Proverbs 6:20 Commentary and Bible Study

Here is a new approach to the same subject. Solomon has dealt with some negative things. The Book of Proverbs is a wonderfully sympathetic book. Not only does he address us as ‘My son’, but, when Solomon says, look these things must be cut out of your lives, he gives us a short list, and then he teaches us about a few other things before he resumes the list. He breaks it up into small sections, so that we can consider piece by piece without being crushed. It is a feature of the book. He has not finished dealing with things that we have got to put right, but he is going to preserve the next portion of his list for some little while, and in the meantime, you get this affectionate, ‘My son.’ He has the young particularly in mind, and uses a familiar form of words now: ‘Keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother.’ What he is going to do in the following verses is to give us the how. He has told us what God hates. Now he is going to give us some counsel on how to keep the law of God, and the standards of God. So he follows his habitual method, and lays down the facts, and then gives the counsel, and the help.