Proverbs 17:16

“Why should fools have a price in hand to buy wisdom, when they have no mind to learn?”

When I was growing up, we had “altar calls” often in our church. The point wasn’t necessarily to call sinners to salvation, but rather to allow the saints to reflect on their own sinfulness and to seriously repent. We don’t see altar calls as much these days. I marvel at the television teachers that are popular, the ones that promote the kind of feel-goodism that attributes our problems to psychology or dysfunction or habits or circumstances and that speaks little of sin. The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy:

“For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-4 NRSV).

The proverb asks “why should fools have a price in hand to buy wisdom when they have no mind to learn?” I wonder sometimes why we come to the Throne of God if we aren’t willing for our sin to be laid bare and for us to have to acknowledge that we are nothing without Him? You see, God is much more than our Provider. When we reduce Him to that sole role, we in fact reduce Him to some kind of galactic purchasing agent. And He is far more. He is far more in role and He is far more in character!

A. W. Tozer, in The Knowledge of the Holy, wrote:

“The low view of God entertained almost universally among Christians is the cause of a hundred lesser evils everywhere among us. A whole new philosophy of the Christian life has resulted from this one basic error in our religious thinking” (p. vii).

Why do we go to church? Do we go out of a sense of obligation? To listen to fun music? To get our “fix” of scripture for the week? Why do we go? Church is becoming very different than it used to be, filled with sound bytes and slogans. Ask yourself what the sermon was about last week, last month, last year. How much of what you heard significantly changed your life? Do you leave feeling good or feeling convicted?

We know that the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Do we study enough (the right kind of study) to even be able to discern sound doctrine from nonsense? Would you even know if your pastor is a sheep or a wolf?

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:15-16a NRSV).

The word translated here “fruits” is karpos. Vine’s writes:

“of works or deeds, ‘fruit’ being the visible expression of power working inwardly and invisibly, the character of the ‘fruit’ being evidence of the character of the power producing it, Matt. 7:16. As the visible expressions of hidden lusts are the works of the flesh, so the invisible power of the Holy Spirit in those who are brought into living union with Christ (John 15:2-8, 16) produces ‘the fruit of the Spirit.’”

In other words, the thing that delineates a true prophet (or teacher) from a false one is the evidence of the fruit in their lives, not the outward fruit (such as how many people attend a preacher’s church), but the inward fruit of character! The problem today is that, with many large churches, we don’t really even know our pastors. (Do they even know more than our names about us?) Do we know if they are self-controlled, gentle, kind, generous? Do we care? When Ted Haggard was ousted from his church for sexual immorality, a group of his parishioners protested the firing, not caring whether or not he had sinned, but only that they could keep their beloved Sunday-morning-speaker! Do we care about sound doctrine at all?

We go to church with “a price in hand to buy wisdom.” The question is, are we wise enough to realize that wisdom is applied and usually painfully in our lives. Do we have minds to learn? I think that this is a question we really need to ask ourselves as believers.

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 17:14

“The beginning of strife is like letting out water; so stop before the quarrel breaks out.” NRSV

Ever punch a hole in a container full of water? This proverb is absolutely true. You can put all manner of things against the hole, but it’s almost impossible to stop the water from seeping (or pouring) out!

There are many things in our lives that, once begun, are difficult to stop. Anger and fighting is one of them. I grew up in the generation that said that when you’re angry, you need to “talk it out” in order to dissipate the emotions. Newer studies are showing that talking, when you’re angry, can lead to escalation, rather than de-escalation.

“‘I thought it was healthy to express my anger.’ For the last 50 years the world has been saying, ‘Express yourself.’ ‘Let ‘it out.’ ‘It's good for you to express your feelings." ‘It's bad for you to repress your feelings.’

“Seymour Feshbach, an early pioneer in anger research, explored hostility and aggressiveness by taking a group of young boys who were not especially aggressive or destructive and encouraging them to kick furniture and play with violent toys. They did so enthusiastically. Instead of draining these boys of aggression, the aggressive ‘play’ actually increased it. The boys became more rather than less hostile and destructive. As opposed to letting off steam, expressing hostility toward another person may increase rather than decrease hostile feelings” (Hightower, 2002).

Hightower’s research would agree with scripture which says to stop strife and anger at the beginning before our emotions get out of control. An earlier proverb gives us an example of how to handle an angry situation:

“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise dispenses knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly.” (Proverbs 15:1-2 NRSV).

James talks about how easily it is to lose control when we speak: “The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell. . . . no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so” (James 3:5b-6, 8-10 NRSV).

Samuel Johnson, an English poet, once said, “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than open one's mouth and remove all doubt.”

The fact is, when we are angry, we tend to say things that we wouldn’t normally say. As the situation deteriorates, we feel less and less in control. In order to try to regain control (and often, to manipulate the other person), our attempts may become more and more desperate and we begin to say things we would never consider saying in a less heated situation. We say things that are very hurtful and those words hang between us and the other person for a long time to come.

The Christian is commanded to have a different response when we are attacked. Peter wrote: “Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse; but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing. It is for this that you were called—that you might inherit a blessing” (1 Peter 3:9 NRSV). In other words, we aren’t allowed to be angry because we have been hurt or offended or abused. We are to repay our abusers with blessings.

Isn’t that what Christ did for us? And aren’t we to imitate Him in all things? We don’t need to stand up for ourselves, to defend ourselves, or to insure our rights. God is fully able to do that for us. Our responsibility is to respond, in all situations, with the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23 NRSV). God will take care of everything else.

Hightower, N. (2002). How to stop losing your life to anger. Retrieved on 12/29/08 from http://www.grandtimes.com/Anger.html

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 17:11

“Evil people seek only rebellion, but a cruel messenger will be sent against them.” NRSV

rebellion: opposition to one in authority or (one in) dominance

In other words, rebellion is the antonym to submission.

As Christians, we need to stop claiming who we are and start looking at what we do. If we seek to rebel—not to submit—then we are evil, not righteous. It doesn’t matter who we say we are; it does matter what we choose to do.

Submission is a huge thing. But I think that submission may be more (or different) than we think it is. And I’m beginning to think that submission is tied to judgment in a way we often don’t consider. The apostle Paul wrote:

“Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of another. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. If your brother or sister is being injured by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died. So do not let your good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. The one who thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and has human approval. Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for you to make others fall by what you eat; it is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that makes your brother or sister stumble.” (Romans 14:13-21 NRSV).

In this passage, judging someone isn’t so much about telling them that they are sinning and deciding that what they think is sin isn’t. In a sense, it’s actually encouraging them to sin in order to justify our own behavior. I think, because our society doesn’t deal specifically and actually with meat offered to idols, it’s hard to get a handle on Paul’s discussion here. But what if we substituted “watching TV.”

“I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is a sin in itself; but it is a sin for anyone who thinks it a sin. If your sister is being injured by your watching tV, you are no longer walking in love. For the kingdom of God is not watching TV but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. Do not, for the sake of TV, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for you to make others fall by what you watch; it is good not to watch TV or do anything that makes your sister stumble.”

All of the sudden, the passage makes a great deal more sense. Submission now becomes giving up that thing in our lives that is harming the other person. What submission is not is giving that other person their way when their way leads to sin. In other words, submission isn’t indulgence. Submission is sacrifice.

I think that we often, as Christians, look for ways to justify situations where we won’t have to submit. For example, with our children. We teach that children must submit to their parents, but not that parents must submit to their children. And yet Ephesians 5:21 teaches that we must submit to each other as believers. If our children—even our minor children—are believers, we are to submit to them. However, submitting to them doesn’t necessarily mean that we give them their way. What it does mean is that we choose the sacrificial way to live that will guide their lives into righteousness. Submission isn’t indulgence.

How much do we actually love? Are we willing to give up that which is comfortable, enjoyable, and even permissible in order that the other person around us will be guided into righteous living? Are we willing to narrow our own way in order to lead them to the way of life? What is the focus of our life, to get our own happiness or to minister and serve those around us? These are hard questions if we are truly honest with ourselves because they cut to the core of our motivation. How serious are we at being Christians? Perhaps as the new year approaches, this is something we should ask ourselves.

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 17:10

“A rebuke strikes deeper into a discerning person than a hundred blows into a fool.” NRSV

Do we want to be righteous . . . or do we want to be right? It seems, these days, that many people have difficulties taking constructive criticism. The fact is, our egos are so sensitive (so self-centered) that we want everyone to approve of us all the time, rather than accepting the kind of sacrificial love that comes from a friend who wants us to be right with God. And, oh my goodness, what turmoil wells up inside us when we are rebuked! We take it as a personal offense, rather than quietly wondering if perhaps it’s really true and we should do something about it.

Friends don’t let friends sin. That’s the simple fact about Christianity. If we are true to our faith, we understand that everything here is temporal and our focus should be on the eternal. And the eternal is concerned with pleasing God.

What’s interesting is that God loves us in spite of our sin: “But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 NRSV). God doesn’t love our sin. And, in fact, our sin is the reason we are separated from His presence. But He loves us. And that’s the reason that Christ died to reconcile us to Him, because He loves us. I think that we often believe we must be “perfect” in order to deserve His love. But the fact is, we have His love already. And He proved that through Christ’s death. Consequently, all we have to do is be obedient, which means in part understanding that we aren’t perfect, that we have a lot of work to do to become more and more like the Lord Jesus.

Being a believer is hard work and part of that work is accepting rebukes graciously. A Christian sister who sees us in sin does us a great favor when she, in love, tells us: “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted” (Galatians 6:1 NRSV). Rebukes are done with much prayer and much love knowing that we also will be tempted and perhaps even succumb. In other words, we walk this life together, helping each other when the other falls.

And personally I’m grateful for the help!

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 17:9

One who forgives an affront fosters friendship, but one who dwells on disputes will alienate a friend. NRSV

Do we forgive?

Likely, the answer will be “yes,” but for many of us, the truth is actually closer to “no.” Rather, we hold grudges, withhold our trust, and generally are fairly unforgiving. In fact, for some of us, we cling to our offenses like comfort blankets, consoling ourselves with the idea that somehow withholding our friendship from someone who has hurt us actually deals that person a fatal blow. In reality, unforgiveness hurts us a lot more than it hurts the person at whom we are angry.

The problem, I think, is that we have forgotten how to repent. We teach our children the easy “sorry;” we use it ourselves. It no longer has any meaning. And forgiveness and repentance go hand in hand. In fact, we are so absorbed with the idea of tolerance (rather than repentance) that we are even reluctant to admit to another person that they have hurt us, have offended us. So rather than dealing with that issue and forgiving them, we hang onto our hurt. It’s a vicious circle.

The Lord Jesus taught very clearly on this matter:

Be on your guard! If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive. And if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive. (Luke 17:3-4 NRSV).

There are some very interesting dynamics in this verse. First, the Lord Jesus command us to “be on your guard.” Vine’s states that “it suggests devotion of thought and effort to a thing.” In other words, what follows is something that we should regularly attend to, focus on, think about. How often do we think about repentance and forgiveness, even in our own lives? And yet obviously this is something important, very important, in the life of the believer.

What happens next, though, may be a surprise to many of us who are well used to living in a tolerant society. The Lord Jesus tells us—command us even—to rebuke another believer when he sins! Rather than to allow the sin to continue, we are to rebuke them. The sense is to censure, admonish, and forbid them. In other words, we are our brother’s keeper.

Sin is insidious. And it’s very difficult to sin only one sin. It’s likely eating potato chips; you can’t eat just one. Well, sin is the same way. In the vast majority of cases, one sin leads to a number of sins, all of which alienate us from God and most of which alienate us from each other. We aren’t to let sin go unchecked in another believer’s life, but rather to rebuke it. In love and with gentleness, but with rebuke nevertheless: “My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:1-2 NRSV).

The story of Zacchaeus demonstrates repentance (possibly something we don’t even want to look at): Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, ‘Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.’” (Luke 19:8 NRSV). Zacchaeus understood the three aspects of repentance: (1) acknowledging the sin (specifically naming the sin); (2) stating what he will do differently, and (3) making up for the collateral damage. Apologies (as we know) are very easy; repentance, on the other hand, is very difficult. Perhaps that’s why we shy away from it. If we are honest, the truth is, we’re not really sorry for the sin nor willing to let go of it; rather, we are sorry we got found out, that we got caught and we’d like to avoid unpleasantries surrounding the sin at all cost. And that attitude makes someone else forgiving us very difficult because forgiveness involves restoration of relationship. And how can they restore their relationship with us when we likely intend to do the sin again?

We need to learn how to forgive and effectively forget (restore the relationship) by also learning how to repent. And if we model repentance in our own lives (as the salt of the earth), we may find that those around us also learn that repentance is a far greater blessing than hanging on to those old offenses. Let’s give our families the gift of repentance and forgiveness this year. It’s likely a better gift than the latest Wii box anyway.

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 17:6

“Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their parents.” (NRSV)

My grandmother became a Christian in her 60's. I still have the Bible my mom gave her, her cramped notes in the margins. I can remember her telling my mom her regret for waiting so long before she surrendered to the Lord.

It’s never too late.

It seems that the number of people my age (and younger) who have “problems” with their parents has risen dramatically. Even before my grandmother was saved, my parents (both of them) had a wonderful relationship with her and a decent relationship with my grandfather (who probably was never saved). It wasn’t an easy relationship, but both sides worked at it and made it work. Sometimes I think, particularly those of us who are believers, that we demand too much and forgive too little. And we are the losers because we need our families!

There is, within this proverb, a statement about the interdependence of extended families. Of course, most of us realize that having grandkids is just, simply put, wonderful (and fun)! But we often want to forget or ignore that more difficult relationship, that of adult child and adult parent. What’s interesting is that the Hebrew word translated here “glory” also means “beauty:” “The word represents ‘beauty,’ in the sense of the characteristic enhancing one’s appearance.” In other words, once we are grown, it beautifies us to continue to have a relationship with our parents.

It’s interesting to me to see how we often mangle scripture in order to defend our own views or our own choices. Twice in the New Testament it tells children to obey their parents: Col. 3:20 and Ephesians 6:1. It never qualifies the age of these “children,” though you will hear most pastors saying that it means minor children. But I have to ask myself, how much that my parents asked of me, as an adult, would it have truly hurt me to do? Most parents of adult children realize that their children now will make their own decisions. Few adults want to continue to “manage” their children’s day-to-day lives. Ephesians 5:21 (NRSV) tells us to “be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.” So, even if we believe that the other verses are about minor children, we are still told to live in submission to each other. In other words, unless our parents demand something of us that is a sin, what is the harm in trying to please them? In submitting to them? Are we pick and choose to whom we submit? (Of course, if someone demands that we sin, then we do resist. Submission is never an excuse to sin.)

I think that our rebellion against our parents costs us dearly, that we lose a great deal when we refuse to nurture family relationships. Is cultivating family relationships difficult? Absolutely! Sometimes older parents are irascible, sometimes demanding. The vast differences in culture alone can make being with our parents for extended periods of time hard. But I truly believe that in all but the smallest minority of cases in the long run it is well worth it. The Bible can’t be wrong! We are beautified as believers when we are in relationship with our parents. And who knows? Perhaps that parent who never knew the Lord will come to know Him because of your submission (and your prayers).

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 23:22

“Hearken to your father who begot you, and do not despise your mother when she is old.” (RSV)

I’m getting older. Actually in a few months, I’ll be eligible for senior discounts in some establishments. To be honest, I never thought I’d get old. In my teens, I thought—as did many of my friends—that I simply wouldn’t live that long, that the world would implode upon itself (or that the Lord Jesus would return for His Church) before I got old. Recently, Franklin Graham commented on his father’s 90th birthday: "He's always been ready to die," Franklin Graham said. "But nobody's prepared him for getting old." (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2128017/posts). Certainly, that’s how many of us have felt. And now we are having to change our expectations of life.

Youth is arrogant. There’s just no two ways about it. Vernon McGee wrote:

“‘Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder.’ This has been reversed in our day—today the elder is supposed to submit to the younger. Young people are the ones who are protesting, and they are the ones who want to discard the establishment. However, the Christian young person needs to realize that the Word of God says, ‘Ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder.’ After all, your father, if you have a good or a godly father, has a lot of sense and maybe more sense than you have. A friend of mine told me, ‘I was ashamed of my dad at the time when I went away to college. Although he had made good money, and he was an executive, I was ashamed of him. He had such old-fashioned ideas; he was a real square. When I finished college and got out in the business world, I didn’t see him for a couple of years. When I did see him again, I was absolutely amazed to see how much he’d learned in just six years!’ A lot of young people find out, after they themselves have been out in the school of hard knocks for awhile, that their dads have learned a great deal.”

Even if we didn’t “despise” our parents when we were young, most of us have bought into the “culture of youth” that permeates our society. We want to act young, look young, think young, be young. Our culture is obsessed with being young: plastic surgery, cosmetics, hair transplants, clothing. Even many of our recreational activities are geared to being young (and are done by those whose bodies are protesting such use).

Unfortunately, it seems as if this idea of idolizing youth has also invaded the Church. So many churches are now structuring their services, not based on Biblical admonitions, but on “attracting the young.” I’ve seen pastors in their fifties and sixties dressed in Hawaiian shirts and flip flops, wearing piercings in their ears, trying to look serious about preaching. Instead they look pathetic, old men trying to play dress up in their grandkids’ clothes. The fact is, we are the generation that grew up thinking that old was uncool and heaven forbid we see ourselves in the same light.

It’s really too bad. There’s a lot to be said for growing older. For one thing, age can bring wisdom. Simply living longer brings experience which can result in knowing which decisions are likely to produce the best outcomes. But more than that, it is hoped that the older a believer gets, the more that believer has prayed, has studied her Bible, has listened to the soft voice of the Spirit. Instead of clinging to youth—which, in essence, is clinging to this life—maturity should bring to us some acknowledgment that most of what we do is futile and that our focus should be on storing up treasures on heaven, not trying to refit the decaying treasures here on earth. The next time you look into that magnifying mirror and see another crow’s feet, don’t call them laugh lines or even wrinkles. Call them prayer lines and realize that you’ve been blessed to have had one more time to commune with the Lord, to learn how to trust Him, and to gain the wisdom He promises so that you can share it with those around you

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Romans 6:15-18

What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. NRSV

Can a Christian be a Christian and still sin? I think that all of us know that is true. Unfortunately, our churches have been teaching (for many years) that it’s possible for a Christian to be a Christian and still embrace sin. And that’s not true.

We would like it to be true. All of us have “pet” sins that we do embrace, attitudes, expectations, desires, lusts that make us feel good, that help dull the pain in our lives. And, if we are brutally honest with ourselves, we don’t want to give those up. It’s that simple.

I have watched the growing problem (within the Church and without) of homosexuality, marriage, and ordination with interest because, frankly, we have done this to ourselves. The Church in America has created a social and emotional environment where this was the next logical step. We ourselves—the supposed light of the world—embraced our own sin and then asked the sinners around us to reject theirs. To be honest, it seems a bit hypocritical. If Christians can’t be stringently righteous, how can we expect anyone to even approximate that behavior?

Paul was clear in Romans 6 when he demanded (yes, demanded) that Christians be prudent, watchful, and mindful of their behavior by being “slaves to righteousness.” To be honest, I think that part of our problem is that our society is too far away from slavery, from the idea of complete submission without thought to our own desires or ideas. Being a slave means that we have no choice, no choice at all. In other words, it doesn’t matter what we want or feel or even need. We do what the slave master commands. Period. And in this case, the slave master is the righteousness of God. We don’t have a choice in whether or not we want to do something, want to give up a habit, want to turn away from sin. We simply have to do it!

Paul wrote in chapter 12: I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect. (v. 1-2 NRSV).

“Do not be conformed to this world.” A choice. Choose not to be conformed. I think about conforming. Conforming means to look and be like something else. It’s time we looked into a mirror and asked if we look like our unsaved neighbors. Do we dress like them? Act like them? Talk like them? Do we have the same interests, the same goals, the same stuff? This gets it down to the nitty gritty, doesn’t it? I had the wonderful opportunity to know some really committed Christians in my early life. Their lives were very different from the lives of the majority of Christians today. There are so many “accepted” behaviors in our lives they would never have even considered doing. Here are some questions to ask ourselves:

In movies or television, do we watch nudity or listen to profanity?
Do we indulge our children (or grandchildren)?
Do we make food choices (particularly when we go out to eat) based on health and finances or based on what we want to eat?
Do we buy new, discard old, and buy new again (even when something is still usable or worth repairing)?
Do we hold onto our anger and our grudges?
Do we believe that there are things in this life we can’t live without?
Are we devastated by life’s losses?
Do we feel we need a vacation from life, from family, from church?
Do we know anyone who is still in need?
When was the last time we focused our entire life on prayer and Bible study?

While I’m not for gay marriage or ordination, I do think that we need to look at the true cause of what’s happening. It’s not that we don’t have the right to judge; we do! Only, we have the right to judge within the Family:

“But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother or sister who is sexually immoral or greedy, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber. Do not even eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging those outside? Is it not those who are inside that you are to judge?” (1 Corinthians 5:11-12 NRSV).

Judgment wasn’t about having an opinion, but rather about executing a sentence. As Christians, we have the right to execute the sentence of isolation and rejection of relationship which the other Christian is embracing sin. We don’t do that. Why? I think perhaps because we don’t want it done to us. We don’t want our sin to become public and for us to lose our friends because of our immoral choices. And yet, this is how God established the dynamic of the Church.

Notice first, in this passage, that the sins are listed as “sinners.” This is what differentiates someone who sins once and immediately repents and someone who embraces the sin (even, perhaps, tries to justify it). Unfortunately, in America, we have as a Church embraced greed. We have! And some churches, by approving homosexuality, are embracing sexual immorality. So have many other churches that have “accepted” easy divorce, the use of pornography, and watching R-rated movies. (There are reasons for divorce, but most divorced Christians don’t meet the criteria and most of their pastors don’t insist that they do.)

We don’t teach repentance anymore. We teach easy “sorry’s” and try to move on, saying that we have no right to judge. When we take that tack, we aren’t helping our brother or sister; we are allowing them to sink deeper into the mire. When are we going to get the kind of backbone that the apostle Paul had when he wrote this passage in chapter 6? He stated: Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! The NRSV translates one word as “By no means!” The NKJ translates it “God forbid.” It is a strong declarative. It means no! Simply put, as Christians, we shouldn’t sin. Ever. Not for any reason.

The question perhaps we should ask ourselves is, if we are embracing sin, then who do we love? If we love ourselves more than God, then perhaps we’re not really Christians. If we love Him more than ourselves, then why are we choosing the sin?

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 17:4-5

Proverbs 17:4-5

“An evildoer listens to wicked lips; and a liar gives heed to a mischievous tongue. Those who mock the poor insult their Maker; those who are glad at calamity will not go unpunished.”

Gossip. Gossip. Gossip. Our society lives and breathes gossip. Just go to any news site on the Internet. There are usually three categories: hard news, sports, and “entertainment” (gossip). In fact, even in a small town newspaper, how much is reporting on good things that happen and how much is reporting on horrible things?

We have some dear friends who lost their daughter, a number of years ago, in a late night auto accident. Only her car was involved and it was a case of a teenager driving too fast and too recklessly. The car ended up at the bottom of a difficult and steep road, absolutely totaled. Of course, it was devastating to lose their daughter in that way. But the local news organizations continued to put pictures of the car in the newspaper and on TV for several weeks. The mother told me later that seeing those pictures over and over again was horrible for them. They finally stopped watching TV for over a month in order to stop seeing those pictures.

I’ve always asked myself. What was the reason for the news continuing to show the pictures? Ultimately, I think it came down to shock appeal. Shock, outlandishness. Those things sell newspapers, sell TV shows. And they sell because we are addicted to gossip, to wanting to know all the horrible details about someone else’s life.

“Those who are glad at calamity will not go unpunished.” We have desensitized ourselves to the pain of others. I remember back this year to some things done by a famous young singer. It seemed like she kept wanting to one up herself in outrageous behavior. But meanwhile, somewhere there were people who loved her (children, parents, grandparents, friends) who were grieved by her choices. And all the while, the world looks on and rejoices that there’s something new to put on the news.

Why should we listen to any of this?

“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit” (Romans 8:5 NRSV).

Set their minds on the things of the Spirit. I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately. What kinds of things are the things of the Spirit? Well, mainly, love. Yes, the Spirit (God) is also justice and peace and power and might. But Father God is always leaning His heart toward us, toward all of us.

Have you ever criticized anyone only to find out that their choice—which you originally thought was wrong or senseless or stupid—was actually backed by an extremely good motivation? A motivation about which you knew nothing? 1 Corinthians 13:7 says that love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (NRSV). Why does it believe all things? Because, I think (and this is still something I’m working on) that believing all things means believing that people have the best motive, the best intentions when they do something. And while I may not understand that motivation, I’m not going to slam them for it. Instead, even if I’m hurt by their choice, their decision, I’m going to believe that they only had the best intention at heart.

Have you ever made a decision only to completely blow it? Rather than criticism, isn’t it way more comforting to have people understand and forgive? To me, that understanding and forgiving spirit is to be setting “our minds on the things of the Spirit.” Because what is the Spirit’s response to our stupidity, our sin? To want to forgive!

I looked up the definition of “mock” in the dictionary. One of the meanings is “to disappoint the hopes of.” (I had no idea). Often, when we ridicule people (even when we think we do it behind their backs), we can crush their hopes. Certainly if we’re Christians, we can crush their hopes that God has made a difference in our lives (and therefore, could make a difference in theirs if they chose to believe).

If we believe that people have the best intentions (and when they fail are only making human and stupid mistakes), then gossip and evil talking becomes a thing of the past. We no longer care to hear about criticism. Instead, our lives will be about reaching out gently and in love to those around us, particularly those who have made (and possibly habitually make) bad decisions, bad choices. People don’t choose to fail on purpose. They choose to fail because they either make a bad choice or they have lost their hope. The Spirit continues to forgive. We should, too.

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 17:3

"The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold,
but the Lord tests the heart.” NRSV

Crucibles and furnaces, when used with silver and gold, aren’t used to test whether or not these elements are what they proclaim to be. Rather, crucibles and furnaces are used to extract the impurities that have become infused within the elements.

Impurities in precious metals permeate the elements. It becomes impossible to actually see the impurities; the elements appear pure until subjected to the purifying process. For example, 10k gold is only 41.7% gold. (Only 200k gold is pure gold.) And yet, 10k gold jewelry is impossible to discern with the naked eye from 18k gold (which is 75% gold).

The fact that these two things are put together in this verse:

• purifying precious metals, and
• the Lord testing our hearts

tells us that this proverb is talking about the same thing. When the Lord “tests” our hearts, He isn’t doing it to determine whether or not we are His, but rather to remove the impurities of lust, pride, ego, anger, unforgiveness, selfishness, and other habitual sins that still remain. He is testing us because He loves us and wants us to be as true to Him as we can be.

His testing is a blessing, not a punishment.

What is it we want from the Lord? Most of us, when we are brutally honest, will admit that we want the things that appear to make this life easier. We want money and luxury and power and the admiration of those around us. But thankfully God’s plans for us are much broader than that. He knows that the things of this world are temporary, like paper houses. He wants to give us that which will serve us over the long haul of eternity, a pure heart and a soul that longs after Him. Only those things can we take on life’s final journey. Only those things last.

When He allows us to be faced with trials and hardships and even pain, He is putting us through the crucible to remove the impurities of sin. He wants to purify out those things which come between us and Him. He wants us to focus on those things which are truly important.

As parents, we need to take that same tack toward our children. When we “help” them by removing or lessening life’s consequences, we may be actually hindering God’s lessons in their lives. They don’t need us to make the way easier for them; they need us to pray for them and walk beside them as they walk the path God has prepared. He’s not concerned about whether or not the way is hard; He’s concerned about whether or not they will develop the strength to persevere.

The way of the Christian is hard. The Lord Jesus Himself told us that it is the hard road: “For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:14 NRSV). As people, our natural tendency is to want God to make the road easy for us. It can’t be. We need the crucible to remove the impurities.

Oh, dear ones, let us be among the few who find the narrow gate, the hard one, that we might rejoice with God in eternity!

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 17:1

“Better is a dry morsel with quiet
than a house full of feasting with strife.” NRSV

Abraham Maslow is a psychologist who developed what he calls the “Hierarchy of Needs.” The basic premise is that one cannot focus on higher-level needs until the lower level needs are met. One of the lowest level needs is safety.

There’s been a lot of discussion over the past half-century about emotional abuse. And while I think that, as a people, we need to toughen up a bit (well, actually a lot), there is truth that, in order to withstand emotional assault in other places, we need to have at least one place that is safe. This proverb asserts that the one place of safety needs to be home. And I agree.

Home should be the one place where we can count on those around us. It used to be that loyalty to family was paramount. If you couldn’t count on your friends, on your coworkers, on your neighbors, you could count on your family. Sadly enough, that’s often no longer true. We live in a society where the people most likely to hurt us are those with whom we live.

Why is that? Why are we so untrustworthy with those who depend upon us the most? I think it’s because we have swallowed the lie that “a house of feasting” is worth the price . . . the destruction of relationships. We are so enamored with commercials that we believe what they say, lock, stock, and barrel.

I was married once before. My first husband was an alcoholic. He was also a very talented man who thought everyone hated him. And so, he just wouldn’t come home. He’d go to bars or liquor stores, buy alcohol (and other things), and simply not come home. One day in a very honest state, he told me that he wanted to be like the men on the beer commercials, the men who would surrounded by people who loved them and who thought they were just wonderful.

He was convinced that he could find love and acceptance among the other losers in the bar rather than to come home and receive the love and acceptance that his family was waiting to give him.

As Christians, do we look outside of our families for emotional safety? There are sometimes reasons why we do that: an unfaithful spouse, an abusive parent, a neglectful child. But rather than continuing to look outward, why don’t we work on developing a healthy family? It takes not only the work of those others, but ours as well. It takes prayer and patience and forgiveness. None of us is perfect (by a long shot), but we can work on having a house of quiet, even if we only have a dry morsel, rather than looking for that house full of feasting with strife.

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 16:33

Proverbs16:33

“The lot is cast into the lap,
but the decision is the Lord’s alone.” NRSV

Do you know what’s going to happen today? I don’t. We can plan and hope and dream, but the fact is that no moment even truly exists for us except this one moment. Who knows what will happen next? Only the Lord.

There is nothing wrong with planning for the future, as long as our plans don’t hinder our becoming what God has planned.

“Then Jesus told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.’” (Luke 12:16-21 NRSV).

In this time of uncertain economy, it is a natural tendency to begin to close oneself in, to become tighter with our money, to become more worried and concerned, to allow the uncertainties overwhelm us. I think that Jesus chose to talk about a “rich” man in this parable because we often see money as being the protection for the future. If we have enough money, the future will be fine.

The fact is, we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. The Lord might call any one of us Home tonight and all of us concerns would have been for naught because they wouldn’t now matter. Rather, what is important is making sure that we stay to the task, that we carefully analyze our hearts and our behaviors so that we are continuing—even in times of great stress—to exhibit the fruit of the Spirit.

Paul talked about the Macedonian church that gave even though they were extremely poor (2 Corinthians 8). They gave even beyond what they could “afford” to give: “they voluntarily gave according to their means, and even beyond their means” (v. 3). In these times when each of us is wondering whether we will be able to keep our homes, whether or not we will be able to keep our cars or go on our vacations or pay for our children’s schooling, we need to be even more conscious about giving to others. Our faith—our true trust in God to supply our daily needs—is demonstrated by our willingness to provide for those around us who are also in need: “If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead” (James 2:15-17 NRSV).

Do we truly believe that “the decision is the Lord’s alone?” In other words, do we truly believe that He is in charge, that He is able to provide, that He will take care of us? Then, in times such as these, we should become even more generous, even more giving, even more interested in the concerns of others and how we can help.

My dear ones, He is fully able to provide for us! We need, in great love, to provide for each other.

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 13:19

Proverbs 13:19

“A desire realized is sweet to the soul,
but to turn away from evil is an abomination to fools.” NRSV

Do you ever fight with the Lord? I do. And yes, I know how foolish that is, but often my heart is foolish, rather than wise. There are some things I cling to so tightly even knowing that they aren’t good for me. But oh, how sweet sin tastes . . . for the moment.

It’s so interesting that the writer of Proverbs places desire and evil in juxtaposition like he does in this passage. All of us know that moment of wonder, of excitement when we finally get that thing we’ve so desired. I think about Christmas as a child. Our parents always let us choose one “big” gift which would be left unwrapped on the fireplace hearth by “Santa.” That gift was the one thing we really wanted that year. Of course, because we were rather poor, our “big” gifts wouldn’t compare to what children often get these days, but to my sister and I, the gifts were unparalleled. I still remember one, a certain baby day (it was the last doll I would receive as a child). I loved that doll for many years and what a joy it was to find it sitting on the hearth under my stocking.

“A desire realized is sweet to the soul.” There is an almost physical response when we finally get that thing, achieve that goal. As Christians, however, the focus of our desires needs to change. Our desire should be toward God, not toward things of this world which have such a fleeting value.

The problem with desires of this world is that the joy in achieving them fades, often very quickly. The object of our desire ages, fades, even disappears. (To this day, I have no idea what happened to that “special” doll.) And so, the writer of this passage couples desire with evil. If we, as Christians, desire evil then we won’t want to turn away from it. We want what we want when we want it. We are reluctant to even consider the possibility that we should release that desire. Yes, even when what we want is evil. And refusing to turn away from evil makes us fools.

Yup! That’s the crux of it.

The psalmist also wrote about this topic: “Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4 NRSV). This verse has often been used wrongly, to say that God wants us to have the lusts of our flesh, the earthly desires of our heart. Wrong. God wants us to want HIM above all other things. And when our delight, our desire, is in Him, then He gives us that desire by giving us Himself in the form of His Spirit. “From there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find him if you search after him with all your heart and soul” (Deuteronomy 4:29).

When we are fools, our desires turn to things of the flesh, seeking the temporary high that we get from having things of this world (possessions, fame, power, money, control). When we are wise, our desires turn toward things of the Spirit, seeking God and the wisdom that comes from obedience to Him. We need to have enough courage and see ourselves for who we truly are. Are we fools or are we brave enough to trust the Lord and become wise?

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 13:7

Some pretend to be rich, yet have nothing;
others pretend to be poor, yet have great wealth. NRSV

All of us are prejudiced. Even those of us who pride ourselves on our open-mindedness are prejudice. That is to say, there are people we’d rather not be around. And we usually label them somehow so as to make them different than us and then we separate ourselves. Even if the ones we choose to ignore are the people we consider to be closed-minded and biased. (That’s always amazed me, that the people who consider themselves to be tolerant are usually not tolerant of people who they think are not tolerant.)

Proverbs talks about those who are rich yet pretend to be poor and those who are poor and pretend to be rich. For me, the idea is the pretense. Why do we pretend? (And we all do at one time or another.) We pretend in order to align ourselves with a certain group with whom we feel we can’t claim true membership. “Oh, I’m really that way!” And yet, we feel that we might be rejected. So we fudge (a soft way of describing a lie.)

In America, many of us are pretenders to wealth because we live in so much debt. To be honest, perhaps our very country is the same way. We live outside our means and we justify it by saying, “Well, my kids really need those things” or “My family can’t do without that.” But it’s a pretense because we really can’t pay for it.

On the other hand, there are those of us who have money and yet refuse to share it. We are saving for our retirement or for that big purchase or for a rainy day . . . while down the street another Christian family is living in dire need. And we ignore them.

Matthew Henry has a wonderful take on this verse:

“The world is a great cheat, not only the things of the world, but the men of the world. All men are liars. Here is an instance in two sore evils under the sun:- 1. Some that are really poor would be thought to be rich and are thought to be so; they trade and spend as if they were rich, make a great bustle and a great show as if they had hidden treasures, when perhaps, if all their debts were paid, they are not worth a groat. . . . Those that thus live above what they have choose to be subject to their own pride rather than to God’s providence, and it will end accordingly. 2. Some that are really rich would be thought to be poor, and are thought to be so, because they sordidly and meanly live below what God has given them, and choose rather to bury it than to use it, Eccl. 6:1, 2. In this there is an ingratitude to God, injustice to the family and neighbourhood, and uncharitableness to the poor.”

The heart of the true believer is generous because at the heart of generosity is the belief that God will always provide for us. Do we believe that? Paul talks about the Macedonian churches who lived in great poverty and yet begged to be allowed to give to the believers in Jerusalem:

“We want you to know, brothers and sisters,about the grace of God that has been granted to the churches of Macedonia; for during a severe ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For, as I can testify, they voluntarily gave according to their means, and even beyond their means” (2 Corinthians 8:1 NRSV).

And if we are truly generous with our money, then we will also be generous with our friendship. We will not longer restrict it to people whom we think deserve it. We will welcome both the poor and the rich into our churches, into our homes, and into our lives. We won’t choose with whom we will be friends (and with whom we will not be friends), but rather will see every opportunity as one to share the love of God and this good news of salvation with that person. After all, isn’t that what being a Christian is really all about?

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 13:2-3

“From the fruit of their words good persons eat good things,
but the desire of the treacherous is for wrongdoing.
Those who guard their mouths preserve their lives;
those who open wide their lips come to ruin.” NRSV

“By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23a NRSV)

Being a Christian isn’t something that happens by magic. What I mean by this is that when we are born again, we don’t just magically <> lose all our faults and become instantly “good.” In fact, choosing between whether or not we sin or we obey God isn’t something that our Father imposes upon us. He asks us to obey and then tells us what that obeying looks like. As Christians, we are taught–by our mentors, by our pastors, and by the Holy Spirit Himself–what our behavior and choices should be. And then, it’s up to us to make those choices . . . or to choose other ways, sinful ways.

I think that, deep inside, we do believe that if we are not exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit that it’s somehow the Spirit’s fault and not ours. That He has somehow decided not to exhibit that fruit within us at this time, but might later on. (I can hear some of you gasping now! “That’s not true. I can’t imagine the Spirit not exhibiting the fruit.” And yet, if we are honest, that’s how we live.) The fact is that either the fruit is ours to choose or for some reason the Spirit is withholding it from us. And if it is ours to choose (which scripture is clear is the truth), then it is we who choose whether or not to exhibit it. In other words, the power to be loving, to be joyful, to be at peace, to be patient, to be kind is already within us living within the Spirit Who lives within us. We merely need to choose to access it, to allow it to live through our actions and choices.

All this is to say that, as believers, we need to choose to be self-controlled, to be self-disciplined. What does it mean to be self-controlled, to be self-disciplined? It means that, instead of waiting for some outside force to control us (“God’s magic pill”), we choose to control, to discipline ourselves. We choose to learn to monitor our own actions and to say “no” to ourselves.

We don’t do that very well.

We are an extremely self-indulgent people. If it is within our power to say “yes” to ourselves, we do it. Our society is permeated with the idea that we deserve it, that we should reward ourselves, that we should take time out for ourselves. And this idea has entrenched itself even within the teachings of the Church. Time for ourselves, time to get away, time to reward ourselves.

Reward ourselves for what? There’s nothing in scripture that talks about rewarding ourselves. Our reward is the dear presence of the Spirit Himself in our lives; our reward is the promise of heaven. Other than that, we should be focused on obedience, on service, on self-sacrifice.

So what does all of this have to do with the scripture in Proverbs? “From the fruit of their words . . . “ What are the fruit of our words? Are we self-controlled enough to speak only those things which are good for those around us? Or when we speak are we toxic? More than toxic, I think many of us try to be manipulative. “If I say this, then that person will change (and not hurt me again).” Or we speak in order to bring them as much hurt as they brought us.

What is the fruit of our words? If we choose to be obedient to the Spirit, then the fruit will be loving, peaceable, kind, gentle, and ultimately, self-controlled. But if we choose to sin, then the result will be hurtful. It will harm those around us and ultimately us.

It isn’t our place to try to change others nor to bring vengeance upon them for what they have done to us. That is the Lord’s responsibility and He does it well. Even if we don’t see them changing as we think they should change, our trust should be in the Lord and in how He is working (for He always is).

“Those who guard their mouths preserve their lives.” James, in his epistle, cautions us–over and over again–to guard our lips: “If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless” (James 1:26 NRSV). What we say is often far more powerful than what we do, for, contrary to the childhood saying, words do hurt. They linger in the air and they hurt, sometimes for a long time. If we are truly Christians, if we truly trust the Lord, we will limit what we say and trust God instead to change those who have hurt us.

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 12:25-26, 28

Proverbs 12:25-26, 28

“Anxiety weighs down the human heart,
but a good word cheers it up.
The righteous gives good advice to friends,
but the way of the wicked leads astray.
In the path of righteousness there is life,
in walking its path there is no death.”

Have you ever participated in a gripe session? or a gossip session? Bad words build upon bad words, and usually we compete for who has the “baddest” of them all. There’s always a tendency, in trying to sympathize or empathize, to share our experience that was just a little worse, just a little more painful, just a little more hopeless.

Why is that? Why do we try to one up each other in how miserable life is when, as Christians, we have the ultimate hope? And how does sharing a horrible experience that we had encourage the person who is going through their own difficult experience?

The righteous give good advice. And what is good advice? Seen in contrast here is “the way of the wicked.” In other words, the opposite of “good advice” isn’t “bad advice,” but is rather sin. Good advice, then, is the word that turns our friend toward God; bad advice is what turns them into themselves, turns them to self-pity, to depression, to a sense of hopelessness.

There is never hopelessness with God!

“We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28 NRSV).

All things! Not just some things . . . or the things that seem good . . . or the things we can control, but all things! Our Father is working all things together for our good! If that is the case, then the advice that we give to our troubled, hurting friend is to turn to the Lord for He will make it work for our good!

Trouble, adversity, horrible circumstances . . . they all seem like they lead to death, if not physical death, then death of a dream, death of possibilities, death of hope. And yet, there is never death in the life of the believer. Even physical death–which we must face unless we are taken in the rapture–is only a doorway to heaven, to an eternity of joy with our Father. “In the path of righteousness there is life, in walking its path there is no death.” Is this what we communicate to our hurting friends?

I think that we are too taken with the Hollywood mentality that says that the problems with this life can be solved to a happily-ever-after conclusion in thirty minutes (including commercials). In fact, the problems with this life were already solved to a happily-ever-after conclusion but that solution is in heaven, not here. In other words, we should expect the circumstances in this life to be awful. This world is weighed down with sin and its effects. There is no way that a good solution can come from living here. But our Father takes these horrible circumstances, makes them work for our good, and ultimately has prepared an eternal, permanent home for us where sin can no longer have effect. The good advice that we should always give is to trust the Lord, to look to His provision, and to know that even in the darkness He is working to make provision for us.

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 12:24

Proverbs 12:24

“The hand of the diligent will rule,
while the lazy will be put to forced labor.” NRSV

We live in a self-indulgent time. Every man for himself. We want our comfort; we want our indulgences; we want our recreation and leisure.

It wasn’t always so. There have been times in our history when people realized that they needed to work and work hard. When there weren’t times in life when work wasn’t necessary; everyone worked. The fact is, life requires us to work. We often look to someone else (the government, our employers, random chance) to provide what we need. And meanwhile we live beyond our means, borrowing against what we hope to have at a later time.

The Bible is clear that believers—that those who are wise in the ways of the Lord—are those who are diligent with their time, efforts, and resources, are those who are willing to work, regardless how humble that work may be. Our choice is always to be diligent . . . or to be lazy.

It’s hard not to be lazy. That is our natural inclination. We like to sit and watch TV, to play on the computer, to read a good book, to indulge in activities which make us feel good. And yet, we must ask ourselves if there isn’t something better we could be doing with our time. Could we be spending it learning more from the Lord through study of His Word? Could we be out ministering to those around us? Could we be putting our hand to the plow (so to speak) by doing the things that need to be done at work, in our homes, in our lives?

We need to ask ourselves how important everything that we have is. In this time of financial crisis, do we need everything that we have obligated ourselves to have? Do we need cable TV, DSL, cell phones, book clubs, game memberships, new clothes, vacations? Where are our priorities? If we are, as the Lord Jesus commanding us, going into the world to preach the gospel and we do so, as Paul said, with the clothes on our back, then we are doing well. If we, however, are doing everything we can to accumulate stuff and experiences and luxuries, then perhaps we need to ask ourselves where our priorities lie. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Luke 12:23 NRSV).

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 12:23

“One who is clever conceals knowledge,
but the mind of a fool broadcasts folly.” NRSV

I used to be a know-it-all. (Well, I might still be, but I’ve been really working on trying not to be.) You all know what I’m talking about: the kind of person who has an opinion or the “answer” for any and every subject (and who usually, by opening her mouth, puts her foot—or both feet—in it). Some people try to impress with their looks. Well, with my pug nose and sway back, that was never going to work. I clean up good, but I’ll never be what you would call a classical beauty. Some people try to impress with their strength, but I’m just an average woman and not a very good athlete at that. So, for me, it was with my brains. And boy, could I be irritating and downright rude about it.

Hopefully not any more, though it comes out at times. It’s really hard on the Internet. The anonymity and all the discussion really attract me. People like me—people who naturally gravitate toward being know-it-alls—just love discussions (e..g arguments) because it gives us a chance to show off.

Only the Bible says two things about know-it-alls. First, they aren’t clever. Truly clever people conceal their knowledge. Why? Because you learn better when your mouth is closed and your ears are open. (Something I’m just now learning). When I listen rather than talk, I usually find out that my opinion, my perspective, wasn’t necessarily right or best. It’s also awfully prideful to think that what I want to say or what I believe is the way that everyone should go. It places me in God’s position and that’s not a good place to be!

The second thing that the Bible says about know-it-alls is that when they open their mouths, they broadcast to everyone that they are fools! So, when we try to be know-it-alls, we actually accomplish just the opposite of what we intended. Rather than everyone being blown away by our wisdom and knowledge, people are impressed with how foolish we really are. There’s an old saying: “Better to be thought a fool than open your mouth and confirm the fact.”

James 1:19 tells us: “let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak.” Why? Because waiting to hear from others is a sign of humility, of considering them (and their opinions) to be better than we are. Speaking, insisting on our own way, is a definite sign of pridefulness.

I really want to be more like Jesus, to be more humble, to be more of a servant and less of a “king.” Today, I need to remember to stop my words so that I can listen more . . . to others and to God.

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 12:22

Proverbs 12:22

Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord,
but those who act faithfully are his delight. NRSV

One of the things I hate about election time is the overflowing amount of caricatures, political cartoons, sarcasm, and satire that seems to flood the media. Political opponents, unwilling to simply point out differences, seem to resort to childish name-calling as they nitpick each other. Personally, it often seems to border on untruths, a picture painted that scarcely resembles the intended object.

To be honest, while I—like most Americans—utilize sarcasm on some occasions, I don’t like it. I think that jokes and satire about others simply hides mistrust and anger and doesn’t truthfully deal with the situation or the person. We excuse it to “make a point,” but the fact is, what we are often trying to do is to paint the other person as low as possible so that we can be better than them.

What is a lie? The dictionary gives two definitions: “1 : to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive 2 : to create a false or misleading impression.” The idea is that, when we lie, we want those listening to us to have a different impression than what they might draw if they hadn’t listened to us. In other words, we want to manipulate them, to steer their opinion of the situation or person in a different direction than if we had stayed silent. Also note that lies aren’t just false; they can also be misleading.

The opposite of lying is, amazingly enough, faithfulness. Faithfulness to what (or to Whom)? Well, to the Lord, of course. When we are faithful to Him, we aren’t worried about what others think or how they might respond to us. We don’t feel the need to manipulate their opinions. We can trust the Lord to work everything for our good. So we say (or do) what is true, not trying to control or fudge on the situation.

When we trust Him, the Lord delights in us! Isn’t that amazing? That we can be something that makes the Lord happy? He is the Creator, Controller, Ruler of the universe and yet, He is delighted when we choose to trust Him, to place our lives, our futures, in His hands. But when we lie—when we try to control by manipulating others with our words—we become an abomination.

It all centers around whether or not we trust Him. If we trust Him, we don’t have to respond with exaggerations (or even lies). We can simply state the truth and let the situation work itself out . . . because the Father is working it out for our good. It may not seem that way at the time, but that’s the nature of trust. Believing in His Word even when we can’t see it with our own eyes.

God delights in us when we trust Him. Don’t you want to be the kind of person He delights in today? I know that I do.

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 12:21

“No harm happens to the righteous,
but the wicked are filled with trouble.” NRSV

“We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28 NRSV).

I think that circumstances being good or bad is more about our perception, our interpretation, than an actual reality. Oh, agreed, there are horrible things that happen in the world! But we know that already. We know that the world is full of sin and sinful people. But we also know that the Father has promised to work all things for our good. why are we so amazed, so filled with consternation when something “bad” happens?

I think that our expectations are more to blame than the circumstances. I truly do. We know that God is in control, so nothing that happens to us is any kind of surprise to Him. He has already made every provision that we need for this need, unexpected situation. Why then are we so fraught with anxiety, so worried, so upset? God only allows what He wills for our good.

“No harm happens to the righteous!” That doesn’t mean that we live lives free of troubles, but that the troubles are being worked out for our good by Father God Who is the Creator, Owner, Ruler of the universe. What happens may seem like trouble, but it cannot harm us because He protects us and uses it for our good. (I know I’m saying that over and over again, but somehow we need to get it in our brains that it’s true!)

A number of years ago, I taught on the Lord’s prayer. One of the verses that really hit me was the verse: “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11 NRSV). You see, what I realized was that not only this was true, but the inverse was also true. In other words, while God gives us our daily bread, if He doesn’t give us something, then we don’t need it. We may think we do, but we don’t. (And who are we to argue with God?)

I think that this verse in Proverbs has a lot to do with mindset, with how we view the world. Notice that “the wicked are filled with trouble.” The NAB says it this way:

“the wicked are overwhelmed with misfortune.”

Overwhelmed. That’s a mindset. That’s how we view something. Feeling overwhelmed. Filled up. No room for anything else. No room for trust or optimism.

You see, I’m convinced that Christians who truly trust God are optimistic. And why not? We have God on our side and all of eternity to enjoy Him in Heaven. What’s there not to be optimistic about? The other side of that is that we secretly want to blame God for the things we consider to be troubles when, in fact, it is our own sin or the sin of those around us causing those troubles. God isn’t to blame and has, in fact, made provisions for us. We just need to trust Him. “No harm happens to the righteous!” The greatest perceived harm is death and death no longer holds any fear for us:

“For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled:
“Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”
“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ “ (1 Corinthians 15:52-56 NRSV).

If we truly trust God, if we truly believe that He works everything out for our good, then we will truly believe that no harm comes to the righteous. And when we are filled with consternation and anxiety, we know that the remedy is to run to the Throne and confess our sins, for He is faithful to forgive us, to cleanse us, and to make provision for every need.

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 12:16

“Fools show their anger at once,
but the prudent ignore an insult.”

“You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness” (James 1:19-20 NRSV)

We are an angry people. Sitting in the midst of some of the greatest wealth ever experienced in the history of mankind, and we are angry. I see it and read about it everyday. Rudeness. Disrespect. Downright rage. Just do a Google search on the Internet and you’ll find hundreds of programs about anger management.

Part of the problem is that we have embraced our anger. In the 1960's, psychologists (and then pastors) began to tell us that emotion—any emotion—was healthy and normal, that we shouldn’t try to deny or ignore our emotions, but to accept them and to experience them. Even today, the American Psychological Association says:

“Anger is a completely normal, usually healthy, human emotion. . . . Anger is a natural, adaptive response to threats; it inspires powerful, often aggressive, feelings and behaviors, which allow us to fight and to defend ourselves when we are attacked. A certain amount of anger, therefore, is necessary to our survival” (Retrieved on 9/18/08 from http://www.apa.org/topics/controlanger.html).

However, as believers, we don’t get our definitions or our guidelines from the world, but rather from scripture. And the Bible has a lot to say about anger.

Why? Because anger is self-centered. It is about defending ourselves against the actions of others. It is about having our revenge of the moment, of being superior by getting the best we can get and not worrying about those around us. Our Lord Jesus, on the other hand, had a completely different view of things:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile” (Matthew 5:38-41 NRSV).

The Lord Jesus wasn’t about defending Himself, but was rather about submitting to the Father’s will, even if that meant that others harmed Him. James taught that anger doesn’t produce God’s righteousness. Think about it. When you are angry, are you thinking about God and how to submit to His will? Or are you thinking about yourself and how you want revenge? When we are angry, we aren’t trusting God; we are trusting ourselves. And that’s a very dangerous position to be in.

Many things lay the groundwork for anger: Needing to be right. Feeling neglected. Being in a hurry or under stress. Even being tired. As believers, we need to be aware of the situations where we know we are likely to become angry, and in those situations, we need to be in even more prayer, be even more aware of our reactions to things. Anger can bubble up like a boil, out of control before we know it. If we are aware of the places where we can potentially be angry, we can be on the watch to control our emotions.

Proverbs talks about insults. I have to laugh to myself because pride is such a delicate thing (and insults only attack pride). My kids at school get their dander up all the time because someone insults them (in their vernacular “disses” them). One of the things I try to teach them is:

If what someone says about you is true, then it’s true. No need to get upset. It’s true. If what someone says about you isn’t true, then their saying it doesn’t make it true, so still no need to get angry.

As believers, we can measure our spiritual maturity by how easily we are angered, insulted, and hurt. If we are leaning on the Lord for everything, then what others say, what others do isn’t going to matter. We will be content knowing that the Father is taking care of everything.

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 12:12-15

The wicked covet the proceeds of wickedness,
but the root of the righteous bears fruit.
The evil are ensnared by the transgression of their lips,
but the righteous escape from trouble.
From the fruit of the mouth one is filled with good things,
and manual labor has its reward.
Fools think their own way is right,
but the wise listen to advice. NRSV

All through Proverbs glimpses of what it means to be righteous are given. In other words, when the Holy Spirit fills us, we should demonstrate such characteristics. Now, we know that there is a war within us and that, because of that war (between the Spirit and the flesh), we will struggle with these characteristics. They won’t come naturally because our nature is to be self-centered, lustful, and evil. But God’s nature—living in us—with produce fruit of righteousness.

“The root of righteousness bears fruit.” If our center is God, if our desire in life is to please Him, even when we drift away, we will be drawn back to Him because that’s where we find peace, that’s where we find purpose, that’s where we find comfort. And as we center ourselves upon that root of righteousness—through prayer, through Bible study, through fellowship with other like-minded believers—fruit will be evidenced in our lives.

If we don’t see fruit, if others don’t see fruit, then we need to begin to be concerned. We need to run (not walk) to the Throne and plead with the Spirit to reveal to us the sin that is prohibiting God’s working in our lives.

One of the places where we are going to see fruit is through what we say to others. The NLT says it this way:

“The wicked are trapped by their own words,
but the godly escape such trouble.
Wise words bring many benefits” (v. 13-14a).

It’s said that the eyes are the window to the soul. I disagree. I think that we can see someone’s soul (and the state of it) much more clearly with what they say . . . with what we say. “The wicked are trapped by their own words.” Not only in that situation, but trapped in revealing the state of their souls, for from the godly come words of wisdom.

“From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water?” (James 3:10-11 NRSV).

James doesn’t say “this isn’t so,” but rather “this ought not to be so.” He implies that, as believers, we have a choice whether or not to be righteous or to be evil, a choice whether to bless or to curse. And when we make that choice, we reveal whether our choice springs from the Spirit living within us or from our own corrupt, sinful natures.

Three characteristics of the righteous are given in these verses:

• They speak words of wisdom.
• They are hard workers
• They welcome and listen to advice

All three of these reveal a spirit of humility, so these characteristics say that this person doesn’t consider herself to be above others, to be privileged, to be right or complete or perfect. We need to judge ourselves (lest we be judged by others) on whether or not these characteristics describe us. When we speak are our words wise? (And when our words wouldn’t be wise do we guard our lips so that we are silent?) Are we busy with the things God put our hands to do, but not so married to our own “To Do” list that we fail to see what we need to do for others? Do we welcome advice, regardless of the source, and realize that we are a work in progress?

Short list. Easy to check ourselves out. Are we going to be righteous . . . or evil . . . today?

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 12:11

“Those who till their land will have plenty of food,
but those who follow worthless pursuits have no sense.” NRSV

“For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat. For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right” (2 Thess. 3:10-13 NRSV).

I have a pastor friend who was in his church office one day preparing his sermon. He had spent the previous day working around the church property, raking up the seemingly unending leaves that were falling on the grass due to the crisp fall weather. He took a moment break from his sermon preparation to walk outside and enjoy the cool autumn air. A man, disheveled and dirty, walked up to him. The man asked for some money to buy food. The pastor—very wise in the ways of human disposition—told the man that he wouldn’t give him money, but that he would hire him to rake the leaves and put them in the trash cans. Once that was done, the pastor would pay him a goodly wage.

The man was taken back, shocked. He told the pastor that he wasn’t interested in working; he just wanted money. The pastor calmly replied that everyone needed to work. That the Bible plainly stated that those who didn’t work, shouldn’t eat . . . and went back to his sermon.

“Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime”—Author unknown

While the Lord Jesus told us that the poor would always be with us, Paul was astute in repeating the proverbial admonition about working and eating. The fact is, as people, we are innately lazy. Who wouldn’t prefer to lay around the pool, basking in the sun, while others do the work that we should be doing? And yet, Father God—Who has provided an eternal vacation for us in Heaven—commanded that we take dominance over the earth and subdue it. In other words, from the beginning, the human race was commanded to get busy with productive pursuits.

There is a delicious egocentricity in lazing about! It’s one of the reasons that I love vacations (especially vacations in our motorhome). Though, to be honest, I find myself taking work (homework, schoolwork, Bible study work, sewing, etc.) with me. I find it hard to be idle. There are all kinds of excuses for not working, but the fact is that all of us can do something! We can clean dishes or sweep a floor. We can fold clothes or make a bed. We can water the garden or weed. We can cook a meal or answer a phone or type a letter or read to a child. In fact, if we turned our televisions off, we might find an entire host of things that we actually could do that are productive and fulfilling. If not in our home, then in the home of a neighbor or friend who could use the help.

Our neighbor across the street is disabled; he walks with a cane and limps. His property was cluttered with broken down cars (and a van) and just in disrepair. But this summer, when he learned that we were having our son’s wedding in our yard, he began to come out every day and weed. Only a little at a time, but over the course of a month, the yard looked good! Then he asked for assistance in moving (pushing) the broken down cars to the back, behind the house. Now his property looks great. He always had this capability, but wasn’t motivated.

Often our “inability” is actually a lack of motivation. The task looming before us seems so hard, so impossible, so overwhelming that we fail to simply take that first step. To do something! If we were truly honest, we would see our inability as what it is . . . laziness, and get off our duffs and get to work.

One of my favorite women, Sister Aimee Semple McPherson, once said: “I’d rather wear out than rust out.” Oh, that we all would have that kind of attitude toward the tasks that face us today!

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

Proverbs 12:10

“The righteous know the needs of their animals,
but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.”

God is going to create a new earth (Revelation 21:1). He actually liked what He created when He created this one, for Genesis tells us that, after each day of creation, “God saw that it was good.”

I understand what God saw as good. When my husband and I travel, we often go through parts of California that are untouched by humans. There are wonderful trees and plants and animals that inhabit huge areas and these areas all have their own beauty, their own mystique. And yet, we also travel through parts of California that are inhabited by people, people swarming around doing what they are doing . . . children, adults, old folks. And when God created people, He saw that it was very good.

God loves us too! And while animals don’t have souls (and so don’t have eternal life), God loved what He created. He saw that it was good. He created animals for a purpose and that original purpose wasn’t to provide clothing or food for us. (Remember that those purposes came after sin.)

And so, Solomon writes that “the righteous know the needs of their animals.” The righteous. In other words, when one surrenders to God, seeks His will, part of that will is to understand how we are to relate to the other creatures of God’s creation. Not only are we to love the people around us (as being created in God’s image), we are to understand that the animals around us also have needs and we are to meet those needs as best we can.

When God gave dominion of the earth to people (Genesis 1:28), that command of dominion was more than simply a hierarchy of authority. It was a responsibility. As the righteous, we are to be sensitive to the needs of the animals that we have. We are to feed them, to make sure that they are safe, to provide them whatever housing and other needs they have. And while the people around us are certainly of greater worth (because they are made in God’s image), we share creature-hood with animals. And through our interaction with our animals, we can demonstrate God’s love for all of creation.

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).