Articles
Silence is Golden
We have a hard time with silence, and we seem to have an inherent urge to break it. As a child, the hardest game in the world was the “quiet” game. Sometimes we have trouble sleeping in complete silence, and need a source of white noise (I recommend a good box fan). In those cases, the silence is “deafening,” because our brain is trying to fill the silence with its own noises. In conversations, we can’t stand long, silent pauses – we call them “awkward silences,” and are very uncomfortable until someone finally says something.
Our apparent need to break silence is very dangerous in Biblical interpretation. God has spoken to us through the apostles and prophets (Eph. 2:20) about all that pertains to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). However, He has chosen to remain silent about many things, which religious groups today have decided to “fill,” because “if God was silent about it, then it must not make much difference.” Brethren, let us beware of filling God’s silence! There is far more division in the church over the things God didn’t say than the things He did. His silence about a matter does not mean permission.
We recognize this principle in our everyday lives. For instance: if our parents send us to the store with a grocery list, they write down what they want, but mention nothing on their list about the rest of the items in the store. Why? Because they only write down what they want – which naturally excludes everything else in the store! God has written to us what He wants from us in the Bible, and the reason He is silent about the rest is because He wants us to not go beyond what is written (1 Cor. 4:6; 2 Thess. 2:15; 3:6). The very act of doing something God was silent about has a name in the Bible: it’s called “adding” (Deut. 4:2; 12:32; Prov. 30:5-6; Revelation 22:18).
Have we ever considered that perhaps God was silent about matters because His thoughts are higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:9)? Maybe He was silent about churches supporting other churches financially because He didn’t want the church to be governed by a business headquarters. Maybe He was silent about musical instruments (other than the heart and voice) because He didn’t want rock concerts to replace reverent worship. Maybe He was silent about the church supporting just anyone off the street with its treasury because He established the church of Christ, not the Bank of Christ. Maybe He was silent about coffee and donuts in worship, because He wanted us to focus on Him instead of on filling our bellies (1 Cor. 11:22; Philippians 3:19).
We must respect God’s silence, because it is truly golden. Let us never try to fill it with our own foolish words, because when we do, we are doing evil, whether we realize it or not (Ecclesiastes 5:1-2).
