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Friday, December 29, 2023

That’s easy for you to say

“That’s easy for you to say” is a common rejoinder used by a person who is getting advice to suggest that the person who is giving advice is not affected by the advice. For example, someone might say, “You really need to get out more and get more exercise.” The person receiving the advice replies, “That’s easy for you to say. You live alone; you have no kids; you’ve got to plenty time to do what you wish.”

There seems to be a certain logic in the retort, and it often can be true that what is said is easier for the advice giver than for the advice getter. However, what is often missed is this – even though the advice may be “easier” for the giver to give than the getter to get, that does not mean that the advice is bad advice or not true. Just because the above adviser has plenty of time on her hands, it does not mean that the receiver does not need to get out and get more exercise.

Often in the realm of teaching biblical truth, the teacher receives the rejoinder “That’s easy for you to say.” In preaching it is not uncommon for me to say, “That is easier said than done.” In other words, just because it is “easy” to preach the truth does not mean it is “easy” to obey that truth. That is a recognition of something but at the same time not saying the truth is not the truth.

When we have just received advice or truth that is “easier for the other person to say,” let us not just cast it off for that reason. Even though it is not easy to hear or do, it nevertheless may be the truth. Search the scriptures, whether or not the things that are easy for someone else to say are so. They just may be.

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