Category: Christian Living

Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist. When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddently it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven (Proverbs 23:4-5)

Not all aspects of wealth are bad. Though Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell all his possessions and give the proceeds to the poor, that is not necessarily the prescription he gives everyone. In the New Testament, Jesus encountered many people upon whom he did not make that demand.

Labor is also not all bad; in fact, it is what we call a creation ordinance. Work is not a curse of the fall of man into sin, but the work we do is now contaminated by that fall and made much more difficult and vexatious.

In fact, if faithful Christ-followers are being productive with their lives and skills, wealth will be produced as a natural by-product. Indeed, part of the common grace God gives to the world is that even when unbelievers engage in valid work, wealth is created that benefits everyone.

What is addressed in this Proverb is an attitude about labor (work) and wealth. Wealth is illusory: just listen to some of the debate about the tax code and you will recognize that almost everyone believes himself not wealthy; it is the one with a few more dollars who is “rich.” And in our personal lives, just a few more dollars, a bit bigger house, a slightly newer car is what we are perpetually after, and then we will be wealthy.

In other words, wealth “sprouts wings”. It may take flight by being that goal that is always just over the horizon, or it may more literally take flight by actually leaving us with less than before.

But the answer is not that we quit work, labor less, or do so for no wages. We still toil, we still labor, we still work, but we do so with a view to providing for our necessities and then giving to others. When we work to earn wages, we should also recognize that our work itself benefits others. Why should not our excess also benefit others?

A great aunt (she was to be sure, “great,” but here I mean my grandfather’s sister) once told me that God put thirty-one chapters of Proverbs in the Bible so that there would be one to read every day of the month.

I had no heart — even in my impudent teen years — to suggest that God thought the last three Proverbs less important, since the varying number of days in each month meant that they would be read less often that the others on such a cycle. Besides, her Bible was definitely in excess of ten pounds, and would have stung smartly when struck against the side of my head.

Even so, great-aunt’s exhortation has remained with me, and I have attempted sporadically to take her advice and read one chapter of Proverbs each day.

The problem that I find is that the subject matter in each chapter can be quite diverse. I have attempted over the years to arrive at a rotation allowing me to read portions of the day’s chapter arranged by subject or theme, but to no avail.

What do you do? If you read out of Proverbs each day, is it the whole chapter, or a portion?

The fraternity to which I belonged in college spoke much about chivalry, about being ‘Southern gentlemen.’

But the ‘chivalry’ that held sway among those brothers amounted to little more than holding your date’s purse while she barfed into the potted plants after a night of loud music and cheap beer.

This thin, anemic and spiritually vacuous notion of chivalry also sometimes substitutes for the biblical concepts of mutual submission and treating wives as weaker (more fragile) vessels (Ephesians 5:21, 1 Peter 3:7). Especially in the church in the South, chivalry frequently appears as simply opening or holding open the door for women and carrying the casserole dishes into the fellowship hall for them.

But surely there is more to it.

Jesus did not honor Martha by telling Mary to help her, as she requested (Luke 10:38-42), nor by jumping up to the dishes himself. Jesus did not honor the Samaritan woman at the well by drawing water for her and carrying her full jar home (John 4 — he said, in fact, ‘give me a drink’). In other words, Jesus did not go around telling the women he dealt with to ‘sit down, don’t exert yourself,’ yet we would be quite wrong to conclude that he did not honor them. He did, after all, draw female followers, speak to female social outcasts, include women in his “d-groups”, and, at his death, charge others with the care of his mother.

Submission does not mean catering to a wife’s every demand, and considering women fragile does not mean deeming them helpless. Thin, shallow, frat-boy chivalry does not know what to do with Proverbs 31 women.

Men are chivalrous in the biblical sense when they work at honest labor to provide for their families. Men are chivalrous when they encourage and display modesty in behavior and moderation in consumption (it is NOT chivalrous for husband to expect wife to work outside the home so that he can buy a new bass boat, or even so that the fam can live in a few more square feet). Men are chivalrous when they lead the family in household devotions and arrange opportunities for biblical service. Men are chivalrous when they participate in the discipline of children, their religious instruction and their overall development.

Why, then, do we persist with the token gestures of honor and respect to women? Perhaps ‘chivalry’ as commonly practiced has more to do with public appearance than with private reality. There is nothing wrong with men opening doors and carrying things. But if those things are a substitute for biblical honor and mutual submission, guard the potted plants.

[In keeping with notions of chivalry, Mrs. Faircloth approved this post.]

As followers of Christ, we are not supposed to impede the operation of the Holy Spirit who is in us. In fact, there is a sense in which we could not impede him, even if we tried. As Jesus told Nicodemus, the wind moves where it wishes, and the Spirit goes where he likes and does what he wants, especially regarding the regeneration of men.

But in another sense, things that we do and things that we think do affect the operation of the Spirit within us. We are told not to grieve him (Ephesians 4:30), not to quench him (1 Thessalonians 5:19), and to be filled with him (Ephesians 5:18). When we consider how to accomplish these things, we find that they are neither as simple as turning the tap to fill a cup with water, nor as complex as abiding by a sophisticated set of rituals.

From the passages in which these instructions are found, here are things that can stifle the Spirit and rob us of the grace and power he provides for our journey:

— speaking falsehood. This isn’t merely the avoidance of lies, or remaining silent, but speaking the truth to one another.

— being sinfully angry.

— stealing. And not merely the avoidance of theft, but engaging in honest labor so that we can share with those in need.

— speaking crassly. Unedifying speech: vulgar talk, dirty jokes, things that demean the worth of man, who is made in God’s image.

— not putting away bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander and malice.

— not being kind and forgiving.

— not respecting spiritual leaders.

— not being at peace.

— not admonishing the idle, or encouraging the fainthearted, or helping the weak.

— seeking our own revenge.

— not rejoicing and giving thanks in all things.

— being unwise and wasting time.

— being foolish and ignoring the will of God.

It is curious that in these three passages Paul lists everyday, mundane, pedestrian behaviors to either do or not do. But in the middle of each he inserts the seemingly incongruous admonitions, ‘do not grieve the Holy Spirit,’ ‘do not quench the Holy Spirit,’ ‘be filled with the Holy Spirit.’

The reality of it is that for followers of Christ there is no mundane, pedestrian behavior or thought. There is no realm of our being that is not continually subject to becoming the territory of the occupying Spirit or falling into the hands of our enemy, the devil. Much more than being a set of rules to obey, Paul’s list of behaviors and attitudes relate directly to the level of control that the Spirit has over us.

Do not get drunk with wine — slurring our speech, stumbling over our feet, muddling our thinking — but be filled with the Spirit.

Psalm 31 is perhaps not a messianic psalm in the proper sense: that is, one verse from this Psalm was quoted by Jesus while he was on the cross. “Into your hand I commit my spirit” (Psalm 31:5).

Yet a believer reading this Psalm and considering how the lamentation and imprecation of David might apply to our own struggles and desires comes to verse 5 and can’t help thinking of Christ’s quote of it.

Does there remain, for the Christ-follower, application of David’s attitude given the use of his expression by Christ? Does it demean the redemption-accomplished-payment-satisfied use of this verse by Christ to consider whether we, too, should commit our spirit to God?

Yes and No. Yes, there remains application, and No, it does not demean Christ’s use.

David, as a type of Christ, in this Psalm expresses the sentiment of a man who is God’s annointed but who has not yet been given the throne promised him. Others thwart him, seek his harm, and generally oppress and attempt to destroy him. Christ, as the anti-type of David’s earthly kingship, while on the cross is in similar straits: as God’s Annointed, he currently endures suffering, oppression, and the general abhorence of men who seek him harm while waiting on God to provide him the promised throne and kingdom in its consummation.

David not only commits his spirit to God, he also recognizes that God’s sovereignty over his life does not rely upon David’s granting it. In verses 14 and 15, David says “But I trust in you, O Lord; I say ‘You are my God.’ My times are in your hand. …”

My times are in your hand. Or, as the Holman Christian Standard puts it, “The course of my life is in your power.”

David recognizes that the entire outworking of his time on earth — the “course” of his life — is in God’s power. He yields to that truth, and despite enemies all about, finds solace, comfort, assurance and hope that whatever the outcome of this particular episode of his life, the “course” of it is under the control of the Almighty.

For believers called to follow Christ, and to follow him in his suffering, to be crucified with him, to be jeered, persecuted, hated, perhaps even die in proclaiming the gospel, what better sentiment, what better attitude could we have than that we commit our spirits to God, who holds the course of our life in his powerful grip.

Out times are in his hand.

We are sometimes reluctant to attribute hate to God. “God is love,” after all.

But usually our reluctance stems from the wickedness we find in our own hateful emotions and desires, which do not seem — and in fact are not — compatible with the holiness of God. Yet scripture teaches both that God is love and that God’s holines demands the expression of wrath against sinful things.

Proverbs 6 lists a few things that the Lord hates, and which are abominable to him:

— haughty (arrogant) eyes. One thinks of the expressions that teen girls make when presented with a thought or comment they deem particularly beneath them. But this might also include how we perceive those things that we see; that is, when things come in to our mind through the eyes, we consider how much better, smarter, holier, we are.

— a lying tongue. While the eyes bring in thing from without, the tongue expresses things that are within. A lying tongue betrays a corrupt heart.

— hands that shed innocent blood. Seeing and speaking are one thing, but when wickedness takes action and affects the lives of others, it is quite another.

— a heart that devises wicked plans. Wicked actions that we leap into on impulse are much different from those that we enter into after careful planning, after crafting a scheme in advance that allows us to engage in sin, perhaps hidden from God.

— feet that make haste to run to evil. Perhaps we see evil rightly with our eyes, and recognize it truly with our hearts, but instead of fleeing from evil, we use our means of locomotion to grasp it tightly.

— a false witness who breathes out lies. Lungs convey air to the blood in our veins and discards the poison by-product into the air. Similary, God hates the one whose exhalation reveals a systemic desire to bring down others.

— one who sows discord among brothers. Where there is harmony, this one seeks to disrupt it. Where there is peace, this one instigates war. Where there is bond, this one prefers breach.

Most of the imagery here is of parts of our material bodies, those things God has given our souls with which to perceive and interact with the world he created, and other humans in his image. Rather than using our points of contact with reality in ways that glorify God, we use them in ways that steal his glory, and that arouse his ire.