in on the latter part of verse 7, a time to keep silence and a time to speak. I mean, any of you guys have a problem minding your tongue? No, just me.

Speaker 2: 1:24

Yeah, okay, I think that all of us fellas, if we're being honest, right, we'd say that we have a tendency at least to either open our mouths when we shouldn't and to keep our mouths closed when we shouldn't. Now this could take the form of, you know, saying the ugly mean comment to our spouse because we want to get a leg up in a fight or take a cheap shot, or remaining silent when we hear someone spreading a leg up in a fight, or take a cheap shot, or remaining silent when we hear someone spreading falsehoods in public. Right, either way, it's as if we lack the wisdom or the ability or the courage to do the right thing at the right time when it pertains to what we say Now. While writing this, I was reminded of a prayer that I used to say to myself all the time. It's called the Serenity Prayer, so the extended original version was written by Reinhold Niebuhr in the early 20th century, but it's just simple and, you know, kind of the simplified version of it goes like this God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. Now, it's pretty easy to see the three main points there. So, god, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.

Speaker 2: 2:28

Sometimes there's just nothing we can do about what happened or what is happening. Right, we've just got to seek the peace of God about the situation, and then courage to change the things I can. There will 100% be times when peace is not an option and we've got to have the balls to address and confront the problem right. And then and wisdom to know the difference. You guys know this because you have the benefit of hindsight in your life. But sometimes the line between just accept it and move on and it's time to stand up for what I believe in can be very thin and blurry, and in those moments. We need wisdom, yes, but specifically we need the wisdom that comes from our Heavenly Father. And there are two main sources for that wisdom. We've got the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, otherwise known as the Sword of the Spirit, right, because if we go to the Word of God, we don't have to look far, for example, of times when we need to just zip it and times when we need to throw down right.

Speaker 2: 3:22

So in Habakkuk, chapter 1, the prophet Habakkuk is complaining to God, you know, wondering aloud why God is seemingly sitting by and allowing injustice and violence to prevail through the rise of the Chaldeans. Those are the Babylonians, so the Chaldeans are wicked people, and Habakkuk is just confused by the whole situation. So in Habakkuk, chapter 2, we see God's response. So, starting in verse 6, god responds with the list of woes pronounced against these wicked people. He specifically calls out people that are violent, people that are greedy, people, who are idolatrous. But now verse 20,. So this is God talking, but the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him. So essentially, god is like look, I am sovereign, I am ruling, I am holy, I am in the right place. These idols have no power. Hush your butt and submit Right. So there's clearly times to keep silence.

Speaker 2: 4:18

Now we need to go to the book of Ephesians. The first three chapters are basically doctrine, doctrinal truths, if you will. Ephesians 4 is where Paul starts getting into real life, application right. And in verse 14, paul warns against us lacking discernment, like a child and getting romanced by incorrect doctrine. He then says this in verse 15. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him, who is the head, into Christ. Now, people love to focus on the love part of that, but a bunch of people forget about the speaking the truth part. You can't just pick one, you have to have both. But you can't speak the truth in love if you don't speak up to begin with.

Speaker 2: 5:04

If a buddy of yours is cheating on his spouse, you don't let it slide. You confront him and you demand that he stop and fix his marriage. If your pastor is taking his cues about morality from our atheistic culture and, you know, thinks that the Bible is a stumbling block for evangelism, you don't sit on your hands. You publicly rebuke him and call him to repentance. If someone you love believes that they're, you don't sit on your hands. You publicly rebuke him and call him to repentance. If someone you love believes that they're, you know, good enough, whatever that means, to make it into heaven without Jesus, it's your job to disabuse them of that notion. You share the gospel with them and compel them to put their faith in Christ. So, yes, there are clearly times to keep silence and there are clearly times to speak up. See you back here tomorrow.