Proverbs 23:6

The Bible says in Proverbs 23:6-8, “Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats:[7] For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.[8] The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words.” These verses emphasize once again the importance of knowing when to separate from the people of the world. Some people are evil because they have decided to turn away from God and follow the paths of sin. These kinds of evil people have not just sinned because they are weak, but they have sinned because they have rejected Christ and chosen to be evil forever. The evil ones invite you to be with them, but they have other desires. They do not want your well-being. Their “heart is not with thee.” Verse seven is an important verse to understand human beings, and why they do what they do. “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” The heart is the innermost being. The heart is who you really are. The heart of man is the center of the intellect, the emotions, and the will. An evil person is evil because they are evil in their heart. Avoid those types of people. Their only hope is that they turn to Jesus. If they do not turn, they headed straight to hell.

The Bible says in Proverbs 23:9, “Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.” One of the goals of Christians is to reach other people with the Gospel. We have the greatest wisdom of all: the knowledge of Jesus Christ as our Savior. But we are looking for people who want to hear the truth. There are a great number of people who do not want to hear it. Of course, we will still pray for them too. Those who are looking for an answer to the sin problem are the ones we want to help if we can. Once you see that someone is not interested, do not waste your words on them. This what Jesus was talking about when He said in Matthew 7:6, “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.”

The Bible says in Proverbs 23:10-11, “Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:[11] For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee.” These verses are about capitalism and respecting the property rights of others. The reason we see capitalism throughout the Bible is because the Bible is a great book of freedom. God has given freedom to human beings: freedom to choose, freedom to believe, and freedom to possess and use those possessions as we see fit. It mentions the “old landmark” because we should remember and honor the traditions of our forefathers. That is part of honoring our mother and father and part of respecting our elders. It mentions “the fields of the fatherless” because some people will target the weaker individuals of society to take advantage of them. A Christian must never do that.

The Bible says in Proverbs 23:12, “Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.” No one knows everything. We all need to learn. Your life should be a lifetime of learning whether in school or out of it. Of course, this Bible verse is talking about learning the knowledge of God. And this verse gives the key to learning. The key to learning is your own attitude as a student. When a teacher gives forth information, what is the most important factor in the student learning that information: the student. The student must apply his “heart” and his “ears” to the information. The teacher is not the key: the student is the key. The sower goes forth to sow the seed. The sower is the teacher. As he sows some falls on rock and nothing grows. Some falls on shallow ground and soon withers away. But sometimes the seed falls on good ground, and thus the truth is acquired and a life is changed. It is all up to the student. Love to learn and desire to learn everything that you can. That is God’s will.

The Bible says in Proverbs 23:13-14, “Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.[14] Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.” This is a verse about the corporal punishment of children. Children definitely need to be corrected when they do wrong. Correction is a part of teaching children. Christians are the children of God, and Christians need to be corrected so that their lives can be improved. How does God correct believers? One way is through teaching. It says in Second Timothy 3:16, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” Correction is important. Correction is when you tell someone: this is what you did, but this is what you should do. Correction does not necessarily mean punishment, but sometimes punishment is a part of correction. One of the questions is: what punishment should be used for children? Some people look at these verses in Proverbs and a few other verses like it in the Old Testament and put an emphasis on corporal punishment. I would be careful about making such an emphasis because of several considerations. First of all corporal punishment of children is found nowhere in the New Testament. Be very careful of punishments that are prescribed in the Old Testament, but not in the New Testament. The New Testament gives instructions to Christians on how to live a Christian life and, of course, teachings for parents are found in the New Testament. For example, it says in Ephesians 6:4, “And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” “Nurture and admonition” refer to teaching. If spanking was so important for Christians then surely it would have been mentioned here in Ephesians chapter 6. In Second Timothy 3:15 Paul wrote, “And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” Paul makes no reference to any punishments that Timothy received when he was a child, spanking or otherwise; but Paul does refer to what Timothy learned when he was a child: the scriptures.

If you are going to make an emphasis on spanking, then you are going to have to answer some important questions that the Bible does not answer. At what age do you start spanking and at what age do you stop? How hard do you spank? When do you cross the line and go from spanking to beating a child? For what behavior do you spank, and for what behavior do you use some other form of punishment? If you are wrong on any of these questions, then you have harmed the child instead of helping him or her.

Do not forget that there is a difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament. There are some punishments in the Old Testament that we no longer apply in the New Testament age in which we live. We are not under law, but under grace. Jesus demonstrated this when He would not allow the woman who was taken in adultery to be stoned. There is a verse in the Old Testament that tells parents to kill their own child under a certain circumstance. It says in Deuteronomy 21:18-21, “If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them:[19] Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place;[20] And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard.[21] And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear.” Of course, no one today takes this Old Testament passage and says that we should follow it in the chastisement of our children. We recognize that this is the harshness of the Old Testament that has been set aside because the old covenant was replaced by the new covenant. The verses in Proverbs that people use to demand that parents spank their children should be looked at in the same way. The New Testament does not tell parents to spank their children. If you decide to spank your children at any time for any reason, that is your choice. Do not think that you need to do it because the Bible tells you to. Yes, children sometimes need correction: some more than others. But make sure that it is a matter of prayer and consideration what punishment is used. There is no magic bullet. For some children the right kind of verbal reproof and correction is enough. For other children some kind of parental chastisement will be needed such as the loss of certain privileges.

The Bible says in Proverbs 23:15-16, “My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.[16] Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.” Much of the book of Proverbs is written as a parent talking to his son. What will make a parent happy: having a wise son or daughter. And so the opposite is also true: a parent will suffer terribly if the child becomes unwise, and unwise in a Biblical sense means to not know and not follow the Lord Jesus. Children, if you want to make your children happy, come to know and follow Jesus. Verse 16 tell us how you will know if the child if wise or not. You will know in the same way that you will know if an adult is wise or not: how they talk.

The Bible says in Proverbs 23:17-18, “Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long.[18] For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.” If you “envy” sinners, then that means that you think that they have it good, and you want to be like them and get the same advantages that they have. First of all, they do not have it as good as you think. They do not have peace with God. They have a guilty conscience, if they still have a conscience. They are in darkness, and slaves to sin. No one will envy those things. A believer is in “the fear of the LORD all the day long.” Believers understand that the Lord is watching and He is judge. We know the truth of verse 18, “there is an end.” This life will soon be past: only what is done for Christ will last. Everyone has hopes for the future. Those who trust in the Lord will have their greatest hopes realized in heaven forever: “thine expectation shall not be cut off.” The wicked will lose everything, even their own souls.

The Bible says in Proverbs 23:19-21, “Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way, [20] Be not among winebibbers, among riotous eaters of flesh: [21] For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.” These Bible verses list three things that will result in poverty: the abuse of alcohol, the abuse of food (gluttony), and laziness. The Hebrew word that is translated “winebibbers” is simply the word that means “wine.” I think the translators were correct: in the context this is talking about the abuse of alcohol. It correlates to the word “glutton.” Of course, it is not wrong to eat food, but there is a certain type of overeating that is a great sin that is called gluttony. God wants believers to have balanced lives, and to not have excesses. He wants us to be under control, instead of being controlled by other things. God wants us to be able to accomplish as much as we can for His glory. Anything that blocks or reduces our capacity to serve Him is not good. Alcoholic beverages can ruin you. Alcoholism is a blight on many people’s lives. I look at the subject from the eyes of a child who grew up in a family of alcoholics. And therefore, my position is: do not take one drink of that powerful substance. If you do not start drinking, you will never become an alcoholic. There are millions and millions of people who have an alcohol problem. None of them would have a problem if they had never taken that first drink. It is interesting: as bad as the abuse of alcohol is, gluttony is conserved just as bad in the Word of God. Gluttony is associated with partying. Wild parties are not good even if you do not do drinking or drugs. It is the life-style that is bad from the standpoint of making your life fruitful. Remember the old saying: early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. The idea is that you are going to work, and you need to have your strength and energy for the next day in order to get the most done that you can. If you do not have strength and energy for the day, you will have the same result as a lazy person: lack of accomplishment. God put ypou on the earth to accomplish: to build, to create, and to work.

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