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 he is evil in his heart. Avoid those types of people. Their only hope
is that they turn to Jesus. If they do not turn, they head 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 is 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
each person sees 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
the wayside and the birds(the devil) devour it, and 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 other action 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. 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 behaviors do you spank, and for what
behaviors 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 Bible 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. 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. They do not
have the Lord in their lives to turn to in times of need. 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. Look at
the subject from the eyes of a child who grew up in a family of alcoholics. 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 considered 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. 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 you on the earth to accomplish: to
build, to create, and to work.
___________________________________________________
Copyright; 2018 by Charles
F. (Rick) Creech
All Rights Reserved