Of Scoffer and Strife

For Friday, June 15, 2007
Proverbs 22:10

Drive out a scoffer, and strife will go out,
and quarreling and abuse will cease.

This is a proverb that has been proven many times in all kinds of settings. One person can sow discord throughout a team, a staff, a class, any group. He does not have to be openly rebellious. All he needs to do is consistently say a few words of discontent and disrespect, a few sarcastic remarks. At first others may shake off his words; they may quickly mark him as being a problem. But after awhile the words begin to have their effect.

For there are always some things that are not right, that could be better. But whereas before, the others may have overlooked such problems, they begin to get bothered. "John may be a complainer, but he is right about Tom being too harsh sometimes." "I hadn't thought about it before, but John does have a point." "Maybe John is right; maybe I should file a complaint." "John is being too sarcastic, but that was funny the way he made Tom sound."

And then John leaves. As if a fresh wind had blown through a room and driven away a foul odor, so the atmosphere changes. Is there a scoffer in your team? Are you the scoffer? Christians can be just as guilty and actually worse because we cannot admit to ourselves that we are guilty. Do you have a complaining attitude? Does everyone in your workplace or class know what disgruntles you? Are you a person that other complainers are attracted to?

Better to change than to have to leave for peace to come.

A Bountiful Eye

For Thursday, June 14, 2007
Proverbs 22:9

Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed,
for he shares his bread with the poor.

What is a "bountiful" eye? It can be translated good or generous. It is evidently an eye that looks about and sees ways to bless others. The man with the bountiful eye bestows bounty to others, but I think also included is the thought that he reaps bounty.

Compare this proverb with 11:24: "One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want." Generosity is a virtue; furthermore, it is a virtue that reaps its own reward. But generosity means taking delight in giving. One may give a "generous" amount, but do so begrudgingly or with the intent to earn reward or assuage guilt. This proverb is upholding the person who looks for opportunity to give because he delights in giving. He shares his bread with the poor because he delights in heartening others, and because he delights in pleasing his Lord, who delights in our giving to the poor.

So in the same manner our Lord Jesus Christ has a bountiful eye. He delighted in doing God's will; he delight in giving himself for us who were poor; he delights even now in sharing his riches with his people who believe in him.

Reaping What We Sow

For Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Proverbs 22:8

Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity,
and the rod of his fury will fail.

We reap what we sow. The employer who sows injustice among his employees will reap poor performance. The seller who sows injustice among his customers will reap business failure. The parents who sows injustice within the family will see his children turn rebellious. The employer may threaten to fire, the seller may act offended, and the parent may yell but their rod of fury will lose its force. A person will endure injustice only so long. Either he will retaliate or he will leave.

Are you sowing injustice? As a Christian you may actually have more difficulty seeing what you are doing. We are quick to admit when we lose our temper or "overreact" or some other sin that we explain as a momentary relapse. What is more difficult to see (and to admit) is a pattern of sowing injustice in our relationships. We then are surprised to learn that a spouse or a child or a friend or a colleague has harbored resentment against us.

Perhaps it is time to do reality check. Pay attention to others and how they respond to you. Ask if there is something you need to examine and do not get defensive if they do have something to say. You don't want to find out years later by what you reap.

Slavery

For Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Proverbs 22:7

The rich rules over the poor,
and the borrower is the slave of the lender.

The rich man rules over the poor man who is dependent upon him. The lender has control over the man who borrows from him. This is the disadvantage we should strive to avoid. What difference does it make that I owe money to someone else? That someone else has a claim on me. In a sense I work for him, for I am earning to money to turn over to him.

Desire for comforts and pleasures leads us into indebtedness and keeps us from financial independence. But that very desire then is frustrated because we must work all the harder to satisfy the debt it has created. The rich man and the lender are the ones who get their desire through our labor.

What then do we do? For one, we should follow the teachings of the proverbs to be industrious, to build wealth slowly, and to walk along the righteous path. And then we would do well to follow James' admonition: "Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation," i.e. in his standing in Christ (James 1:9). In Christ we are free; in Christ we are rich. If we would see who we are and what we have in him, then our desire for worldly gain and pleasure would diminish; then, oddly enough, we will do the things that actually lead greater security and freedom.

For in truth, it is what gives us most pleasure that we become slaves to. If it is of the world, then we become slaves of the world and its lenders; if our pleasure is in Christ, then we become his slaves where we find ultimate freedom.

Train Up a Child

For Monday, June 11, 2007
Proverbs 22:6

Train up a child in the way he should go;
even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Literally, the first line reads "according to the way he will go." Some then have interpreted the meaning to be that if you raise a child according to his inclination, he will set on a crooked path that he will not depart. Certainly that is true, and many parents bemoan that their children did actually depart from the way they should go.

Nevertheless, there is much truth to our traditional understanding of the proverb. Covenant children are likely to grow up in Christian faith and keep it. Even if their faith remains a second-hand faith inherited from their upbringing, they nevertheless keep along the law-keeping path. And even if they consciously reject their parents' faith, they still have ingrained in them Christian instincts hard to shake off.

Indeed, the testimony of many covenant children is that of wandering from the faith and returning to it precisely because of what they learned as children. They remember the Bible stories and verses. They remember the hymns. I know of one man who turned to God in the midst of overdosing on drugs because hymns popped into his mind at the time and kept him sane.

Raise up your children in the way they should go. Remember that the way to go is to Jesus for grace and mercy. They should see that that is where you go. They should see that as law-abiding as you might try to be, what really motivates you is the mercy found in Christ, that it is Christ's strength that makes you strong, that it is the forgiveness found in him that gives you hope. It is such hope and love for our Savior that will keep many a child on the right path and not depart from it.