Interaction

“As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.” (Proverbs 27:17, NLT)

When I first read this verse from God’s Bible the image I had in my head was two axes striking each other. I knew this couldn’t really be the point of this proverb. A friend explained how it could work by giving an example. One ‘iron’ was a file and the other an axe head. The file is used to sharpen the axe head. The axe won’t work well if it isn’t sharp. Likewise the file. 

A couple of useful things come out of that explanation for me. First, the two ‘irons’ referred to can’t be identical. An axe won’t sharpen an axe; a file won’t sharpen a file. It’s the same with two friends. Each has different characteristics, different experiences, different strengths and different weaknesses. We have a lot we can draw upon to ‘sharpen’ each other. 

The second and main point for me is that the file can’t sharpen the axe head without interaction. It’s the same with people. No interaction. No sharing of experiences, ideas, anything.

It seems to me that our interactions with people have two possible outcomes. We can build each other up. Alternatively we can tear each other down. And there is another option. A neutral state where there is no interaction at all. But what use is that. It’s nearly as useless as tearing each other down.

That’s a few thoughts about just one verse in God’s Bible. If we all applied even that one verse to our lives what a different place our world would be. 

There’s so much more to apply to improve our lives now. And much, much more about what God will do with this earth and how we can be a part of it. A permanent part. Well worth reading about.