tempering, not brokeness, is what is required by God

A truly wise person uses few words; a person with understanding is even-tempered. (Proverbs 17:27)
For an elder must live a blameless life. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered; he must not be a heavy drinker, violent, or dishonest with money. (Titus 1:7)

A couple of days ago, I wrote an article about being broken before the Lord. As I said in the article, I do not believe that being broken is required by God. Instead, being broken can harm a person.

I think what I meant to say in the post on brokenness is that God expects tempering. There is a lot of difference between the two.

God wants us tempered to his use, not broken.

Something that is tempered is useful. For instance, a tempered blade is one that has been heated and then quickly cooled so that it becomes strong. An untempered blade breaks at the first strike. It will not hold an edge. It bends easily. In general, an untempered blade is worthless for any real use, except maybe as a club.

The same with an untempered person. For a person to be useful to God, he must be able to control himself. His temper must be in check.

Something broken is useless. It is good for nothing but to be thrown away.

There were lots of men in the Bible who had strong tempers. And God never condemned them for it. Instead, he used them and their tempers for his glory.

Jesus was one himself. Here was a guy who could grab a whip and clear out the temple twice. This was not the work of a wimp, or of one who stood around all day weeping over the fact that he had once been that kind of person but now wasn’t. He did what he needed to do. He was angry when he needed to be angry and he took no trash from anyone, unless it served a good purpose

Peter had a strong temper as was evidenced by his actions. So did James and John. Theirs was strong enough that Jesus called them the Sons of Thunder (Boanerges was the Greek word for it in Mark 3:17).

And who was it that Jesus hung around with all the time? It was the three with strong tempers.

The apostle Paul was another with a strong temper. And in the Old Testament, most of the prophets were no one to mess around with either.

A person whose temper is broken is useless. He has lost all will and desire and is nothing more now than a puppet for someone else. Nowhere in the Bible do you ever see anyone who accomplished anything for God who was broken.

A person whose temper is disciplined, on the other hand, is one who is useful and dynamic. They still have all the strength they had before, but now have the discretion on when to use it and when not to.

If the kingdom of God had more men with strong, yet disciplined, tempers today, what great things we could do.

broken people are useless

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. (Psalm 34:18)
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (Psalm 51:17)

I was hearing someone the other day say that for someone to be in Christ and useful for the kingdom, he has to be broken.

And my question is: says who?

The Bible never says that. It does say that God is close to the brokenhearted and that a sacrifice is a broken and contrite heart. But where does the Bible ever say that one who comes to God must first be broken?

It is true that one must be teachable, one must be aware of his or her own sinfulness, even contrite and repentant. But the Bible never says a Christina must be broken.

I have known broken people. And in general they are not useful for much.

A horse must be broken in one way to where it will accept a bridle and saddle to be useful, but you can break a horse until it loses any of its spirit and strength.

So many have the idea that before we can come to God and be useful, we have to be broken.

And that is absolutely not true.

We have to let God use us and we have to be aware of the fact that he is God, but to expect a person to be broken is against all of what the Bible tells.

Those in the Bible who had strong tempers never were criticize3d for that. Instead, Jesus affectionately called James and John the Sons of Thunder because they had such a strong temper. And can you imagine a weak and broken Peter?

Yes, Peter had to know his limitations. When he found out what he was capable of – denying his knowledge of God with a curse – he became aware of his need.

But he was never broken.

It is foolish to expect that we have to be busted, broken in spirit, people who have no pride, no will, no desire left in order to be useful to God.

Brokenhearted and broken are two different things. I have been brokenhearted many times, but I will never be broken.

And God never expected me to.