Proverbs 15:1 ESV A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+15%3A1&version=ESV] Proverbs is known as a book of practical advice, and today’s verse is one of the reasons why. This verse admonishes us to consider the impact of our words and actions. Harshness encourages anger, and gentleness discourages…
Proverbs 14:35 ESV A servant who deals wisely has the king’s favor, but his wrath falls on one who acts shamefully. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+14%3A35&version=ESV] We live in a world which rewards evildoing, to all appearance. In politics, evil men prosper, are raised up by their fellows to great heights of power and wealth, exercise their ill…
Proverbs 14:34 ESV Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+14%3A34&version=ESV] How do we assess the nations we live in, the governments we live under, the peoples we are born amidst? We could run calculations and figure out the local or national GDP; we could consider how much we…
Proverbs 14:33 ESV Wisdom rests in the heart of a man of understanding, but it makes itself known even in the midst of fools. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+14%3A33&version=ESV] Wisdom is recognizable. Even the most foolish of men occasionally has a good idea; even the most foolish can recognize wisdom. We are, after all, made in the image…
Proverbs 14:32 ESV The wicked is overthrown through his evildoing, but the righteous finds refuge in his death. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+14%3A32&version=ESV] Isaiah 57:1 echoes (in much more poetic terms) a sentiment that our lives and our world urges on us perpetually: “The righteous man perishes, and no one lays it to heart; devout men are taken…
Proverbs 14:31 ESV Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+14%3A31&version=ESV] God made man in His image. The Fall marred that image but did not destroy it. Therefore, when man harms his fellow man, he assaults the image of God, not mere arrangements of…
Proverbs 14:30 ESV A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+14%3A30&version=ESV] The idea of calm is antithetical to modernity. Social media, politics, and the thousand other things we put time into suck us up and portion us out into frenetic, burying bundles of ‘what’s next?’, and I…
While mental health statistics for our nation and state can be helpful in some ways, they are unhelpful in others. Stating that a fire exists is not enough to get rid of the fire, and we don’t need statistics from the CDC to know that our society is really messed up right now. We should…
Proverbs 14:29 ESV Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+14%3A29&version=ESV] We like to reduce theology and morality to the simplest possible set of commands. “Don’t kill,” we say- and then get all tripped up about war, capital punishment, and (most commonly) self-defense. “Don’t…
Proverbs 14:28 ESV In a multitude of people is the glory of a king, but without people a prince is ruined. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+14%3A28&version=ESV] For humans, the glory of being a leader is bound up in those led. In paintings and in popular memory, perhaps, the shiny medals and the impressive title and the energetic speeches…