“A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding than a hundred blows into a fool.” [Proverbs 17:10] Learning from reproof is a skill not natural to any of us. Sure, we, by the grace of God, have a habit of listening to certain people with at least some consideration- parent, sibling, spouse, friend-…
Proverbs 17:9 ESV Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+17%3A9&version=ESV] Relationships are complicated, it turns out. Take two people, multiply their issues by each other, overlap their peculiarities, interface their schedules, add in their other relationships, and it quickly becomes clear that gears are going…
Proverbs 17:8 ESV A bribe is like a magic stone in the eyes of the one who gives it; wherever he turns he prospers. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+17%3A8&version=ESV] Proverbs is a book about wisdom, and sometimes that means recognizing the facts of life. Bribery may not be pretty, but it is a part of the world around…
Proverbs 17:7 ESV Fine speech is not becoming to a fool; still less is false speech to a prince. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+17%3A7&version=ESV] I can write real good. I can talk nice too, when I keep my nerve. That’s all well and good, but it’s not enough. If I have all the skill in the world but…
Proverbs 17:6 ESV Americans have a cultural disrespect for familial glory. We have cultivated an attitude which says that one should have pleasure only in one’s own achievements. Taking pride in the lives of our elders, those who live and those who have died, is positively old-fashioned and silly. It’s stuck-up, too, a way of…
Proverbs 17:5 ESV Contempt for the poor is an American past-time. It’s the basic premise of the welfare state, which relies on bribing the unfortunate; it underlies the cries of ‘democracy’ which actually mean ‘do what your betters tell you to do.’ We idolize the poor, make them incapable of sin, and thus we make…
Proverbs 17:4 ESV An evildoer listens to wicked lips, and a liar gives ear to a mischievous tongue. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+17%3A4&version=ESV] “Lies, damned lies, and statistics,” these are the components which too often seem both warp and weft of history, of the world around us. In our own lives, we hear lies; worse, at times, we…
Proverbs 17:3 ESV The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the Lord tests hearts. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+17%3A3&version=ESV] The crucible’s idea is simple: melt the metal and let the impurities separate, that they may be scooped out, if they do not burn away. These impurities are the slag and the dross, the…
Proverbs 17:2 ESV A servant who deals wisely will rule over a son who acts shamefully and will share the inheritance as one of the brothers. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+17%3A2&version=ESV] Family loyalty, degraded as it is in modernity, is a virtue. Just as children are to honor their parents (Ex. 20:12), parents are to care for their…
Proverbs 17:1 ESV Better is a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+17%3A1&version=ESV] Modernity is prone to thinking in purely economic terms. We want top GDP, much money, high-up wealth, if you’ll pardon the grammar, and we have a deadly tendency to forget the costs. We want everybody…