Not Everything Needs to Be Made Public

Note from today’s Bible reading: Matthew 1-2

It was prophesied that the Messiah would be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14). Matthew recorded the conception and birth of Jesus in the first two chapters of his gospel (Matthew 1:18; 2:1).

However, when Mary “was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit,” she was “betrothed to Joseph” (Matthew 1:18). Under normal circumstances, there would be only one reasonable conclusion for Joseph to reach about how Mary came to be with child. Understandably, he “planned to send her away” until an angel came to him and explained the unique circumstances (Matthew 1:19-23). After learning the truth, he took Mary as his wife (Matthew 1:25).

Joseph was “a righteous man” (Matthew 1:19) and, under normal circumstances, he would have been perfectly justified in sending her away. Even still, he was “not wanting to disgrace her, [and] planned to send her away secretly” (Matthew 1:19). He could have gone public with all of this and generated sympathy for himself and scorn for the one he assumed was unfaithful to him. Yet he knew this was not necessary.

It is often tempting to loudly proclaim and widely publish our account of how others have wronged us. Social media makes this especially easy. Perhaps we want others to show sympathy to us. Maybe we want the ones who have hurt us to receive public scorn. Sometimes people deserve this. Yet it is not always necessary or even helpful.

So remember that not everything needs to be made public. When we suffer wrong, we certainly need to deal with it. Yet not everyone needs to know every time we are wronged by others.