Tuesday, July 18, 2023

Malachi 2:16 -- On Avoiding Treachery

"For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the Lord of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously."
Malachi 2:16


In this chapter, dealing treacherously is talked about in many contexts, but mainly it is comparing the way we treat a marriage covenant lightly to the way we treat our committment to God lightly... as though the whole thing was a temporary convenience. I think that is where the "treacherous" part comes in... because we aren't taking our negotiations or committments seriously and dealing in good faith with the people around us.

This reminds me of 2 Nephi 28:8 where it mentions that we should not "take the advantage of one because of his words" or "dig a pit for thy neighbor." ... I think that the world inures us to the offensive and sometimes cruel things that we sometimes do to each other when we are trying to get a bargain or "win" a negotiation.

Today, let's remember that the Lord encourages us to consider how we deal with each other as though we were dealing with him (Matthew 25:40,45)... and then let's seriously deal with the other people in our lives as though they were Christ, or one of our other favorite people. Let's take care not to be treacherous.

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