Proverbs 11:3-7, Christlikeness!

May 7, Proverbs 11:3-7

1 John 3:7; 2:29; 5:18 “If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death” (Jn. 8:51).

Christlikeness!

1. A Valuable Guide: iIntegrity of the upright shall guide them (v.3). His rules and principles are fixed. His integrity preserves him. This is a rare word (only five in Heb. Bible). Its root means be complete or finished. Joseph illustrates what this integrity involves. It proved his best guide, as it did for Eliezer (Gen. 24:27): How many Josephs or Eliezers are there among us? The way of integrity is the wise way, not the easy way in the sometimes bewildering choices of life.

2. A Vulnerable Guile: Perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them (v.3b). This noun, perverse, appears only here and in 15:4. The root means to twist, overturn. It is linked to the word transgressor or traitor (v.6). Thus he is a tricky, deceitful, slippery customer. He is not to be trusted. There is a complete want of integrity, but his very guile makes him vulnerable (5:22). There is a law in operation that overturns injustice and upholds integrity (Alden). Both honesty and dishonesty receive their just reward.

3. A Valueless Gold: Riches profit not in the day of wrath (v.4). There are other days of judgment here when men receive the wages of sin. Still more, after death comes the Judgment, the final Day of Wrath. Of what profit will all the world’s riches be then? Solomon sets up a tension saying, on the one hand, that hard work brings its reward in riches. Yet, on the other, he insists that riches will not help in death. They cannot ransom the soul. As they say in Ireland, “There are no pockets in a shroud.”

4. A Visible Good: Righteousness delivers from death, directs (vs.4b-6). The path of righteousness directs (yashar), makes straight, upright. How apt an image for rocky Palestine! Heathen religions do not require righteousness, but only observance of certain rituals. Christ, however, demanded deeds not mere profession! Transgressors snatch the garment of the poor, contrary to the Law, giving rise to the name traitor. Only the righteous in Christ will not perish at the second death, nor fear the first (Rev. 6:15-17; 20:6). They have the best direction in this life, and sure deliverance in the next.

5. A Vain Gleam: When a wicked man dies his expectation shall perish; the hope of unjust men perishes (v.7). This is a synonymous proverb. The wicked man still has his expectation for the future, and the unjust has his hope (only here and Pr. 10:28, 13:12). The unjust thinks his wealth will be his salvation, but his hopes end at death (Job 27:7-9). Mourners (Hos. 9:4) is the word unjust here. The phrase bread of mourners in Hosea “may be the emblem of utter impiety” (Perowne). Lying hopes are surely dying hopes! “The worldling must leave this world which he expected to continue in, and the hypocrite will come short of that world which he expected to remove to” (M.Henry).

Thought: “We are not merely to serve Christ; we are to be like him” (D. Copley).

Prayer: Lord, watch over me, as I seek to serve Thee.