Proverbs 23:20 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Proverbs 23:20

Comments

We take these two verses literally first of all, and then we see what they picture even beyond their immediate meaning. Another way you could put it – never be in pubs and bars. Whatever is a Christian doing in a pub or a bar? That is the place where people drink in order to be influenced by drink and have their moods, so they imagine, elevated – actually chemically depressed, but that is the purpose of it. Why be in that company, influenced by drink and so on? This is really a prohibition of believers ever being in places that are dedicated to drinking. And not only about alcohol, other forms of intoxication: pop concerts, where the sound drug is beaten into the mind to alter your level of consciousness and your mood. The whole purpose of it is for you to be influenced, you imagine by uplifting you and so on, putting you on another plane, another level. but really it is sound intoxication. Be not in places of gluttony, where that is the objective, or other forms of self-indulgence. The fundamentalists are right, there is a clear prohibition in the Bible on mood affecting circumstances, places where appetite is king.‘For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty.’ Is this an unfair generalisation? Is it not true that some near alcoholics have made fortunes, and some near alcoholics have been instrumental in winning wars and defending nations, and some near alcoholics have accomplished extraordinary things. Yes, it is a fair statement because certainly sometimes the near alcoholic can achieve extraordinary things, but clearly not generally speaking. The usual rule will be that people who in any shape or form are given to appetites or intoxicating substances or sounds, are deprived by those things.

Application

Be not among drinking people. We can add to that – be not among perpetual boasters, it will influence you and make you covetous and similar. Be not among revilers, it will make you the same. Be not among immoral persons, obviously, with all their talk and their shocking boastings. Be careful of the television. If it is forever on and everything is watched, you are effectively in the company of drinkers, immoral persons, all the worst influences imaginable. It is piped into your home and they are speaking to you, and they are influencing you with their culture all the time. If we as Christians are not highly selective in the home with the television, we are both foolish and proud to think we are immune to its influence.

Questions

How did we get from winebibbers to television? Easily. We do not just stay with the literal surface meaning of the proverb, that is important, but we explore all the implications, all the equivalents that they picture. That is how you use the book. You pick up a commentary and it purports to explain the verses of Proverbs and it only ever deals with the surface meaning. In this case you have got to go further and deal with the bad company and bad influences of sin.

Outline

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Introduction

Proverbs 23:20 Commentary and Bible Study