Proverbs 25:27 Commentary and Bible Study

Here is another proverb about honey in the same block of verses, but with a different lesson attached. In verse 16 the lesson was about overindulgence in general; here it is on a particularly intoxicating form of foolishness – the preoccupation of men with their own glory. Just as too much honey makes us sick and what is so pleasing to the tongue at first needs to be limited because its excess is unpleasant, so a man or woman can study their own glory too much. There is a sweetness in thinking about what we have done well, or about situations in which we have shone. The temptation is to return to those thoughts again to enjoy more of the same sweetness, for we assume that what we have discovered has the ability to go on pleasing us indefinitely. But this is not the case. As we return to our own glory again and again what starts as a pleasant encouraging thought turns into something sickening. The sensitive conscience realises that it is not good to derive so much pleasure from self. When we study ourselves like this, something changes in us and we become self-centred, out of balance, for self-glorying is not a safe thing to do. It is feeding a dangerous appetite which is never ready to say it has enough, and which needs to be limited. The effect of turning our thoughts in on ourselves is that we forget others around us and we start to grow in our own estimation while the rest of mankind starts to shrink, so that we end up like strange creatures with swollen heads much bigger than the heads of other people. We also diminish what God has done for us to whom we owe all our gains in this life.The proper response to genuine things we have done well is to give thanks to God and to attribute the praise to him, and think soberly so that we remember that we have nothing that we have not been given. We did not deserve any gift from the Lord, so that if we have received one, it is for the extension of his kingdom and not for the exaltation of self. We do not praise ourselves, either secretly or before others, and we do not go fishing for complements with subtle reminders. We let others praise us and do not praise ourselves, and, in fact, we may not even like hearing others praise us, because of the battles we have fought against our own self-glorying which are reawakened by hearing the praise of men.Paul paraphrases Jeremiah 9:23-24 and says, ‘He that glories, let him glory in the Lord’ (1 Corinthians 1:13; 10:17). Whilst our own glory rapidly turns to corruption, the glory of the Lord is an endless source of satisfaction and delight. The Christian who has done well and finds his mind constantly returning to his successes should therefore deliberately turn his mind away from himself and focus on the Lord, for his glory can never be corrupted. Meditation on the Lord’s glory increases our strength, but absorption with our own glory saps our strength.