Proverbs 17:4,9-11 ESV
4An evildoer listens to wicked lips,
and a liar gives ear to a mischievous tongue.
9 Whoever covers an offense seeks love,
but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.
10 A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding
than a hundred blows into a fool.
11 An evil man seeks only rebellion,
and a cruel messenger will be sent against him.
What defines an evildoer? He is one who practices doing
evil. He is one who deliberately and habitually is sinning against God and
against other humans, usually without conscience, regret, and/or genuine
repentance. And he can be a professer of faith in Jesus Christ or not. He is an
idolater, an adulterer, a thief, a con artist, a manipulator, a liar, a user,
an abuser, a trickster, a drunkard, a hater, a slanderer, and/or the sexually
immoral, etc.
Yes, an evildoer does listen to wicked lips, and sometimes
those wicked lips are on the bodies of preachers and pastors who are giving
them permission to continue in their evil practices, and that is why they are
listening to them. For these pastors are telling them that if they feel guilty
for their sin to just claim their identity in Christ and to not listen to any
voices that might make them feel guilty for their sin, and so that is shutting
out the Holy Spirit.
Now, this next part here about covering offenses or
repeating them can be interpreted many different ways, but I believe what it is
talking about here is forgiving those who sin against us and not gossiping
about that person to others. But it is not talking about ignoring sin or
pretending that sin does not exist, especially if it is habitual sin. Sin needs
to be addressed biblically, and repentance called for, as well as calling for
walks of obedience to the Lord.
For, you see that the very next sentence speaks of rebuking
others, which is usually because they have done something wrong, but not for every
little nit picky thing they might do, but for serious wrongdoing, especially
that which is deliberate and habitual. And it is true that the person of
understanding will be better at receiving and responding to the rebuke than
will someone who is behaving foolishly, and who is habitually living in
self-indulgence.
An evil person is not just someone who makes no profession
of faith in Jesus Christ. In fact, many times the ungodly behave better than
some who claim faith in Jesus, for they aren’t using Jesus’ sacrifice for their
sins as a scapegoat so that they can continue living in deliberate and habitual
sin. And sadly there are many professed believers in Jesus today who are
seeking only rebellion, and who are living in habitual sin without conscience.
Proverbs 17:13,15,19-20 ESV
13 If anyone returns evil for good,
evil will not depart from his house.
15 He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous
are both alike an abomination to the Lord.
19 Whoever loves transgression loves strife;
he who makes his door high seeks destruction.
20 A man of crooked heart does not discover good,
and one with a dishonest tongue falls into calamity.
We, as followers of Jesus Christ, are not to return evil for
good, or even evil for evil. And do you know what good is, in this context? It
is not defined by us humans, but by God. It is similar to righteous, which has
to do with what is right in the eyes of God. It is the opposite of evil. It is
what is kind, upright, honest, trustworthy, considerate of others, patient, and
bearing with one another in love, and it is sharing the gospel so others can be
saved.
And there are professing Christians who are indeed returning
evil for good, for they are rejecting the truth of the gospel and the Lord’s
messengers who are taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. And they are
speaking evil against the truth of the gospel, and against those who are
sharing the whole counsel of God. And this is because they are listening to
liars who are telling them that they don’t have to repent, obey, or submit to
Christ as Lord.
And these liars are preachers, in many cases, but also those
who have bought into the lies who are also spreading them, and who are also
attacking the true gospel and those who are sharing it. For they are justifying
the wicked when they tell them that no matter how much they sin that they can
just claim who they are in Christ, and it should alleviate the guilt of the
sin, rather than telling them to repent and to obey the Lord.
So, if you are one who is attacking the true gospel which
teaches repentance, obedience, and submission to Christ, and if you are also
condemning the righteous who are living righteously and who are sharing the truth
of the gospel by calling them “self-righteous,” or “hyper-religious” or
teachers of “works-based salvation,” then please know that God sees your actions
as an abomination to the Lord.
Sadly, because the true gospel of grace has been cheapened
and diluted to where it does not confront people in their sins, nor call for
them to repent of their sins, nor call them to walks of obedience to our Lord,
but it coddles them in their sin, and it gives them carte blanche to continue
in their sinful practices, without guilt, we have many professing Christians who
love sin, who have crooked hearts, and who are bent on evil without conscience.
Proverbs 17:22,24 ESV
22 A joyful heart is good medicine,
but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
24 The discerning sets his face toward wisdom,
but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.
Those who are sharing the truth of the gospel today, thus,
at least here in America, are under attack, and not just by people making no
profession of faith in Jesus, but sadly by mostly people who claim to love
Jesus, many of whom are pastors of churches. And even though we have our joy in
our relationships with Jesus Christ, we are still human beings, and we still get
hurt, and we cry, but then we conquer the enemy in the power of God.
Those who are following Jesus Christ with their lives in
wholehearted devotion to the Lord are the discerning. For they are listening to
the Holy Spirit and his promptings, and the Spirit is showing them what is
false and what is true, and he is opening their eyes to all the lies, the
tricks, the deceptions, and all the twisting of truth that is going on. And so
they follow the way of wisdom and they confront the lies and they proclaim the
truth.
But many professers of faith in Jesus Christ, even when
confronted with the truth, and even when being shown what the Scriptures teach,
in context, they will reject the truth in favor of the lies, for they want to
believe the lies, because the lies give them permission to keep living in their
sin without guilt and without remorse. And there are many preachers out there,
many of whom are widely admired and accepted, who are tickling their itching
ears.
So, here is the truth of the matter. The Scriptures teach
that faith in Jesus Christ involves genuine repentance, i.e. the forsaking of
our sins, and it involves walks of obedience to our Lord, and it involves
submitting to Christ as Lord (owner-master) of our lives. For if we do not
submit to God, and if we do not repent of our sins, and if we do not obey our
Lord, then we do not have an inheritance in the kingdom of God. So, please take
this to heart.
[Matt
7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26;
Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Tit 2:11-14; Jas
1:22-25; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10; Php 2:12-13; Col
1:21-23; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Heb 10:26-27; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn
2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Rev. 2-3; Rev 18:1-6; Rev 21:8, 27; Rev 22:14-15]
Lyrics by Noah
White, Music by Virgil Stamps (1935).
As I travel thru
life, with its trouble and strife,
I’ve a glorious hope
to give cheer on the way;
Soon my toils will
be o’er and I’ll rest on that shore,
Where the night has
been turned into day.
As I roam the
hillside, or I list to the tide,
As I pluck the sweet
flowers that grow in the dale;
A faint picture is
there of a land bright and fair,
Where perennial
flowers ne’er fail.
Tho’ your garden is
rare, it is naught to compare
With the flowers
that bloom in the garden above,
In the midst of it
grows, Sharon’s perfect sweet Rose;
‘Tis the wonderful
Flower we love.
Up in paradise
valley By the side of the river of life,
Up in paradise
valley, We’ll be free from all pain and all strife;
There we’ll live in
the garden, ‘Neath the shade of the evergreen tree,
How I long for the
paradise valley, Where the beauty of heaven I’ll see.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcfpFmzHqos
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