Theological Commentary: Click Here
Discipleship Focus: Character
- Character: Having the interior life that is necessary to support the work that God sets before a person. It is hearing from God and obeying. It is doing the right thing when nobody is looking.
I imagine that I am going to be speaking about character
often during Proverbs. It seems that the
idea of developing one’s internal life has much to do with what Proverbs is all
about. After all, how much of Proverbs already
has been about wisdom?
When we read through this chapter, we get all kinds of
character contrasting scenarios.
Slackness causes poverty but diligence causes opportunity. Wisdom receives commandment but foolishness
babbles out of itself. Love covers up
offense while hatred brings about violence.
Those who heed instruction live well but those who reject instruction
will lead others astray. A wise person
acts in ways that bring pleasure to the soul but the fool thinks of wrongdoing
as a joke.
This is
an iconic chapter of Proverbs. In this
chapter we get point-counterpoint all chapter long. We see wisdom juxtaposed with folly. It is easy to read through this chapter – and
chapters like this – and readily get the point.
We know what a person with character looks like as we read through this
chapter. We know what a person whose
character is lacking looks like. This is
the fun of Proverbs because Proverbs really makes this discussion easy.
<><
No comments:
Post a Comment