In The Word
Read: Proverbs 4, 5
A Father’s Instruction
4 Listen, my sons, to the instruction of a father,
And pay attention so that you may gain understanding,
2 For I give you good teaching;
Do not abandon my instruction.
3 When I was a son to my father,
Tender and the only son in the sight of my mother,
4 He taught me and said to me,
“Let your heart take hold of my words;
Keep my commandments and live;
5 Acquire wisdom! Acquire understanding!
Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth.
6 Do not abandon her, and she will guard you;
Love her, and she will watch over you.
7 The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom;
And with all your possessions, acquire understanding.
8 Prize her, and she will exalt you;
She will honor you if you embrace her.
9 She will place on your head a garland of grace;
She will present you with a crown of beauty.”
10 Listen, my son, and accept my sayings,
And the years of your life will be many.
11 I have instructed you in the way of wisdom;
I have led you in upright paths.
12 When you walk, your steps will not be hampered;
And if you run, you will not stumble.
13 Take hold of instruction; do not let go.
Guard her, for she is your life.
14 Do not enter the path of the wicked
And do not proceed in the way of evil people.
15 Avoid it, do not pass by it;
Turn away from it and pass on.
16 For they cannot sleep unless they do evil;
And they are robbed of sleep unless they make someone stumble.
17 For they eat the bread of wickedness,
And drink the wine of violence.
18 But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn
That shines brighter and brighter until the full day.
19 The way of the wicked is like darkness;
They do not know over what they stumble.
20 My son, pay attention to my words;
Incline your ear to my sayings.
21 They are not to escape from your sight;
Keep them in the midst of your heart.
22 For they are life to those who find them,
And healing to all their body.
23 Watch over your heart with all diligence,
For from it flow the springs of life.
24 Rid yourself of a deceitful mouth
And keep devious speech far from you.
25 Let your eyes look directly ahead
And let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you.
26 Watch the path of your feet,
And all your ways will be established.
27 Do not turn to the right or to the left;
Turn your foot from evil.
Pitfalls of Immorality
5 My son, pay attention to my wisdom,
Incline your ear to my understanding,
2 So that you may maintain discretion
And your lips may comply with knowledge.
3 For the lips of an adulteress drip honey,
And her speech is smoother than oil;
4 But in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
Sharp as a two-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death,
Her steps take hold of Sheol.
6 She does not ponder the path of life;
Her ways are unstable, she does not know it.
7 Now then, my sons, listen to me
And do not turn away from the words of my mouth.
8 Keep your way far from her,
And do not go near the door of her house,
9 Otherwise you will give your vigor to others,
And your years to the cruel one;
10 And strangers will be filled with your strength,
And your hard-earned possessions will go to the house of a foreigner;
11 And you will groan in the end,
When your flesh and your body are consumed;
12 And you say, “How I hated instruction!
And my heart disdainfully rejected rebuke!
13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers,
Nor incline my ear to my instructors!
14 I was almost in total ruin
In the midst of the assembly and congregation.”
15 Drink water from your own cistern,
And fresh water from your own well.
16 Should your springs overflow into the street,
Streams of water in the public squares?
17 Let them be yours alone,
And not for strangers with you.
18 Let your fountain be blessed,
And rejoice in the wife of your youth.
19 Like a loving doe and a graceful mountain goat,
Let her breasts satisfy you at all times;
Be exhilarated always with her love.
20 For why should you, my son, be exhilarated with an adulteress,
And embrace the breasts of a foreigner?
21 For the ways of everyone are before the eyes of the Lord,
And He observes all his paths.
22 His own wrongdoings will trap the wicked,
And he will be held by the ropes of his sin.
23 He will die for lack of instruction,
And in the greatness of his foolishness he will go astray.
New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Walking In The Word
Would you be okay with just one cancer cell being in your body? Of course not! It would harmfully alter other cells and cause significant damage. Sin is even crueler, but many people do not see it that way, including some Christians. They erroneously think a “small sin” is not that bad and will do no harm. But just a seed of sin allowed in your heart and mind will contaminate your entire life and cause devastation. That is why Solomon warned, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23). A heart polluted with sin will produce a wrong life.
Solomon also warned, “Do not enter the path of the wicked and do not proceed in the way of evil men. Avoid it, do not pass by it; Turn away from it and pass on. The way of the wicked is like darkness; They do not know over what they stumble” (Proverbs 4:14-15, 19). Why could Solomon give such an extreme warning to completely avoid sin? Because he personally witnessed sin’s destructive effects in his father and siblings’ lives. We should not isolate ourselves from the world, or else we could not impact it for Jesus. But we must not adopt their ways or be infected by their sins. We must be in the world, but we must prevent the world from getting into our hearts.
Follow God’s counsel to avoid sin at all cost and avoid the pain of sin.