Better is a dry morsel with quiet
than a house full of feasting with strife.
A servant who deals wisely will rule over a son who acts shamefully
and will share the inheritance as one of the brothers.
The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold,
and the Lord tests hearts.Proverbs 17:1-3
The reference in 1 is to the family feasts of Old Testament times, in which portions of the peace offerings were eaten by the offerer and his friends. The comment is that if strife and wrangling are present, the whole character of the feast is denied. One thinks of the New Testament parallel, in the disorderly behaviour at the Lord's Table in Corinth (1 Corinthians 11:17ff). Paul's very blunt comments to these erring saints are very much to the point, and perhaps he had Proverbs in mind when he uttered them. In 2, the question is that of ability versus privilege. A dependable servant is better than a misbehaving son, as doubtless many a father has proved to his sorrow. Trials are for the believer (3) what the firing pot and the furnace are for the purifying of precious metals. Peter takes up this idea in his first epistle (1:6, 7). Kidner finely says, 'God's trials are constructive: not for finding a person out, but for sorting him out.' Here is another quotation, this time from C.S. Lewis, which underlines another thought: 'God has not been trying an experiment on my faith or love in order to find out their quality. He knew it already. It was I who didn't. In this trial, He makes us occupy the dock, the witness-box and the bench all at once. He always knew that my temple was a house of cards. His only way of making me realise the fact was to knock it down.' A telling thought, is it not? This means that part of the function of the trial, and of the sorting out process, is to strip us down and strip away false foundations and false superstructures in order that true foundations and true superstructure may be built into and onto our lives. The truth is that faith, even when it is genuine and real, does tend to gather parasitic accretions, which are a hindrance to growth and development. It is these that must be cut away ruthlessly: God is not prepared to allow us to be unreal. Hence the fire. Only the pure gold can stand it, it is purified, and the rest is destroyed (cf John 15:2).