Rev. Don Campbell

Proverbs 4-6

THOUGHT FOR TODAY, June 4, 2019

“PHILOSOPHY”

The word “philosophy” comes from two Greek words “philos” (fond or friendly) and “sophos” (clever or wise). The word is used only once in the Bible, where Paul warns against it: “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ” (Collosians 2:8). God is not opposed to wisdom, but only the wisdom of the world, which is earthly, unspiritual and demonic (James 3:13-18).

Solomon was a lover of wisdom and exhorted his sons, “The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight” (4:7). In the fifth proverb, he exhorts his son to be wise in avoiding sexual seduction, a warning that he repeats in 6:20-35.

In the fourth proverb he says, “I have taught you the way of wisdom” (v.11) and encourages his son to keep them within his heart. In verses 23-27, we read: “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you. Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.” The heart is the citadel of life and must be guarded with vigilance. To guard the heart, we must guard not what goes into our mouths, but what comes out. Our eyes must be fixed directly ahead—for Christians this means fixing our eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:1-2). We must also ponder the path of our feet.

John referred to believers as “little children” seven times in his first epistle. We should never outgrow the wisdom of the song sung so often in children’s classes: “Be careful little eyes what you see, be careful little ears what you hear, be careful little tongue what you say, and be careful little feet where you go.

CONNECTIONS

1. What does Solomon say about the heart, the eyes, the hands, and the tongue, and the feet in 6:16-19?

2. Which one of these does James say is hardest to control? (James 3:1-12)