Proverbs 7:1-5, Choose Companions Carefully!
March 18, Proverbs 7:1-5
Deut. 6:1-15; Jn.15:14-15; 17:21-23 “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom” (Col. 3:16).
Choose Companions Carefully!
- The Way Of Righteousness: The Law has been likened to a wedding band upon the finger, a reminder of whose we are. My Sister can mean my wife (S. of S.), so perhaps Wisdom is eligible for marriage! To be seduced by a strange woman brings short-term gain but long-term pain, for she is the Way of Death. Make Wisdom your spouse. She is the Way of Righteousness (vs. 1-5) and brings life and happiness, not sorrow and loss.
a. A Loving Bond: Purpose in your heart early in life to say unto wisdom, My Sister… (v.4a). This personifies the Word of God as my sister, my spouse, whom I dearly love and cherish. Just as the godly wife provides the loving bond within the family, so God’s Word provides such a bond (Jn.14:16; Rom.15:4). Heed the urging of Matthew Henry: “Not only, keep and live, but keep them as you would your life, as those who can’t live without them.” What other book in all the world comforts and strengthens our hearts like the Bible? When our country, and even our churches, no longer look to this Book for guidance, it is no wonder that we find ourselves at a dead-end morally and spiritually? Make her your spouse. Trust her with your life. Give her your full obedience, and you will experience her loving bond. Ralph Erskine put this quaintly, “When you see a dog following two men you know not to which of them he belongs while they walk together, but let them come to a parting of the ways, and you’ll soon know who is his master.” So it is with the Christian who has made the Word of God My Sister, My Spouse.
b. A Living Book: Call understanding thy kinswoman (v.4b), a living relative (Ru. 3:2) for whom you have true affection and trust even when she must rebuke you. This it is a living relationship to a Living Book. The understanding (wisdom) that comes from this relative includes doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction (2Tm. 3:16). This kinswoman is a true friend who will walk and talk with you along life’s narrow, and often bumpy, way (Hb. 4:12). Does not this describe the promise of the Lord Jesus? He is that Spouse, that Friend, that Living Book ever sharing the Words of Spirit and Life (Jn. 6:63)!
c. A Lasting Boon: Before it was keep close to my law now it is keep far from the strange woman’s flattering words (v.5). Don’t socialize with this slippery seductress who speaks like a friend but is a fiend. Keep close to your Loving Spouse and Living Friend. She will keep you from sin and from the harlot’s paw, and make you dread your sin and strengthen you against it. The father’s call to obey means not only doing God’s will, but also avoiding what He forbids. Negative precepts are as binding as positive ones. “The duty which God requires of man is obedience to His revealed will” (Shorter Catechism). Coming from worship, a man was asked, “Is it done?” “No,” he replied, “all is said, but all is not done.” Your Spouse and Friend will be to you a lasting boon.
Thought: “Everything in Scripture has in view the promotion of holiness” (Pink).
Prayer: Lord, keep me from everyone who is a stranger to Thee.