“Thus you will walk in the ways of good men and keep to the paths of the righteous.” – Proverbs 2:20
I have a boring testimony. I was never an alcoholic, drug addict, felon or sexual deviant. I never hit “bottom”. I never squandered an inheritance, rejected my family or lost my marriage & kids to the demon. My wife was my first kiss and the first woman I had ever even held hands with! She is the only woman I’ve ever had sex with. Somehow, to many Christians, this makes my Christian experience subpar. To many I am unqualified to “understand” what they are going through as they slog through the depths of depravity, looking for the proverbial light of the gospel at the end of their LONG tunnel of sin and compromise.
But I disagree.
These days we hear so much of the redemptive power of the gospel I think subconsciously we feel there must be a major fall before there can be a “testimony”. We love the story of the prodigal son and the Father’s love for the one who squandered all his wealth. But what of the keeping power of the Gospel? Why isn‘t there more time spent extolling the power of the Gospel that keeps a believer from ever experiencing the painful morass of sin?
I think there should be.
This Proverb extols the benefits of wisdom, telling us that it will rescue us from the ways of wicked people. Notice it doesn’t say it will save us from wicked people, but from their ways. The word ways here is translated as a road or course of life.
“Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse, who leave the straight paths to walk in dark ways, who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.” Proverbs 2:12-15
More than that, wisdom will save us from the adulteress. As the proverb says, courting her leads to death, none who go into her attain the path of life!
“It will save you also from the adulteress, from the wayward wife with her seductive words, who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God. For her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead. None who go to her return or attain the paths of life.” – Proverbs 2:16-19
But the man who embraces wisdom has this amazing promise:
“For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it; but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be torn from it.” – Proverbs 2:21-22
The righteous man that embraces wisdom will live, remain and abide in the land. This is the keeping power of righteousness. Not victory for a moment, but an abiding, long term lifestyle of victory!
LIFE LESSON:
A fence at the top of a cliff is better than an ambulance service at the bottom.
I have a boring testimony. I was never an alcoholic, drug addict, felon or sexual deviant. I never hit “bottom”. I never squandered an inheritance, rejected my family or lost my marriage & kids to the demon. My wife was my first kiss and the first woman I had ever even held hands with! She is the only woman I’ve ever had sex with. Somehow, to many Christians, this makes my Christian experience subpar. To many I am unqualified to “understand” what they are going through as they slog through the depths of depravity, looking for the proverbial light of the gospel at the end of their LONG tunnel of sin and compromise.
But I disagree.
These days we hear so much of the redemptive power of the gospel I think subconsciously we feel there must be a major fall before there can be a “testimony”. We love the story of the prodigal son and the Father’s love for the one who squandered all his wealth. But what of the keeping power of the Gospel? Why isn‘t there more time spent extolling the power of the Gospel that keeps a believer from ever experiencing the painful morass of sin?
I think there should be.
This Proverb extols the benefits of wisdom, telling us that it will rescue us from the ways of wicked people. Notice it doesn’t say it will save us from wicked people, but from their ways. The word ways here is translated as a road or course of life.
“Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse, who leave the straight paths to walk in dark ways, who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.” Proverbs 2:12-15
More than that, wisdom will save us from the adulteress. As the proverb says, courting her leads to death, none who go into her attain the path of life!
“It will save you also from the adulteress, from the wayward wife with her seductive words, who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God. For her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead. None who go to her return or attain the paths of life.” – Proverbs 2:16-19
But the man who embraces wisdom has this amazing promise:
“For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it; but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be torn from it.” – Proverbs 2:21-22
The righteous man that embraces wisdom will live, remain and abide in the land. This is the keeping power of righteousness. Not victory for a moment, but an abiding, long term lifestyle of victory!
LIFE LESSON:
A fence at the top of a cliff is better than an ambulance service at the bottom.
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