Proverbs 22:3 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Proverbs 22:3

Comments

Integrity is something which must operate all the time. It is never relaxed. A prudent person, a careful person, a canny person – the Hebrew says a cunning person but it means it in a good sense – foresees the evil. He sees the storm clouds, and instead of going for his long walk he stays indoors. But the naïve person just carries on and takes no notice of the warning in the skies and he gets drenched. Or there are young people perhaps and there is a crowd of bullies coming down the street from the other end of the village, and the prudent or the canny person withdraws carefully indoors, but the naïve one walks right into trouble. You see a crowd of drunks late at night; you might go another way, whereas a naïve person will just walk headlong into trouble. The meaning of the proverb is that integrity discerns situations so that it is not brought into trouble later. Without integrity, it never occurs to me to focus my mind on these things. I sail happily forward in life and I walk into all sorts of problems. Integrity is not something which works just from moment to moment. It protects your principles and your stance and your aims and your policy for life, and looks ahead to see where things are leading, where they are going.

Application

We have started a new job perhaps, but integrity is asking already – will I have to work on Sunday? Will I be heading into something that I cannot do? I have this tremendous increase in pay, but what are the problems and the implications that later on I shall regret, because I shall have to lose integrity as a Christian by doing the wrong things? I will have to start making excuses and to start cutting worship and to leave off Christian duty. Then I will have to make all kinds of excuses for myself. A bit of foresight would have helped.

Or I am young, say, and I have got friends, and they ask me to come here and come there, and I accept every invitation, and I do not stop to think that means I will be back late five nights in a row, and I will have no devotions and I will not prepare my Sunday school lesson and I will have to skip my visiting. No, you see integrity does not want to be making excuses and covering up. Integrity looks ahead and says, I cannot do that. I measure my steps, I think ahead. Integrity looks ahead and it avoids trouble in advance.

Questions

We see that the first half of the proverb is singular and the second half is plural, which is discouraging really, because it suggests there is only one prudent person to every so many hundred naïve ones. That is not so clear in the English translation.

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

Proverbs 22:3 Commentary and Bible Study