How Proverbs 27:17 Can Change Our Thinking
A dull knife is dangerous. Running your finger across it may not initially cut, but don’t let that fool you. The danger becomes apparent when it is in use.
Imagine preparing for dinner one evening, and you have to cut some vegetables or meat, so you reach into your drawer to grab your favorite knife. The first slice glides across the meat but doesn’t do anything. You try again with more pressure, resulting in a cut in the meat. One more slice with more pressure finishes the job.
The process goes smoothly, though slowly, until the last piece. This section is hard to hold because of its size, but you hold onto it exactly as before and start cutting. Disaster strikes when your hand slips and your finger is sliced open: another hospital visit and some more stitches.
Dullness
Just like a dull knife, a dull person is dangerous. Knives become dull because of use, neglect, and misuse. An overused knife will always require more sharpening. When people are overused, they need to be poured into to replenish themselves. Neglecting a knife can cause it to become dull due to rust.
Similarly, neglecting someone can make them bitter, hateful, and envious of others. A misused knife will become warped and chipped and have a high chance of hurting someone or breaking other things. Likewise, a misused person will become disillusioned, hurt, and warped. People who have become bitter, hateful, envious, emotionally empty, exhausted, hurt, and warped are the cause of much of the pain in life.
Be Iron
“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”
(Proverbs 27:17, NIV)
Do not allow those around you to become dull knives; be the iron that will sharpen another. Also, permit yourself to be honed. We cannot be so prideful that we will not allow others to speak truth into our lives.
Sharpening others is a challenging task because it requires the ability to speak the truth to people without being harsh. We are commanded as Christians to carry out everything with love (1 Corinthians 16:14). This form of love requires us to help other people grow, but not in a way that pushes them away.
Sharpening requires intimacy and friction. We have to be intimate with both the person we are sharpening and the person sharpening us. This is why Jesus told us to make disciples. (Matthew 28:19) Discipling creates a community of love that uplifts and sharpens that cannot be rivaled.
This is the type of community that I want to live in—not one of backstabbing bitterness like the world around us. The temporary pain of being told the truth outweighs the eternal pain of being lied to. I want to be the iron for another because I love them, and I hope that another will be willing to be my iron because they love me.
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