Demeanor Determines Effectiveness

“Deceit is in the heart of them that imagine evil: but to the counsellors of peace is joy.” (Pr 12:20 AV)

When reading one’s devotions, it is often those verses that do not make sense or which piques our interest that the Spirit intends to speak.  Such is the case with the verse above.  At first, it didn’t make sense to be.  The counsellors of peace receive joy.  Joy is an emotion.  So, if the counsellors of peace receive joy, what is the emotion to those who imagine evil?  The answer must be deceit.  As joy is in the heart of the counsellors of peace, then deceit is in the heart of those who imagine evil.  The meaning of the word ‘…deceit…’ is “fraud, false, feigned, guile, subtilly, treachery.”   We often use the word ‘deceit’ as a mental condition.  Sort of like plotting or planning to do evil.  However, the word of God uses it as a condition of the heart.  This condition of the heart is both a byproduct and cause of the imagining mentioned in the same proverb.  The direct application is simple.  Those who counsel correctly will have a better emotional state than those who do just the opposite.  But there might be another application here.  One that is not a hard and fast rule, but rather, one that might help us determine the quality of a counselor when one is sought.

If deceit is the byproduct of imagining evil (‘imagining’ here means to plow; like setting a course to sow seeds later), this guile should be a disposition read by others.  Before we go further, counsel is right or wrong based on the biblical veracity of it and not on the personality of the one giving it.  Conversely, I have met a lot of positive-minded people who are too optimistic and do not have their feet firmly planted in reality.  These people make lousy counselors.  The above observation is a general one and not to be taken as a hard and fast rule.  We can, however, sense the demeanor of those from whom we are receiving counsel to determine the genuine nature of it.  Does the person have our best interests at heart?  The counselor with deceit in their hearts has their own interests as their primary concern.  Does the counsel produce peace?  Is the counselor concerned with our own personal growth knowing that even if there might be risk or trials along the way, that counsel will eventually bring peace?  Does the counsellor have a general disposition of hope and joy, or are the always cast down as though there is no hope?

This application can be use in several ways.  As the one seeking counsel, we can try to discern a person’s emotional state.  Would they make a good counsellor?  As one who is often sought out for advice, what demeanor are we showing that we might be an effect minister of wisdom?  I have seen a great many mistakes made because someone sought out counsellors who were of the later and never of the former.  Sometimes it works out.  Sometimes it does not.  What is important is the counsel must be biblical.  First and foremost, it must conform to the word of God.  If we are one to whom the LORD has given wisdom, then how we come across will, in some part, determine how often we are sought out of others seeking an opinion.