Scripture Reading:

Proverbs 14:22-24

Proverbs 14:22

Do they not err that devise evil? But mercy and truth shall be to them that devise good. 

Make no mistake about it. Everyday, there are men sitting in senate committee rooms and board rooms of banks, plotting how they may enslave more people with debt or government control over every facet of their lives. Since the early 1800s, radically evil men have assembled large, centralized systems of power that have served to enslave the masses. Because tyranny could not survive without an
immoral people, these men also produced education systems to ensure the breakdown of morality and the family in their societies. This has happened to most of the European countries, as well as to Canada, America, Japan, and South Korea. These governments control 50-70% of life, including education, medical care, manufacturing, technology, and charity. These powerful forces could never have accomplished this had it not been for the fact that the integrity of the family and personal morality were badly compromised between 1920 and the present. Since control over the culture, the universities, and the schools was turned over to the central planners, there was hardly any way a state or county or even a small town might escape from the evil devised by these secular powers. The direction of an entire civilization was set by these centralized systems. This is how men wander out of the way, all the while directing millions, perhaps even billions of other people to follow them.

Yet in the 1960s and 1970s, there were others who devised a different approach to life for their families. They proposed a Christian education, unfettered by the state systems. After much consideration and planning, they decided they would place the fear of God at the beginning of all their science and history classes. This was in radical opposition to what was happening in the centralized system. These counter-culturists insisted on the nurturing of faith, humility, and character in and through every aspect of intellectual learning. They refused to separate character training (Prov. 1:7; 1 Pet. 3:15), worship (Ps. 111:10), and life integration ( James 1:22) from the inculcation of knowledge in the minds of their children. In accord with this biblical approach to education, parents took the primary responsibility (Eph. 6:4; Deut. 6:7). Because of the wisdom of these early decades, millions of children are now the products of this educational approach. To these people, God multiplies His blessings.

Both mercy and truth are the two things we need at all times. We need God’s mercy upon us for our sins every day. But we also need His truth to convict us of our sins, to drive us in faith to the cross of His Son, and to guide and direct us in His ways all the way through this dangerous life.

Proverbs 14:23

In all labour there is profit: but the talk of the lips tends only to penury. 

How would we know a diligent man? Watch his hands. If he is always talking about what he is going to do or what others need to do—but fails to engage himself—this man will fail in life. The only way to succeed is to try and fail, and then try again and fail again, and again, and again. Eventually, God rewards every person with profit for their labors one way or another.

Now there are many today who seem to talk a great deal, and then profit off the work of others. The world would never see any real profit if there were no hands doing the work. Even those who do the speaking, the motivating, and the leading within the household economy should pitch in and do the work with the rest of the team from time to time.

This is good advice for fathers, teachers, pastors, corporate managers, and politicians. As the idea-men separate themselves from day to day life, their talk becomes increasingly irrelevant to life.

But worst of all is the person full of religious notions and talking that is not attended with faith and life. They are good at talking, but not at walking out the faith. There may be a great deal of head knowledge, but a lack of faith, commitment, and follow through on the things professed. Have we truly embraced God’s Savior, God’s Word, and God’s Love, such that we love Him and obey His Word in our daily life?

Proverbs 14:24

The crown of the wise is their riches: but the foolishness of fools more folly. 

Wealth is typically found where there are large mansions and factories, stores filled with tens of thousands of different items, and well-fed, educated children. Wherever we see this, rest assured, there must have been wisdom somewhere contributing to the production of that wealth. Now, it is true that foolish societies will consume the capital produced by the wisdom of previous generations. It is also true that socialist governments have been busy redistributing wealth and ruining the economies of the developed nations around the world. But the adage still stands. The crown of the wise is their riches!

It is not all that difficult to point out the foolishness of fools. They wear it on their sleeves. They destroy their own societies. They abort their young, and then act surprised when their children want to euthanize them. By their cultural, educational, and economic systems they fragment the family and undermine morality, and then they feign concern when half of marriages end in divorce, and children have a 2% chance of growing up with a mother and father. Then they rush around trying to provide state-supported psychiatric and emotional support for the victims of their failed social experiment. And this is how the
foolishness of fools yields even more folly.

For related commentary, reference Proverbs 13:8. 

Family Discussion Questions:

1. Are we planning good or evil things for our children in the education and culture we provide them? How would we know whether our goals and values are good or evil?

2. Are we diligent and productive people? How much time do we spend talking compared to how much time we spend getting things done in the home?