Hi Mike,

Again it happens to me that you answered someone else’s question, and I also get answer to a question I have.
A couple I know lost their baby in the womb about nine weeks ago. I do not know them well, but I felt very sorry for their loss. This week they talked about the loss of their son, and I listened. There also was another person standing there, and he said…”and then there are some people who say “That was the will of God”” in a very negative kind of way. The guy who lost his son said that he did believe there was a God, but now he did not believe anything anymore.
I had so much to say to these two guys, but I didn’t even know where to start at that point. I said nothing, and somehow it bothered me inside; kept me thinking “did I deny my Lord”?
I was reading the letter and the answer in let him remain ignorant.

1Co 14:37  If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.
1Co 14:38  But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant.

They did not ask me anything, they already had their mind made up. Mike, Isa 1Co 14:38 a principle which can be used always? When people have their minds made up, is it better to say nothing even if it is insulting to our Lord? I know, and you undoubtetly know, what comes of discussions with our brothers and sisters who are not likeminded – if in the earth or in the sea – strife. If they don’t ask, they are not interested, and that tells us God is not dragging them at this point. People who are dragged are feeling lost and are having many questions and are looking for answers and have been given a love for the Truth. That’s what comes first in that dragging process, right?
These little things also teach me patience; that now is not the time to speak in many cases; that Mat 27:14 And he answered him to never a word…. even if they don’t marvel about it, but are just plain ignorant. They will not understand a word you say, because they are not asking. And because they are not asking, you know they are not looking.
I had a phone call yesterday from that friend with whom I had had a long conversation. We talked some, and he told me he has been reading the website, and that he hardly could stop reading. I recognize myself in that I also could not stop reading. He would like me to go on a fishing trip with him and talk with me. I’m going, and I hope he will be in an asking mood, not in a telling one.
Do you also remember I told you about one of my former best friends who is elder in the church I used to go to. They went to a sermon not so long ago, and the minister said in that sermon that Judas was predestinated to betray our Lord. They realized that that is also what I have been telling them, and they have been searching and want to talk with me.
I don’t know what will happen; if the Lord will give me words to speak, or maybe answer them never a word. That is all depending on the dragging of the Father.

Your brother in Christ
R____

Hi R____,
This is very instructive because it demonstrates when we should not speak.
But you ask me:

Mike, Isa 1Co 14:38 a principle which can be used always? When people have their minds made up, is it better to say nothing even if it is insulting to our Lord?

The answer to that question is that it is a principle which can always be applied when you are speaking in a group such as you describe, where the people do not know you, who may never see you again, and are not particularly interested in getting to know you. But where it does not apply is when you are in a group of friends with whom you plan to spend time, and who think they know you and who have known you for an extended period of time, and yet they are not even aware that you believe in God or Christ. In that case you have denied Christ, because you have a person thinking he knows you, and you are “Jesus Christ whom he is persecuting” and he isn’t even aware of it because you haven’t even bothered to say “yes, I am a king”, while you were being beaten and scourged by either that person or that group of people.
We are specifically told that we are not to cast our pearls before swine, ‘lest they turn and rend you’.

Mat 7:6 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

You say:

A couple I know lost their baby in the womb about nine weeks ago. I do not know them well, but I felt very sorry for their loss.

That certainly does not sound like you have a close personal relationship with this couple, and I too, would commiserate with even a total stranger if they were to share such an experience with me. But I would not attempt to share my pearls with that person, especially if they told me that they did not even believe in God. If, in the course of time I came to know that man and woman better, if Christ is in me, that is who they are going to get to know. I am sure you feel the same way.
What this all demonstrates is that Christ was telling us the truth when He said that the holy spirit would do our premeditating for us, and would give us the words to speak in that hour. In other words, if Christ is in us, He will be thinking of His Father’s words long before He is delivered up to be persecuted.

Mat 10:19  But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.
Mat 10:20  For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.

Christ also said “let the [ spiritually] dead bury their dead.” Now if we also are told “the dead know not anything”, why would we even attempt to deny their total ignorance. “He that is ignorant let him remain ignorant.”
I hope that answers your question asking if this is a principle that can always be applied. The holy spirit, which really is God’s Word (Joh 6:63), Christ within us, will give us the words to speak “in that same hour.”
But that is “when they deliver you up” and they are pounding on you for answers which they have no interest in hearing. Christ never once in His recorded career went by night to seek out a Pharisee or Sadducee to try to convert that man. Nicodemus came to Christ by night to inquire of the Truth, and other Pharisees came to tempt Him, but He never once tried to deal with them unless they came tempting him. In every case, Christ never denied His Father, and He shut their mouths with the wisdom of His Words. He is still doing the same thing in us. He will give us the words and the wisdom we need at the hour we need it.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike