Proverbs 18:14 Commentary and Bible Study

This proverb is found in another place, chapter 15:13. There it has a different sense though it is more or less the same proverb, but we should interpret it so that it fits its context. What is meant by the spirit of a man? It is the disposition, the attitude, the will of a man or woman. Hopefully your will is strong enough to sustain adversity. If you are very sick hopefully you have a will to live, and to look on the best side, and to go forward, and to recover. So this is ‘spirit’ in the sense of your whole disposition or approach to life. But if the spirit is wounded, damaged, injured – some would translate it crushed, though that may be too strong for the word – who can bear it? The sufferer cannot bear himself. This is somebody now who is profoundly pessimistic and cynical about everything, and even bitter, and it has become a habit. Everything in life you see the downside, the gloomy side. You cannot bear it yourself – you become a moaner, a grumbler, a perpetual complainer – and people around you cannot bear it. It hardly promotes fellowship and relationships if somebody has got into a pessimistic spirit. If it is a man at home then he is a misery for his wife because he is forever down under a burden, or it may be the wife who has developed a very pessimistic spirit. And the wounded spirit needs to be healed, and restored. For a Christian man or woman we need to be as much looking at the benefits and blessing that God has given us as the difficulties, or we are robbing God of his praise and not noticing. And every Christian who is living prayerfully, no matter how many difficulties and grievous things should have many things to give thanks to God for. So the apostle Paul commands us by the Spirit to rejoice always. But the spirit of the person in this proverb has been wounded, and everything is seen negatively and then it becomes tainted with bitterness. So it is in the context of fellowship though it does not seem to be in this verse. I have known people who have had a very important ministry for the Lord in pointing out woes and troubles and difficulties, and they have neglected to speak about good things, and doctrines of God and the strongly positive things and they have become bitter, and every time you ever talk to them it was always all negative. Ordinary Christian people also succumb to this and it is very damaging to them and to fellowship. They get to exaggerating and they cannot cope with it themselves. So whether we are talking about family life – again, something that children notice: the negative gloomy spirit that is so hurtful and frustrating to the young – we have got to be careful. We are Christian people; we are constantly addressing many unfortunate things and wrong things and sad things, and identifying things in our lives that need to be put right, and things in the world that are way off track, but we have to be careful to balance that with gratitude to God and recognition of all that he has given and all that he has done, and it is vital to fellowship.