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Peace of silence

One word spoken in season will do more good than a thousand out of season. But in some cases peace, through having our faith to ourselves before God (Rom. 14:22), is of more consequence than the open discovery of some things we take to be true, considering that the weakness of man's nature is such that there can hardly be a discovery of any difference in opinion without some estrangement of affection. So far as men are not of one mind, they will hardly be of one heart, except where grace and the peace of God bear great rule in the heart (Col. 3:15). Therefore open show of difference is only good when it is necessary, although some, from a desire to be somebody, turn into by ways and yield to a spirit of contradiction in themselves. Yet, if Paul may be judge, they `are yet carnal' (1 Cor. 3:3).
RICHARD SIBBES 
(Source : The Bruised Reed)

The point here being that sometimes it is better to remain silent over certain truths where the discovery of our views would only lead to unnecessary disunity with other Christians. This as he rightly notes is in those unnecessary areas which we may call speculative or open to general interpretations. For example, do people really need to know our opinion on the millennium? No. 

And yet too often we find that people are only eager to let us know their views on such non-essential matters. As Sibbes would say, the motivation in those instances is always to be a “somebody”.  It is therefore little surprise that the dawn of social media has spawned more disunity among true Christians with everyone graviting to their echo chamber over non-essentials. We would well to practise the discipline of silence more often. 

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