“Iron sharpens iron; so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.”  – Proverbs 27:17

I’ve been thinking about the “countenance” lately. From my view in the pages of Strong’s, I would have to say the meaning suggests: “the part that shows.”  Which describes what I struggle with the most—it’s the “part of me that shows.”

I only looked this up just now, so I hope you’ll bear with me as I expound.  It turns out the word, “countenance,” is used in association with shewbread. Translated from the original word, it means something to eat—either bread or grain.

(It seems a good a time as any to insert Jesus warning: “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.”)

What we are on our face, is what we feed to others.  By “getting in each other’s face,” it is possible to make each other more edible, more nourishing, more fruitful.

Viewed another way:

“Also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.” In the original, the root word from which the word “sea” comes from is salt.  Revelation 17:15 tells us, “The waters you saw are peoples, multitudes, nations and languages,” and Jesus says of us, “We are the salt of the earth.” Our transparency is our savor–“the part that shows.”  Webster puts it this way: “that quality of a thing which acts on the sense of taste or of smell.”

In this instance, The Message translation is really clear:

“When I arrived in Troas to proclaim the message of the Messiah, I found the place wide open: God had opened the door; all I had to do was walk through it. But when I didn’t find Titus waiting for me with news of your condition, I couldn’t relax. Worried about you, I left and came on to Macedonia province looking for Titus and a reassuring word on you. And I got it, thank God.

In the Messiah, in Christ, God leads us from place to place in one perpetual victory parade.   Through us, he brings knowledge of Christ.   Everywhere we go, people breath in the exquisite fragrance.   Because of Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God, which is recognized by those on the way of salvation-an aroma redolent with life.   But those on the way to destruction treat us more like the stench from a rotting corpse.

This is a terrific responsibility.   Is anyone competent to take it on?  No- but at least we don’t take God’s Word, watered down, and then take it to the streets to sell it cheap.   We stand in Christ’s presence when we speak; God looks us in the face.   We get what we say straight from God and say it as honestly as we can.

Does it sound like we are patting ourselves on the back, insisting on our credentials, asserting our authority? W ell, we’re not.  Neither do we need letters of endorsement, either to you or from you.  You yourselves are all the endorsement we need.  Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you.  Christ himself wrote it- not with ink, but with God’s living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives- and we publish it.

We couldn’t be more sure of ourselves in this- that you, written by Christ himself for God, are our letter of recommendation.  We wouldn’t think of writing this kind of letter about ourselves.  Only God can write such a letter.  His letter authorizes us to help carry out this new plan of action.  The plan wasn’t written out with ink on paper, with pages and pages of legal footnotes, killing the spirit.  It’s written with the Spirit on spirit, his life on our lives!”

– 2 Corinthians 2:12-3:6

• By Jay Ferris, originally published June 2012