Wise Correction – Proverbs on discipline, humility, and confronting fools: a sermon summary

(Peter Paul Rubens, Flagellation of Christ, Antwerp, Church of St. Paul.)

Children need disciplined direction and correction in order to walk in the right way – but correction is for adults as well. A fool without correction is left in his folly.

**15:31 – 33  The ear that listens to life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise. Whoever ignores instruction despises himself, but he who listens to reproof gains intelligence. The fear of the LORD is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor.

Mountain climbers know that map is not territory. It is one thing to trace a route on paper; it is yet another to hike the trail. Maps provide vital orientation but require no strenuous exertion. The force of the warnings and wonders depicted on a map can only be experienced by hiking the trail.

Wisdom begins by heeding the map but deepens by hiking the trail.

Proverbs is a map; life experience is territory. It’s one thing to read the text, another to apply it.

If we didn’t have the revealed text, we wouldn’t know very well which way to turn. But knowing the text itself neither determines our choices nor ensures our capacity to stay on course.

God’s written word is not the only means God uses to call and shape and empower us.

God also works through life experience as we confront the realities of his created order – both physical and spiritual. Sometimes we learn the hard way.

Moral and spiritual realities have the same force as physical realty, but it typically takes us longer to acknowledge things that are less tangible. Gravity is more easily measured than greed.

Still, wickedness and folly, righteousness and wisdom tend to make themselves known over time.

Often we don’t see ourselves as clearly as others do – which is why one man is said to sharpen another (Prov 27:17; see also Ephesians 4:25, Colossians 3:16).

A loving father takes care to correct his children. Our Heavenly Father corrects and guides us by his written word but also through provision of parents, friends, elders, and fellow-saints along the journey.

1. Love corrects.

13:24   Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.

This is a personal proverb that speaks of the active character of love itself.

The rod is not here depicted as a mere utilitarian means to avoid spoilage; it is described as an instrument of parental love.

There is a crucial distinction between beating and spanking, between hitting in anger and striking a calm corrective stroke. Both may be unpleasant. But one is harmful, the other restorative; one destroys relationship, the other builds up. A beating intends to crush and marginalize, while a spanking intends to correct and to empower. Discipline is not oppression.

It is easy to get that wrong – sadly, parents often do – but abuse is not an argument against proper use. If, as a parent, you cannot control your own anger then you should not spank. Self-discipline comes before discipline of others. The discipline of children is not a vehicle for venting anger. Wise correction must be loving correction.

But it is hard to read Proverbs and conclude against spanking in principle.

22:15   Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.

Love does not always entail pleasant feelings and pleasant interactions. In fact, it is love that should compel us to confront behavior problems openly.  

27:5 Better is open rebuke than hidden love.

Whatever you may think about spanking, Proverbs makes clear that to excuse ourselves from firm discipline of our children is to neglect to love them well.

29:15  The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.

Corrective discipline is the hard work of parenting. But it’s also the hard work of life in the body of Christ. Wise friendship and discipleship includes rebuke and reproof and firm correction.

27:6   Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.

28:23   Whoever rebukes a man will afterward find more favor than he who flatters with his tongue.

Love is not always fun. It is often uncomfortable. People often resent God’s correction until they realize it was necessary.

Hebrews 12:4-14   In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.  ⁵ And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

 “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.  ⁶ For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” 

(Here the author of Hebrews quotes Proverbs 3:11-12.)

 ⁷ It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?  ⁸ If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.  ⁹ Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?  ¹⁰ For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.  ¹¹ For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. 

¹² Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, ¹³ and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.  ¹⁴ Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

It’s impossible to reach summit with no strain in the legs. Lack of discipline is lack of care.

Are you currently experiencing hardship in your life? Do you face frustration and pain? This is a good sign God has not given up on developing you as a beloved member of his family.

You cannot earn membership in this family, that comes freely by faith in Jesus. But part of the gift involves striving to become like the giver.

We might think of Christian discipleship as a full scholarship into the greatest school of personal transformation in the universe – application accepted and tuition paid by the blood of Christ, campus endowed by the Holy Spirit, and the school chaired by God the Father.

But such a scholarship is not attractive if you don’t want to go to school.

2. Correction must be timely.

22:6  Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

This proverb emphasizes the timeliness of discipline in shaping desire. There are windows of opportunity that close over time. A healthy tree requires good soil. Like most proverbs, this verse should not be taken as a guarantee but as a general principle.

Children are not really innocent, but they are tender – thus more easily shaped.

As Frederick Douglass once put it:

“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”

If folly is not corrected when young, it tends to harden over time.

29:1   He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken beyond healing.

27:22  Crush a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, yet his folly will not depart from him.

Mature folly ossifies like a badly set bone. To try to correct a fool full grown is typically to waste one’s breath.

29:9   If a wise man has an argument with a fool, the fool only rages and laughs, and there is no quiet.

There comes a time to set aside efforts at correction and allow a fool to walk into his folly. There comes a time to leave discipline to God – however much it hurts (cf. 17:21).

And yet one’s approach to confronting folly must be determined by the context. Determining when to speak up in correction is not always easy.

26:4-5   Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself.  ⁵Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.

Fools are usually grateful to be left to themselves. But if you are content in isolation it is not a good sign.

18:1 Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment.

28:26 Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.

Discipline must be timely. The window for correction closes over the life cycle. Sometimes we must leave dear ones to the discipline of God.

And yet God can open closed windows. And Christ came to save fools.

3. Forgiveness enables re-correction.

28:13-14 Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. Blessed is the one who fears the LORD always, but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity. 

This is the highest wisdom found among the proverbs. This is the heart of the good news Christians believe about God’s mercy. If you’re already malformed and broken in your folly – there is still a balm and palliative for the foolish heart. God rejoices over the repentant heart.

If you didn’t grow up in good soil, God wants to bring you up anew. In fact, Jesus insisted we must become like spiritual babies, like tender children – in order to enter the kingdom of God.

“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ⁴ Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”  (Matthew 18:3-4) 

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3)

Some of the best moments I experience in pastoral counsel are when people say, “Yea, I was wrong, I’ve been wrong for a long time now, and I don’t know what to do about it. Maybe God can help me.”

Yes! That is the beginning of wisdom.

We avoid correction because we are proud. We want to correct ourselves because we want the credit. We don’t even want God to get the credit.

But when pride is broken; when we confess our sins and stop seeking credit, it’s a sure sign God has begun to transform the foolish heart.

If you are a crooked tree, God can prune you.

If you need a new life, God can re-birth you.

If you are wise in your own eyes, God can remove those blinders.

If you need to turn from folly, God offers wise correction.

God is the Father who runs out to kiss and embrace the returning prodigal fool (Luke 15:22-24).

But if you think you need no correction your pride will refuse God’s fatherly embrace (Luke 15:28, cf. Mark 2:17).

Even Jesus Christ learned obedience through what he suffered (Hebrews 5:8).

Jesus was crucified like a fool in order to show forth God’s correction of human folly. In order to expose the false wisdom of men, God himself appeared foolish. And in his death and resurrection Christ reset the bones of humanity for those humble enough to accept this correction by faith.

Christ prevailed against human folly, not by argument, but by love – not by applying the rod to our backs, but by accepting a flogging on our behalf (John 19:1ff).

1 Corinthians 1:20 – 25  Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?  For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom,  23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,  24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

God reverses the suppositions of human wisdom.

29:23 One’s pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor.

Remember that in heaven the last shall be first and the first shall be last (Matthew 19:30). With God it is never too late to accept correction – but we must do so by becoming fools for Jesus in the eyes of the world.

(**Verse citations are from Proverbs unless otherwise indicated. All Bible quotations are from the ESV.)

Wise Choice – Proverbs on decision and planning: a sermon summary (see esp. Proverbs 16)

Proverbs aims to inspire submission to the will of God in order to cultivate better decision-making in our daily lives.

**16:9 The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.

The Bible is full of stories about people who thought they knew the right way, but ended up in the wrong.

Think of Pharaoh who led his army after the Hebrews only to drown in the Red Sea (Exodus 4-15), or Eve who was so convinced the forbidden fruit would make her wise (Gen 3:6), or Cain who thought life would be better if he just did away with his brother (Gen 4:3 ff.).

16:25 There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.

Think of the chief priests and the crowds who demanded the crucifixion of Jesus (Luke 23:21), or Paul who tried to eliminate the Christian church by force before he was himself converted and called by Christ to become an apostle (Acts 26:14).

21:2 Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the heart. 

The paths of life run differently than we expect, and God’s ways are higher than our own.

1)      We’re not in control.

16:1 The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD. 

Proverbs 16:1 calls us to look for the interplay of the will of God in human conversation, especially in our own words. The Lord is at work in the bridge between meditation and articulation.

This proverb contrasts human will with God’s will, while at the same time it asserts that God’s own will is worked out in our words.

As Allen Ross observes:

“The proverb then is actually giving the reader a glimpse of how God confounds even the wise.”  (Allen P. Ross, Proverbs, 1002)

While this is mysterious to consider, yet it’s quite practical.

If you’re turned down for a job – you need not wrestle any further about whether to take that position. The answer, at least for now, is clearly “no”.

We will make our plans, but God rules the outcomes. We can take comfort in his sovereignty. Maybe that consistent “No” is protecting you from something which you cannot imagine. Perhaps your own inability to find the right words is a confirmation that your time to speak has not yet come.

But there is something foreboding in this proverb as well.

You might answer “yes” to a wicked path. Sometimes God’s judgment is manifest in allowing us to have exactly what we want.

16:4  The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble. 

God is sovereign; we are not. Watch out for the answers of others and watch the words of your own mouth, but trust that God will work his will through us one way or another – whether we speak with him or against him.

19:21 Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand. (also see Acts 4:24-30)

If we would align our plans and our words with God, then we must study God’s own words and plans. 

16:20 Whoever gives thought to the word will discover good, and blessed is he who trusts in the LORD.

2)      We shouldn’t trust ourselves.

 16:2 All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the spirit. 

With Proverbs 16:2 the foreboding is increased. There is a clear warning in this proverb. What you consider pure and right may or may not be what God counts pure. Either way, you will tend to think of yourself as in the right (cf. 21:2 above).

The pattern is consistent throughout humanity – we really want to be right. We like to think of ourselves as right all the time. We’re not inclined to be teachable or to change our minds.

Proverbs warns us that we are not so right or pure as we suppose.

Key insight: you are not the most reliable narrator of your own story.

You need to know what other people think. You need to know what God thinks. And God is not you. We need perspective in order to get a better idea of what is right and wrong.

20:24  A man’s steps are from the LORD; how then can man understand his way?

One thing is sure – if you insist on always making your own way and relying upon your own judgment, then you are proud. And pride is not pure.

16:5 Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the LORD; be assured, he will not go unpunished.  16:18 Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

Ellen Davis concludes that,

 “Self- suspicion is the only effective antidote to arrogance. In matters of speech, it expresses itself as the willingness to explore the feelings that lie behind a remark that “didn’t come out right,” to discover our own malice and confess it as a sin. Healthy self-suspicion derives from the recognition that our knowledge of ourselves is always woefully incomplete…” (Ellen Davis, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, 102)

There is tremendous stubbornness in the human spirit. We don’t like to second guess ourselves because we don’t want to admit we’re not in control. We hide insecurity by assuming a posture of self-assurance.

21:29-31  A wicked man puts on a bold face, but the upright gives thought to his ways.

Sometimes we know there is danger; we have been clearly warned – but we keep going.

27:12  The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.

We celebrate this stubbornness as a culture whenever we say with admiration: “He is his own man.” Or  “She has made her own way.”

Consider these chilling lines from the song “My Way” written by Paul Anka and popularized by Frank Sinatra:

“For what is a man, what has he got?  If not himself, then he has naught  To say the things he truly feels and not the words of one who kneels  The record shows I took the blows and did it my way!”

(see full lyrics here: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/franksinatra/myway.html)

The good news is you don’t have to walk that lonely path. You don’t have to live a brash and proud life, you don’t have to choose the path of folly. By the grace of God, you can choose the way of wisdom.

3)      We still have to decide.

 16:3 Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established

Despite all these warnings about the folly of human plans, yet the Bible is still in favor of making plans. Despite the fact we’re not in control and we shouldn’t trust ourselves, yet we still have to decide. God is sovereign, but he is not a puppeteer.

As Paul Koptak observes:

“Human choices are not made less important by considering the sovereignty of God; rather, their true importance is shown.”  (Paul Kaptak, Proverbs, 426)

It seems to me Proverbs calls us to make our plans with vigor – but to submit our plans and commit our ways to God. We should plan and pray before we act, but we should act decidedly – while humbly allowing for redirection from the Lord.

Proverbs endorses careful planning. Don’t take the various warnings about human folly as an excuse to piously relieve yourself of the responsibility to plan or to decide.

11:14 Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.

We Americans live in a time and place that presents us with seemingly endless choices – and encourages us to keep our options open.

But as Barry Cooper puts it:

“The god of open options is…a liar. He promises you that by keeping your options open, you can have everything and everyone. But in the end you get nothing and no one.” (Barry Cooper, “Imprisoned by Choice”, Christianity Today, Jan/Feb 2013, p. 54)

Part of our problem in decision paralysis is that even when we see the right path clearly we still want to know all the reasons why that way is best and we want to know all outcomes ahead of time.

 27:1 Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.

There’s nothing wrong with decision trees and forecasting. These are helpful tools. But the freedom of faith comes in accepting that you don’t have to understand in order to choose well and you don’t have to know outcomes in order to walk in the Fear of the Lord. Often it’s only once we step forward in faith that we may begin to see more clearly.

As Thomas Merton once observed:

“Faith brings together the known and the unknown so that they overlap: or rather, so that we are aware of their overlapping. …when we accept only what we can consciously rationalize, our life is actually reduced to the most pitiful limitations…” (Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation, 135-36, italics his)

For the person of genuine faith, discerning the will of God should not be especially difficult – at least not most of the time. Walking the righteous path may prove difficult, but the way forward is straight and narrow. Finding the way involves turning to God and to his Word; you don’t have to make it up as you go along.

3:5-6  Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. ⁶ In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

If we study God’s law, we will find it plainly forbids a plethora of bad options. If we stop playing God we may find joy in faith and the simple peace that comes with acknowledging our limitations.

There are more good things to be done in the world than bad, more than one way to please God. But we should choose something to put our hand to that aligns with God’s favor.

17:24 The discerning sets his face toward wisdom, but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.

As Christians we must remember that we find our salvation, not in every story, but in a particular story. The best news for us is that God is not keeping his options open. God has chosen to act and God has chosen to love. In the man Jesus Christ, God chose to suffer for your forgiveness, to die for your redemption. Christ himself traded his own life for yours.

Barry Cooper observes:

“Nothing narrows your options more than allowing your hands and feet to be nailed to a wooden cross.” (Ibid., p. 55)

Where humanity has lost the will to love, God remains committed. And by Christ’s atonement God enables us, by faith, to choose the good again and to choose to love again without fear. Jesus once said to his disciples:

John 15:16a You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide…

God chooses first, but still we must choose decidedly for God.

Luke 9:62  Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” 

(**Verse citations are from Proverbs unless otherwise indicated. All Bible quotations are from the ESV.)

Wise Poor – Proverbs on poverty and injustice: a sermon summary

 

Some sayings in Proverbs were written especially for the ruling class. They insist kings stand accountable to God and must exercise their power in stewardship for the wellbeing of others.

**29:13-14  The poor man and the oppressor meet together; the LORD gives light to the eyes of both. ¹⁴ If a king faithfully judges the poor, his throne will be established forever.

Derek Kidner comments:

“The test of a man in power, and his hidden strength, is the extent to which he keeps faith with those who can put least pressure on him.” (Derek Kidner, Proverbs, 175, commenting on 29:14)

Thomas Jefferson famously opened the American Declaration of Independence by appealing to unalienable human rights:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their  Creator with certain unalienable Rights…” (In Congress, July 4, 1776.)

While scripture does not endorse a right of political revolution per se, yet Jefferson does align with the Bible in asserting universal human dignity grounded in our common origin as creatures of God.

14:31 Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him. 22:2 The rich and the poor meet together; the LORD is the maker of them all. 28:5  Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the LORD understand it completely.

And yet most current appeals to human rights do not ground their substance in the glory of God.

It was Jefferson’s appeal to the court of Heaven which carried the force of his argument against King George. George III could scarcely defend the injustices carried out in his colonies as divinely ordered – esp. as a Christian king.

Ellen Davis observes:

“It is because biblical faith affirms that we have political rights precisely as the creatures of God that totalitarian governments must always suppress it. They can only be effective and secure as long as they perpetuate the myth that no one and nothing is more than a creature of the state, its tool and hopeful beneficiary.”  (Ellen Davis, Proverbs…, 96, italics hers)

This is why it is next to impossible to find a Bible in a place like North Korea.

But, sadly, even among those with convictions about universal human dignity we find that by force of custom or desire for profit our personal convictions are easily set aside in practical matters.

Thomas Jefferson himself described the wicked irony of his own custom of slave holding:

“The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. …And with what execration should the statesman be loaded, who permitting one half the citizens thus to trample on the rights of the other, transforms those into despots, and these into enemies, destroys the morals of the one part, and the amor patriae of the other.”  (Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, chapter 18)

Despite these convictions, Jefferson never released his slaves – not even at his death (as Washington did). Often we see injustice clearly, but we don’t know what to do about it and so we look the other way. We leave it to the next generation to redress the balance. (I say this not to villainize Jefferson, but because his story dramatizes the kind of intense ironies and inconsistencies which permeate the human condition. Jefferson did more than most to put slaves on a trajectory toward emancipation by writing about freedom and equality as he did. Yet he failed to align his actions with his words.)

21:13   Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered. 28:27 Whoever gives to the poor will not want, but he who hides his eyes will get many a curse. 

We are skilled at selective attention. We may or may not know the death tolls in current areas of political conflict like Syria, Egypt, and the Central African Republic. But most of us will be sure to hear the outcome of the first UGA football game this weekend (at least those of us here in Athens). I am all for sporting diversions, but we can easily fill our lives with pleasant distractions to the neglect of greater matters.

To find justice, we must seek it.  It’s not fun to look upon things that are unpleasant, and in this way it seems the poor often get in the way of the rich.

17:5 Whoever mocks the poor insults his Maker; he who is glad at calamity will not go unpunished.

Why would anyone be glad at calamity? Because calamity sweeps some of the wretched poor out of the way so that we can get on with our lives and business – we suppose they are probably better off dead – and our collective conscience is relieved.

Poverty is not simply about not having money.  An orphan with money still has no parents; a widow with money still has no husband. The wealthy fool still lacks wisdom. And the unbelieving sinner in a hearty economy still lives in bondage to his own flesh and alienation from God. The dead with money…are still dead (they don’t really have the money anymore either).

As Flannery O’Conner once put it in the voice of her character Francis Tarwater:

“’The dead are poor. …You can’t be any poorer than dead. He’ll have to take what he gets.’” (The Violent Bear it Away, chapter 1 – originally a short story entitled, You Can’t Be Any Poorer Than Dead.)

Part of poverty is lacking a voice. The poor are easily ignored. Few in America are destitute, but many are poor. The poor are those from whom we turn our faces.

22:22-23  Do not rob the poor, because he is poor, or crush the afflicted at the gate, ²³ for the LORD will plead their cause and rob of life those who rob them.

Why would you rob the poor? Because it’s easier than exploiting the rich! The poor are not well defended; they have few advocates. Hence King Lemuel’s mother exhorts him to speak up:

31:8-9 Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. ⁹ Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy. 

The best advocate for the poor is one who lives among them and identifies with their plight – even if he is truly wealthy. That’s what Jesus did for all of us. Christ completely identified with human poverty – even the poverty of death, the poverty of abandonment, the poverty of betrayal, the poverty of our sin and folly he made his own.

Luke 6:20   “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

And in his lowest place, stripped of all but love, he spoke for us:

Luke 23:34  And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.

The Holy One was counted as nothing by the ruling classes of his day.

Another reason the poor have few faithful advocates is that there are pressures from power interests not to speak against the status quo. Bribes and threats and violence are effective and ancient tools for silencing dissent.

13:23  The fallow ground of the poor would yield much food, but it is swept away through injustice. 17:23 The wicked accepts a bribe in secret to pervert the ways of justice. 18:23 The poor use entreaties, but the rich answer roughly.

There are massive efforts in the world today which aim to bring an end to poverty and oppression. And any serious effort to alleviate injustice is to be commended – even when it fails. But we must recognize that many such efforts are doomed for disappointment in that they do not seek to redress the spiritual poverty of the human heart. Our problems are more than economic. Material wealth does not heal pride or covetousness – in fact, it tends to fuel it. The rich are often most distant from God.

16:8  Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice. 29:26  Many seek the face of a ruler, but it is from the LORD that a man gets justice.

The good news today is that we cannot save the world from oppression and injustice – not in our own strength – but that God can; God has done so, and God is doing so. God has the resources to accomplish his goals and he wants us to be part of it. Jesus died so that we might live – he chose to.

2 Corinthians 8:9  For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

In Christ, God came not only to die, but to live – to overcome our sins with sacrificial forgiveness, to swallow up death with the victory of resurrection life. And you can’t be any richer than that!

John 10:10 …I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Do you know yourself to be poor enough to need the charity of God? Are you wealthy in terms of material capital, but poor in terms of spiritual capital? Or are you materially poor and tired of being pushed to the margins of society? Are you willing to accept the bounty of God today? Are you willing to become an instrument in sharing the wealth of God? If so, hear the words of the prophet Isaiah – words which Jesus claimed were about himself (cf. Luke 4:16-21):

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8, 11 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; ² to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; ³ to grant to those who mourn in Zion- to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified. ⁴ They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.

We cannot redress injustice by our own strength – we are too poor. But by faith in Christ we can participate in God’s own justice and mercy – God’s own strength to fulfill his promises. Indeed, by faith in Jesus we become members of the royal household of God – with all the responsibilities thereto appertaining. The proverbs written to kings are therefore also written to us. And this is not a call to drudgery but to great joy!

Isaiah 61:8, 11 For I the LORD love justice; I hate robbery and wrong; I will faithfully give them their recompense…   ¹¹ For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.

(**Verse citations are from Proverbs unless otherwise indicated. All Bible quotations are from the ESV.)

Wise Friends – Proverbs on friendship: a sermon summary

According to Proverbs we need wise friends to help us find the wisdom of God. There is no spiritual maturity without each other. Our companions shape our character more than we imagine.

Proverbs 13:20  Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm. 27:17 Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.

Cultures cultivate and people imitate; we draw on the words and actions of people around us.

“[This is like] one who enters a perfumer’s shop – even if the owner sells him nothing, nor does he buy anything from the owner, after he leaves his person and his clothing are scented, nor does the scent leave him all day long.

…[Or] one who enters a tanner’s shop – even if the owner sells him nothing, nor does he buy anything from the owner, after he leaves his person and his clothing are evil-smelling. Nor does the stench leave him all day long.” (Visotzky, Midrash, 68. As quoted in Ellen Davis, Proverbs…, 86.)

Part of the reason for this is that friendship is always grounded in some common interest.

“Those who have nothing can share nothing; those who are going nowhere can have no fellow-travelers.”  (C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves, 98).

“[And]…weaknesses induce companionship just as easily, in fact more easily, than do virtues. (William Bennett, The Book of Virtues, 269)

We should never think: “I’m not really like these people, they just happen to be my friends.” We need encounters with outside social circles to realize that not everyone behaves like us and our friends.

There’s always potential to develop one way or another depending on our associations. But if you want to be pleasing in the eyes of everyone, you will end up seeking to please fools (cf. Luke 6:26). You don’t have to be the best friend of a fool in order to get into trouble, all that’s required is that you become a fool’s companion. The sages see deadly danger here:

17:12 Let a man meet a she-bear robbed of her cubs rather than a fool in his folly. (cf. Proverbs 4:14-19)

I used to struggle with abandoning my bad associations because I wanted to be a faithful friend. But to depart from a path which is already headed for destruction does not hurt your former companions – it invites them to consider a better way. In order to truly help some friends we must first get some distance.

“Remember, then, that whoever does not mean good is always in danger of harm. …[And] There are a great many more good things than bad things to do.” (George MacDonald, The Princess and Curdie, chapter 3)

But where do we find wise friends in a world full of fools? We like to think ourselves wise even when we are not. 20:6 Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find? If you’re thinking, “I’m glad I got all this figured out already”, then you are wise in your own estimation. As Christians we need not pretend to be more righteous or more wise than we really are. We can confess our folly openly and then seek the counsel of God. This is why the fear of the LORD is said to be the beginning of wisdom.

12:15 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.

It is one of the first requirements of Christian discipleship is that we acknowledge our own folly. In order to benefit from God’s wisdom we must first recognize that we need it.

1 John 1:9-10 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (cf. Prov. 28:13)

The original sin of Eden looks more like folly than malice (Genesis 3:4-7). Most sin is like that. We must become truly wise in the same way we become truly righteous – through friendship with Jesus Christ – our repentance and his forgiveness.

 18:24 A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

True friendship is more than companionship and more than being allied in a cause. It is the deep joy of sharing one’s soul with another in a kind of reciprocity that expands our entire appreciation of life itself. It is not just about doing favors for one another, but about finding in one another a greater joy in life and in God than we could ever attain alone.

18:1 Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment.

“We are who we are not because we are separate from the others who are next to us, but because we are both separate and connected, both distinct and related…” (Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace, 66, emphasis his.)

Some of you have been frustrated in finding wise friends and have concluded it’s better to walk alone – but the Bible calls us together. Philippians 2:4-5 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus… In Christ the quest to find wise friends should give way to the process of becoming a wise friend for others.

Part of the unique glory of friendship is that it is a relationship which may be openly shared with others. C. S. Lewis has observed that it is the least jealous and least biological of human loves. By contrast with familial affections and with Eros, friendship is more purely spiritual – in such a way that the beauty of friendship expands by welcoming others into fellowship.

“Friendship is not a reward for our discrimination and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each the beauties of all the others.” (Lewis, Four Loves, 126)

Here Lewis speaks especially of friendship forged through mutual association with Jesus Christ. It is God who empowers us to truly love one another sacrificially, without envy and without manipulation.

John 15:13-17 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.  You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

 It may well be that friendship is the closest human analogue to divine and trinitarian fellowship. Lewis wonders if other analogies are more common in scripture – father/son, husband/wife, master/ servant – simply because few people have experienced true friendship in such a way as to relate.

But the theme does arise at key junctures in redemptive history:

Exodus 33:11a   Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. 

Isaiah 41:8  But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend; 

Matthew 11:19  The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!‘ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”

One of the joys of friendship is mutual sincerity in conversation. Friends enjoy talking to one another.

27:9-10 Oil and perfume make the heart glad, and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel. 

If you want to grow in fellowship with God, try talking with him more! Read his word and speak your heart in prayerful response. The good news of the gospel is that God has freely chosen to befriend fools like us! Jesus died and rose again because God wants to enjoy relationship with you, and he wants you to discover the joys of fellowship with himself.                Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise…

(Full sermon audio available here: /theuniversitychurch.org/)

Consider the words of the hymn “No Not One” as a worshipful response to God’s friendship. Here is a joyful rendition: