Proverbs 29:27 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Proverbs 29:27

Comments

There is an antagonism between God’s people and the world which cannot be removed and which Christians should not try to remove. It is put in place by the Lord and exists because of the different natures he has given us. We cannot remove that antagonism because we cannot change the nature of either unbelievers – that is the work of the Spirit of God), or believers – whose nature we rejoice in. On the side of unbelievers it shows itself in the formation of many different opposing ideas. While the truth of Biblical Christianity comes essentially in one form, unbelief takes many forms ranging from materialistic atheism, communism, humanism, man-made religions, or false versions of Christianity. In these, there is opposition to the true God, to his word, to the worship of his people, to the spread of the gospel, and to every presupposition that forms part of the Christian worldview. At the same time the inadequacy of unbelieving worldviews and their inability to justify many necessary aspects of normal functioning in this world, mean that elements of the Christian worldview are adopted by opposing worldviews, but wholly without justification. On the side of believers the antagonism does not show itself as hostility, for the great mission of the church is to win the lost to Christ. It means we can never be partners in matters relating to worship or service of God, or in unrighteousness of any form. We can do nothing that minimises or plays down the barrier which exists between us because God has put it there for a reason. It is for the protection of his people to prevent them becoming like the world and to make clear the great gulf that separates the two.

Application

The temptation for some is to try to find a neutral no-man’s land between opposing worldviews in order to enter into dialogue. This is both unworkable and wrong. The Christian’s strongest defence is the whole of God’s truth, and he is told to put on the full armour of God. He cannot give up certain of his fundamental beliefs in order to try to communicate with the world. He cannot fall back to arguing from pure reason to establish his presuppositions, when he is supposed to start with faith in Scripture and to advance with his belief in all of God’s truth intact. This is his strongest position. He is not to argue lost men and women into the kingdom by intellectual arguments alone, but to preach the authoritative gospel to them and to address man’s conscience, so that the Holy Spirit brings them under conviction of sin.

There must be separation between Christians and the world which they have been called out of. They belong to Christ and Christ hates the world as a system, and will never change his opposition to it. The believer’s antagonism to the world reflects Christ own unchanging attitude. ‘What concord hath Christ and Belial?’ At the same time the believer is to try to win the lost, but never by going back into the world or returning to what he was before. He is to keep up his loathing for sin, first in himself and then as found in all the attitudes and philosophies of the world. He is to accept the reality of God’s forgiveness by distinguishing between sin and the sinner, for by the grace of God the sinner can be extracted from his sin.

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Proverbs 29:27 Commentary and Bible Study