A Bible open to proverbs with authorial attribution to Colson Potter in bottom left

Proverbs 13:8

Proverbs 13:8 ESV The ransom of a man’s life is his wealth, but a poor man hears no threat. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+13%3A8&version=ESV]   Being rich is dangerous. People are envious, and people are greedy. Some people will take the direct route to the wealth: kidnap-and-ransom, violent theft, or (if they’re particularly envious) murder-and-loot. Some take a more…

A Bible open to proverbs with authorial attribution to Colson Potter in bottom left

Proverbs 13:7

Proverbs 13:7 ESV One pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+13%3A7&version=ESV]   As soon as a man got hold of one pretty rock, he immediately showed it off and told all his brothers that he actually had two shiny rocks, the second was just a…

A Bible open to proverbs with authorial attribution to Colson Potter in bottom left

Proverbs 13:6

Proverbs 13:6 ESV Righteousness guards him whose way is blameless, but sin overthrows the wicked. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+13%3A6&version=ESV]   In the ultimate account of the world, righteousness, the true righteousness which comes from God, is a guard, a protection, to the man whom God loves; vice, conversely, brings about the downfall of the wicked. Therefore, the man…

A Bible open to proverbs with authorial attribution to Colson Potter in bottom left

Proverbs 13:5

Proverbs 13:5 ESV The righteous hates falsehood, but the wicked brings shame and disgrace. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+13%3A5&version=ESV]   Hate is the great crime of modernity. Racism, anti-homosexuality, anti-transgenderism, and a whole host of other sins against modernity (e.g. bigotry) revolve around hate, around not being loving. After all, ‘love is love’. That position is evil. To hate…

A Bible open to proverbs with authorial attribution to Colson Potter in bottom left

Proverbs 13:4

Proverbs 13:4 ESV The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+13%3A4&version=ESV]   That sloth breeds poverty and diligence plenty is not surprising. We often, however, forget about the more important results of sloth and diligence: the respective impoverishment and enrichment of the soul. Sloth…

A Bible open to proverbs with authorial attribution to Colson Potter in bottom left

Proverbs 13:3 – Part Two

Proverbs 13:3 ESV Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+13%3A3&version=ESV]   Let’s pick up where we left off last week. The second standard, beauty, is the question, ‘Does this person have a right to this information; is this the proper time and place to tell…

A Bible open to proverbs with authorial attribution to Colson Potter in bottom left

Proverbs 13:3 – Part One

Proverbs 13:3 ESV Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+13%3A3&version=ESV]   Snitches get stitches, or so the warning runs, and gossips have acquaintances, not friends. Some people, it seems, just don’t know when to stop talking; others don’t know when to start. This proverb addresses…

A Bible open to proverbs with authorial attribution to Colson Potter in bottom left

Proverbs 13:2

Proverbs 13:2 ESV From the fruit of his mouth a man eats what is good, but the desire of the treacherous is for violence. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+13%3A2&version=ESV]   We talk a lot. We speak to friends, family, acquaintances, strangers, ourselves, nobody in particular, and most importantly, God. We speak, and most of the time we pay little…

A Bible open to proverbs with authorial attribution to Colson Potter in bottom left

Proverbs 13:1

Proverbs 13:1 ESV A wise son hears his father’s instruction, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+13%3A1&version=ESV]   Modernity doesn’t like fathers. To this culture, the father is a bigoted idiot, a bumbling if well-intentioned obstacle, or a Machiavellian tyrant, whom the children must evade and outwit in order to do what they…

A Bible open to proverbs with authorial attribution to Colson Potter in bottom left

Proverbs 12:28

Proverbs 12:28 ESV In the path of righteousness is life, and in its pathway there is no death. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+12%3A28&version=ESV]   Can a man once saved be assured that the salvation is permanent? To say yes, many argue, is rank presumption; to say no, their opponents argue, is insulting the sovereignty of God and the truth…