Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed. [Proverbs 19:17] The Christian people, whether through the medium of the church or elsewhere, has been the single greatest source of charity in history, albeit with the aid of Christianity’s unrivaled long-term productivity. So have many pagans…
Whoever keeps the commandment keeps his life; he who despises his ways will die. [Proverbs 19:16] The law of God sets a heavy burden upon mankind in his natural state, a burden unregenerate man refuses to live up to (Ps. 53:1-3). The Christian has a little easier time; he recognizes that the law was to…
Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep, and an idle person will suffer hunger. [Proverbs 19:15] He that does not work, they say, shall not eat. Welfare programs intercede in this process, with much more waste and much less virtue than Christian charity, for it seems a cruel dictum. But such peripheral interventions conceals a more…
House and wealth are inherited from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the Lord. [Proverbs 19:14] The family is the central institution of Scripture. The church institution has a high billing, by sharing its name with the body of the saved; civil government predominates much human thought, being the prime concentration of worldly power.…
While advancing computer technology brings us opportunities to improve medical care both for research and for individual patients, it also presents new choices to make about how we deliver health care. This technology crosses new horizons, allowing us to process vast amounts of medical data, for both large groups of people and individuals. This data…
A foolish son is ruin to his father, and a wife’s quarreling is a continual dripping of rain. [Proverbs 19:13] Familial discord is a problem as old as sin (what, you think Adam and Eve didn’t have some issues over the events of Genesis 3?), and it has the power to hurt like few other…
A king’s wrath is like the growling of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass. [Proverbs 19:12] Ill-favor and good favor are two sides of the same coin. On one side, the king dislikes you; his wrath bears heavy. On the other side, the king likes you, and his pleasure…
Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense. [Proverbs 19:11] Anger is motivation. Anger is not integrally sinful; anger is often righteous. But anger is dangerous, and anger is tempting, and anger is easily perverted. It is a primal motivation, and so our evil natures, dead or…
It is not fitting for a fool to live in luxury, much less for a slave to rule over princes. [Proverbs 19:10] Two narratives pop up in human thought throughout history: the victim narrative (prominent now) and the success narrative (prominent in Christ’s day, as well as now). On the one hand, men derive righteousness…
A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will perish. [Proverbs 19:9] Proverbs has a habit of repeating itself. Just as Psalm 14:1-3 and Psalm 53:1-3 are nearly identical, so Proverbs will on occasion repeat verses. By the rules of common sense, we can guess that these repetitions are important.…