OWN WORST ENEMY!
Opening Prayer
Father in Heaven, thank you for your Word and for its power to make a difference in me each day. Open my heart, as well as my mind, to receive and apply what you teach me today.
Read PROVERBS 6
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Warnings Against Folly
6 My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor,
if you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger,
2 you have been trapped by what you said,
ensnared by the words of your mouth.
3 So do this, my son, to free yourself,
since you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands:
Go—to the point of exhaustion—[a]
and give your neighbor no rest!
4 Allow no sleep to your eyes,
no slumber to your eyelids.
5 Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,
like a bird from the snare of the fowler.
6 Go to the ant, you sluggard;
consider its ways and be wise!
7 It has no commander,
no overseer or ruler,
8 yet it stores its provisions in summer
and gathers its food at harvest.
9 How long will you lie there, you sluggard?
When will you get up from your sleep?
10 A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest—
11 and poverty will come on you like a thief
and scarcity like an armed man.
12 A troublemaker and a villain,
who goes about with a corrupt mouth,
13 who winks maliciously with his eye,
signals with his feet
and motions with his fingers,
14 who plots evil with deceit in his heart—
he always stirs up conflict.
15 Therefore disaster will overtake him in an instant;
he will suddenly be destroyed—without remedy.
16 There are six things the Lord hates,
seven that are detestable to him:
17 haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are quick to rush into evil,
19 a false witness who pours out lies
and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.
Warning Against Adultery
20 My son, keep your father’s command
and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.
21 Bind them always on your heart;
fasten them around your neck.
22 When you walk, they will guide you;
when you sleep, they will watch over you;
when you awake, they will speak to you.
23 For this command is a lamp,
this teaching is a light,
and correction and instruction
are the way to life,
24 keeping you from your neighbor’s wife,
from the smooth talk of a wayward woman.
25 Do not lust in your heart after her beauty
or let her captivate you with her eyes.
26 For a prostitute can be had for a loaf of bread,
but another man’s wife preys on your very life.
27 Can a man scoop fire into his lap
without his clothes being burned?
28 Can a man walk on hot coals
without his feet being scorched?
29 So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife;
no one who touches her will go unpunished.
30 People do not despise a thief if he steals
to satisfy his hunger when he is starving.
31 Yet if he is caught, he must pay sevenfold,
though it costs him all the wealth of his house.
32 But a man who commits adultery has no sense;
whoever does so destroys himself.
33 Blows and disgrace are his lot,
and his shame will never be wiped away.
34 For jealousy arouses a husband’s fury,
and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.
35 He will not accept any compensation;
he will refuse a bribe, however great it is.
Footnotes
- Proverbs 6:3 Or Go and humble yourself,
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Through many dangers, toils and snares, / I have already come; / ’tis grace has brought me safe thus far, / and grace will lead me home.’1
Wisdom is the positive quality feted by the book of Proverbs. Its negative counterpart is folly or foolishness. This is not quite the same as silliness or stupidity, nor does it have much to do with a lack of mental capacity or acuity. Indeed, from the standpoint of Proverbs, you could have the world’s greatest scientific mind and still be a fool.
In fact, there is a sliding scale of foolishness in Proverbs, a continuum that describes different classes of fool. At the one end are the young and naive, the very class of people addressed directly by the text. At the other are the recalcitrant and stubbornly wicked, who are characterized by cynical mockery and willful disregard of all that is good. Proverbs sees the extreme kind of fool as beyond the range of redemption. Such fools are set in their ways and unable to turn and do right. All his sounds pretty grim, except that the stubborn, wayward fool is really a word picture against which the readers, whether young and naive or growing in wisdom, can measure themselves. Proverbs is not really intended for the extreme fool, but rather is addressed to impressionable readers, that they might heed the warnings. Even here in chapter 6, which addresses the sluggard, the words are meant for one who is not yet a sluggard: ‘Don’t be lazy’ is the simple message.
The outcome of folly is always harm, whether to fools themselves or to the community at large. In its warnings against folly, Proverbs is asking its readers what kind of footprint they want to leave behind: ‘Will you live in such a way as to harm yourself and others, or will you live wisely, carefully, and generously, that others will want to follow in your footsteps?’
Apply
Are you making lifestyle choices that are proving harmful to you or to others? Pray, talk to a friend, or find professional help to support you in making some changes.
Closing prayer
Holy Spirit, continue to teach me how to live in ways that are right. Convict me where I need to change and, where I struggle, help me to walk in your strength, not my own.
1 ‘Amazing grace!’ John Newton, 1772.
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