Removing The Possibility Of Performance
Ever run into one of those passages that just makes you stop and think?
I ran into one the other day. Proverbs is such a wild ride, every time I read through proverbs it's like opening another window in your house and a whole new breeze enters into your home... your mind.
“A gift given in secret soothes anger, and a bribe concealed in the cloak pacifies great wrath.”
Proverbs 21:14 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/pro.21.14.NIV
Every other time before this I just glazed over this. But this time I stopped at the period. My reading didn't "stop", but rather "I" stopped. Realization has that effect on a person sometimes.
"A gift given in secret soothes anger"
"and a bribe concealed in a cloak pacifies great wrath."
Now of course The Lord is not condoning bribery, that's the not the point there. It's just merely being honest about human life. Bribes happen. They have always happened and they will always happen until Christ's return.
The bribery is not the point.
"A gift given in secret soothes anger"
A person gives another person a gift to reduce their anger. But the detail of "given in secret" matters here. Why though? Doesn't a gift always have a chance to reduce someone's anger? Sure.
But
Turn the "camera" around for a moment. We naturally connect with and relate to the person giving the gift. Turn the "camera" around and look at it from the person's perspective that is receiving the gift.
The gift giver has pulled them aside, out of the view of others. The gift giver is giving them the gift, knowing that no one else will know they did it.
And the person receiving the gift can tell, that the giver is not doing this so that other people see it happening. No one will know they gave them this gift.
There is something remarkable about doing something and everyone knows that it's not done for performance, it's not done for accolades, it's not done to show others how "good" you are. It's private. It's secret exchange that is far more genuine than giving a gift with an audience.
"and a bribe concealed in a cloak pacifies great wrath."
And with this reinforcing follow up. Giving a bribe, hidden behind something else. So that no one knows you gave the bribe, the gift. Again removing the performance. Removing the audience. Removing the notoriety.
Regardless of your motive, good or bad, for giving a gift. Removing the perfomance of the gift giving has profound impacts.
Because the person receiving the gift can realize that you did it genuinely. You didn't give the gift for yourself or your own social benefit. You gave the gift in secret, to be private not public between you both.