Many people in our post-modern world like to believe that everything in the moral realm exists in shades of gray, with no black-and-white. The argument goes that individuals and identity groups are entitled to choose their truth, and it is a social offense to argue that some truths are absolute and non-debatable.
The problem with this is that it is an illogical fallacy to say that all truths are equally valid. Truth is the mountain, and we all stand at the base, taking in a different view of it. The mountain doesn’t move.
The book of Proverbs supports this view, over and over and over. Here are some of the black-and white distinctions the wise writers of Proverbs desire to instill in those who seek to walk rightly before God and man in this world.
• Good and evil
• Wise and foolish
• Fear of the Lord and the folly of man
• Words that bring life and words that bring death
• Humility and pride
• Integrity and dishonor
• Generosity and Greed
• Industriousness and laziness
• Honesty and deception
I could come up with more, but these examples are sufficient to make the point.
All of these contrasts could be interpreted to represent continua of potential behaviors. This would lead us to believe that as long as we are attempting a bit of generosity, or integrity, or fear of the Lord, we are at least headed in the right direction, and that is enough. Surely no one is squarely, permanently at one pole or the other, we can rightly say. Only Jesus is perfect, and we all live in the muddy moral middle.
Proverbs (and many other portions of Scripture) presents ideals of which we can and will performatively fall short. Only Jesus, not subjected to the corrupted bloodline curse of original sin, could always get it right. We, on the other hand, are still being formed, refined, and purified, and so still contain within us mixtures of motives, desires, intentions, and inner struggles to get our lives to line up with the life of Jesus.
So, what are we to do? We mixed up humans in the muddy moral middle?
Wisdom is the key
The overriding theme of the book of Proverbs is the gaining of wisdom. The book is addressed primarily to the young, who need guidance from God and their elders to avoid immorality and foolish decisions. Solomon argues vociferously that wisdom is the key that opens the door to a good, righteous, holy, and successful life, and it should be our main pursuit while we are on this planet.
Wisdom is personified as a woman who cries out, to paraphrase, “Don’t go that way, come this way!” Our actions and choices have consequences, and wisdom leads us to the consequences God desires for us.
According to Proverbs, if we seek wisdom, we also seek;
• To honor God in all we do
• To live at peace with God and others
• To be disciplined in our conduct
• To work diligently and meet our responsibilities
• To be honest in all of our business dealings
• To speak carefully and kindly, even in the most difficult relationships
• To be open to rebuke and correction, knowing our knowledge is limited
• To be humble, knowing that our plans may seem right, but the Lord has the final say
• To be generous toward the poor
• To seek justice for the vulnerable
On the other hand, wisdom teaches us to avoid evil, deception, quarreling, slothfulness, gossip, pride, partiality, greed, mocking, larceny, lying, perversity, and stubbornness,
Both the wise and unwise paths are available to choose. Only one is correct.
Walk with the wise to become wise
Walk with the wise and become wise; associate with fools and get into trouble (Prov. 13:20). You may also know this saying, As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend (Prov. 27:17).
Only iron or something stronger, like a diamond, can sharpen a blade made of iron. If we try to sharpen a blade by scraping it on a piece of wood or stone it will become duller, not sharper. And the surface the blade is hitting will probably be damaged in the process.
We are sharpened when we submit to truth that is higher and stronger than we are (Heb. 4:12). Those who would teach and influence are admonished to be skilled workers of the word, to rightly divide it (2 Tim 2:15), in other words, to carve out a straight path for the word of truth (NTE).
This is what wisdom of the word allows us to do. And when we are careful to walk with the wise, they sharpen our wisdom and godliness as we sharpen theirs. We pay no attention to voices of immorality or moral relativism, because we believe God’s word is TRUE.
If there is iron within, and in our words and deeds, we become wise and have wise discernment to share with others. We cut a path through the foolishness of the world without being touched by it. We don’t swerve or wallow in the muddy middle.
To do this, we must choose carefully who we allow to speak into our lives and influence our attitudes and actions.
To pursue wisdom:
• We walk through the pages of Scripture each day allowing it to sharpen us
• We spend time with others who value and pursue a path of wisdom and truth
• We don’t give into the culture’s moral ambiguity
• We do our best to model our lives after our Savior and Lord
May God bless us all as we take this seriously and walk in the fear of God, the beginning of wisdom. (Prov. 1:70
