Deeper Life #223

And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you.

—1 Thessalonians 4:11

FIRST PETER 4:15 SPEAKS OF the suffering that springs from the wrong temper: “Let none of you suffer . . . as a busybody in other men’s matters.” From talking in the wrong mood there springs a suffering so keen, so stinging, so belittling, so hopeless, that it debases and drives still lower the suffering one. An old song from the ancient pilgrim’s songbook, Psalm 120, has this thorn at the heart of its suffering. Read it carefully, dear friend.

It is humiliating to suffer from being a “busybody” or a meddler “in other men’s matters.”

The suffering that arises from a wrong temper has no refining quality, only a humiliating aspect. Peter, as a meddler in other men’s matters, got a rebuke from our Lord (John 21:21–22). Surely the rebuke contained in our Lord’s answer to Martha, who complained that Mary did not serve Him as she did, is similar (Luke 10:42). The wrecks of many severed friendships began in that mutiny and final abandonment of busybody meddlesomeness.

How will sad memory point where here and there,

Friend after friend, by falsehood or by fate,

From him or from each other parted were,

And love sometimes becomes the nurse of hate!

Rather, he thinks he held not duly dear

Love, the best gift that man on man bestows,

While round his downward path, recluse and drear,

He feels the chill, indifferent shadows close.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

“Why did I not,” his spirit murmurs deep,

“At every cost of momentary pride,

Preserve the love for which in vain I weep;

Why had I wish, or hope, or sense beside?”

O cruel issue of some selfish thought!

O fruitless lesson, mercilessly taught,

Oh long, long echo of some angry tone!

Alone to linger—and to die alone!

Prayer Thought: Lord, enable me to resist the temptation to pry into other people’s affairs.

SUGGESTED READING: Psalm 69:1–19