Year 5, Day 316: Proverbs 25

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.

So many of the proverbs talk about the character of a person.  I really believe that I could have spoken about character every single chapter in Proverbs had I wanted to do so.  But I wanted to save the topic for when it seemed to be a major topic of each chapter.

This is an interesting chapter to look at character.  After all, look at the first verse.  Solomon says that it is to the glory of God to conceal things.  How many of us genuinely feel that way?  Don’t we get suspicious when things are concealed?  Don’t we get angry when we aren’t let in on the plot?  Of course we do!  That just means that Solomon is truly teaching us a deep spiritual lesson here.  We want to know everything, but we also want it to be brought to us and told.  Solomon is saying that it is to God’s glory to conceal things because it forces us to seek it out.  Only when things are concealed is the one who knows able to see who the ones are that truly desire to seek.  It is to God’s glory that things are concealed because it gives us an opportunity to prove our own character.  We should be slow to anger when things are concealed.  In those instances it is an opportunity for us to prove our character as we seek out what is concealed!

The verses that follow likewise speak about character.  When we are in the presence of others, do we seek to elevate ourselves or do we seek to be humble?  Do we assume places of importance or do we wait until we are invited into them?  What does it say about our character when we have an over-inflated ego?

Or what about the verses in this chapter that speak about how we treat our enemies?  Do we seek to avenge ourselves or do we trust that God will be the avenger?  Do we treat our enemies with kindness so that we can win them over with love and set an example of grace or do we give them what we think that they deserve?

There is always room to examine our character.  None of us are perfect and we always have room to grow.  For me, often the question isn’t whether I think I have room to grow.  The true question is often whether or not I even want to know the places where I can grow.  That is why chapters like this are useful.

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