Tenderhearted or Tough?

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Map showing the Kingdoms of Israel (blue) and ...Image via Wikipedia
We need wisdom when applying scriptures. Take tender-heartedness, for example. I think one of the most practical and important passages in the whole Bible is Ephesians 4:31–32. God put that there for me. It is one of the most important mandates in my life.
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
There are dozens of situations where I should be more tenderhearted than I am.
But what about 2 Chronicles 13:7? Jeroboam and “certain worthless scoundrels” — this is already not sounding tenderhearted — defied Solomon’s son Rehoboam and broke the kingdom in half. 

Why did that rebellion succeed? Multiple reasons. Here’s one.
“Rehoboam was young and tenderhearted, and could not withstand them” (2 Chronicles 13:7, KJV). That’s a good literal translation.

Rehoboam, a fragment of the Council Chamber muralsImage via Wikipedia
So there is a tenderheartedness that is out of place and harmful. Rehoboam was too soft. The situation called for firmness, toughness, resilience. It called for a heart that could not be easily “touched” with misleading emotions.
So we need to seek God for spiritual direction to find the path between hardness that destroys and hardness that saves.


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