Grace Abounding

Book Review: The Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes. Reviewed by Shayne McAllister.

Reading The Bruised Reed and the Smoking Flax by the early Puritan writer Richard Sibbes should be a priority for Christians. Have you wondered how to help the guy in your church who seems to continually beat himself up about his sin, and not see the Savior? Have you struggled with persistent sin in your own life and found little remedy? Our Men’s Community Group is reading and meditating through this book a little at a time, and it has been wonderfully convicting and helpful over the past few months.

The question this little book tries to answer is: How does Christ treat his own, the body of Christ, when we sin or feel weak? Through answering this question Sibbes also answers the application question: How are Christians to help struggling and weak Christians? How do we differentiate between the obstinate, non-repentant sinner and the Christian who sins and is bitterly remorseful over his sin but sees little way out of sin’s entrapment?

The “Good Doctor Sibbes” was an Anglican Puritan pastor and chaplain at Cambridge University for a time and a pastor in London as well. He had a keen insight into the common experience of everyday Christian life, and held up Christ at every opportunity to help his flock. This book, published in 1631, is a meditation on two parallel passages of scripture: Isaiah 42:1-4 and Matthew 12:18-21. Most specifically, he concentrates on the metaphor in Isa 42:3.

“A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench”

To Sibbes, this “bruised reed” was a Christian who admitted his own failing readily, and the smoking wick (or flax) was a Christian who did right, but at every turn smoke (or sin and corruption) was mingled with spiritual life (or fire). He spends the book marshaling scriptures together to show that the pattern of the Bible is that God treats his people a certain way, and we should live in light of the way God treats us, and therefore treat others as God has dealt with us.

The author also does a wonderful job of using rich metaphor to explain the scriptural principles and to give practical advice. Just as Jesus used the objects and activities around him to illustrate eternal principles, so Sibbes uses dozens of vivid illustrations from everyday life.

The best parts of this book are the pithy gems of wisdom hidden in just about every paragraph. For example:

“It would be a good contest amongst Christians, one to labor to give no offence, and the other to labor to take none. The best men are severe to themselves, tender over others.”

What a wonderful idea–on the one hand we should not be unnecessarily offensive, and on other when a Christian brother offends you, question why you do take offense!

Sibbes is also simple. The best writers in the world are not those who use flowery language to explain some supposed new truth. The best writers in the world write like this:

“Truth fears nothing so much as concealment, and desires nothing so much as clearly to be laid open to the view of all. When it is most unadorned, it is most lovely and powerful.”

My intention in the future is to share more of what we’re learning from The Bruised Reed. You can read it online here or buy it very inexpensively here.