Proverbs 21:10 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Proverbs 21:10

Comments

The picture before us is of a man who lives next to his neighbour, and his neighbour is willing to make determined efforts to live at peace with the man and tries hard to get on well with him, but all his efforts come to nothing, because there is a deep seated hostility in the man which no amount of reasonable behaviour and friendship will be able to overcome. Unknown to his neighbour, the man’s heart is full of resentment and he desires war not peace. In his heart there is a strong desire to do evil, and so no amount to kindness or favour from his neighbour is going to win him over. Perhaps it is a matter of revenge for some past wrong that was done to him and he is never going to forgive this. He therefore daily rehearses the wrong that was done to him in order to keep his hatred alive and fuel his enmity. There are many ways people have of keeping up enmity. They may become extra sensitive to any hurt from a particular person, for there is usually some effort made to justify hatred even in the most hardened. They justify it because this adds strength to their enmity and they actually enjoy the strong feelings this generates inside them. They would not treat another person in the same way, but would overlook wrong from others in a much more generous way, but not from this neighbour. There is a deep bias at work here and it is kept secret in the heart of the man. It is the only explanation for his intransigence, but it is difficult to arrive at this conclusion because he is expert at disguising his feelings.

Application

This may be taken as a picture of the hostility of the wicked towards the righteous in general. Quoting Psalm 35:19 and 69:4, Christ says, ‘They hated me without a cause’ (John 15:25). He is speaking of the hostility of the Pharisees towards him and his ministry, but the same hostility is directed to all his people so that he also says to his disciples, ‘If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you’ (John 15:18). The world is implacable because it is determined to hate. The real cause of its hatred is not admitted, because this would be too obviously unjustified and shameful, and so all manner of alternative excuses are concocted to justify this ill feeling. But Scripture summaries these false justifications by saying that there is really no cause at all, that is, there is no justified cause. There is indeed a cause, but it is wickedness and has no valid reason for its existence, so in summary, they hated Christ without cause. No one who loved the truth or who loved God would have kept up such ill feeling. No one who was reasonable would have failed to be won over by the many acts of friendship and kindness that were shown them by the Lord and by his people. Such is the implacability of the world towards the church.

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Proverbs 21:10 Commentary and Bible Study