Read
Proverbs
29
As we draw near the end of Proverbs,
we come again to where we began. There
is God’s way and there is everything else.
Consider my governing framework for this book of wisdom in the context
of verse
18.
Where there is no revelation, people
cast off restraint;
but blessed is the one who heeds wisdom’s
instruction.
That was from the NIV. Some of you my
age may have learned this in the King James Version.
Where there is no vision, the people
perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.
The English Standard Version puts it
this way.
Where there is no prophetic vision the
people cast off restraint,
but blessed is he who keeps the law.
When we do not receive the vision sent
to us by God—in whatever form that takes for us who live in this age—we depart
from the blessings of living God’s way into the minefields of the everything
else.
When we don’t listen to and abide in
what Dad, Abba, Father has been telling us, we are surely headed out of the
land of blessings into the wasteland of peril.
I’ll take one more crack at this. There is God’s way and there is everything
else.
God’s way – Everything else
Blessings – Minefields
Wisdom – Foolishness
Righteous – Wicked
Industrious – Lazy
Obedient - Rebellious
Life – Death
God’s way – Everything else
For all of the parallel construction,
positives and negatives, A-B structures, provocations that require some deep
thought, metaphors and other comparative tools, Solomon brings us to the
ultimate dichotomy.
There is living God’s way and there is
everything else.
If we don’t look to God’s way and are
blind to his revelations, we live without restraint. We live lawlessly. We perish.
In modern rural vernacular, that dog don’t hunt.
If we go back to the original
language, we find that God’s way was delivered most often in what we call
the law—the Torah.
There is much discussion whenever we
use the word law or Torah, so much so that many Christians lose sight of the
command to be known
as disciples of Jesus by our love and substitute being known by our interpretations
and self-righteousness.
Too often we strain
out gnats and swallow camels in wanting people to agree with our way,
instead of being known as disciples of our Lord by practicing God’s way, by
living a life governed by love.
The problem is that we too often place
what some would consider negative or confining attributes on the words Torah
and law. We should consider these
terms in a fuller meaning, hopefully, closer to their original intent.
What is Torah? It is direction. It is instruction. It is law, but it is also customs, rulings,
teachings, but most of all it is God’s
way. Whether we frame it as a
command, a directive, an instruction, a ruling, or guidance—it is God’s way.
Commands, directives, instructions, and the like can all mean the exact same
thing or vary in significant ways. That
variance is often our language mixed with our perspectives and sorted by our
bias. It is also our vulnerability to
being lured into the everything else.
Understand that God revealed his way
to us for
our own good. We should receive, understand, and live out the instructions
that God gave us.
Blessed is the one who heeds wisdom’s
instruction.
He that keeps the law is happy
Blessed is he who keeps the law.
But I thought we were free from the
law? I thought Jesus was the way to heaven? I thought the ultimate sacrifice for our sins
had been made?
I thought we were saved by
grace through faith? You are!
But how will you respond to this
wonderful gift? Will you live to bring
glory to God? Will you enjoy your
relationship with God?
God has revealed his way to us. He has also revealed the everything
else. Much of this revelation came
in those first 5 books of the Bible. Much
came through the prophets. Much came in the wisdom books of the Bible. Much came in the life and teachings of Christ
Jesus—the
Word made flesh, and much comes from the Spirit of God that lives within
us.
When we dismiss or devalue one part of
God’s revelations to us, we discount his sovereignty in favor of our own and
are not heeding wisdom’s instructions.
Our atonement
came in the blood
of Christ Jesus—the only
one to ever fulfill
the law, but
our response to this great love is left to us. Will we stop resisting when God is directing
our steps?
God is moving
us forward
to a better
relationship with him. One obstacle
to that is our interpretation of this statement: Love
fulfills the Law.
Too many think that those who live
by love are getting off easy. God’s
laws must be rigid and strict and compliance must be lock-step, and to some
degree difficult. Consider, instead,
that God has raised—not lowered—the bar for us, at least for those who will
follow him and be known as his disciples by our love.
Love fulfills the law does not abandon
obedience. It embraces it. I know several people who can do tasks over
and over again and do them well. They
are obedient
and compliant and do exactly what the specifications require. The
specification may be difficult, but skill comes with repetition.
Others note the specifications for
individual tasks and have been given eyes to see a house or a ship or a space
station. We do not denounce those who
can only see the step-by-step directions.
They are living
their lives as fully as they are equipped to do.
We should also embrace those who can
see the house or the ship when they read the directions. They do not see less. They are not less obedient. They see the
designer’s passion and embrace it. They live by love and in so doing fulfill
the law.
They—in many cases that is we—didn’t
get off easy. We accepted the challenge
to live completely in God’s way.
If you think you are getting off easy
when you say, love fulfills the law; you have not understood God’s ways. Living by love is not joining the French
Foreign Legion never to be heard of again. It’s living to the glory of God,
growing in his grace, and enjoying the relationship knowing that the life you
have called your own truly belongs to the one you proclaim as Lord.
The old standard for us was to love God with everything we had and love each other as much as we love ourselves. While difficult, we sometimes obtain that
second part. Loving someone as much as
we love ourselves is possible.
Now consider that Jesus gave his
disciples—that includes us in this age—a
new command.
“A new command I give you: Love one
another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my
disciples, if you love one another.”
We don’t just love others as much as
we love ourselves. That would be easy in
comparison to what he called us—commanded us—to do. Love one another
as much as he loved us. He loved
us to the point of giving his life for us.
Yep, that raised the bar.
Remember, all of the points of the law
hang upon, rest upon, come together in the commands to love God and love one
another. Loving God and loving one
another are the supporting uprights and beams of the law.
Let’s get back to the proverb.
Blessed is the one who heeds wisdom’s
instruction.
He that keeps the law is happy
Blessed is he who keeps the law.
Why follow
the law? Why live a life governed by
love. Why seek to live God’s way?
As with so much that has been revealed
to us in our studies, God does things that are for
our own good and instructs us to do things that bless us. They are the directions that give us hope
and a future.
We do not live God’s way to obtain
salvation. God has done all that is
required to save us from our sins and from death. Jesus paid it all!
In response to this unfathomable love,
we want to please God. We want to live
in his ways. We want to do the things
that bless God. We want to bring glory to his name and enjoy the relationship
he has in store for us. We want to live as he designed us to live.
When we do, he blesses
us even more. We are happy. Sin and death are no longer hanging over
us. So, what will we do? Will
we go on sinning so grace can abound even more?
BY NO MEANS!
We will live God’s way. We will live as he instructed us, not so much
in lock-step compliance—though some may find this to be the limits of their
God-given abilities—but
fully governed by love. In so doing,
we will be happy and blessed.
There
is God’s way and there is everything else, and God’s way is love.
God’s way is love!
Blessed is he who lives
by Love. To live this life given to us in the blood of Jesus, and to live
it without love, is lawlessness. It is rebellion.
God
is love. God’s way is love. His law,
his prophets, his wisdom, his Word made flesh, and his Spirit that lives within
us bring us to love. Love directs
our steps.
There is God’s way and there is
everything else, and God’s way is love.
We can live in God’s way. Remember that he
who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. You are equipped to live God’s way. You are equipped to live by love.
Amen.
