June 20, 2025 - Proverbs 6-9

Settle things with a neighbor, don’t be a slacker but work hard, don’t spread lies and discord, stay away from wicked relationships, do not steal from another, heed and obey God’s words, learn sense and get insight, rulers rule justly, be aware of and avoid folly and foolishness.  We know that the gospel is such good news because by it we are saved by grace.  That is, we are not saved by our own good works or righteousness but by that of Another.  At the same time, the gospel calls us to a particular way of life.  We are not to live as the ungodly do.  We are to follow in God’s commandments.  We are to experience life, not death.  And Solomon, in the Proverbs, lays out for us such a life.  The words of Solomon give the lie to the complaint about Christianity I once heard from a young man, in another religion, that the Bible is concerned only about Sunday mornings.  Of course, he got that idea from the way many professing Christians live.  It’s a wrong idea, a wrong understanding of Scripture.  God not only promises, in Christ, eternal life but he also tells us how to live from day to day that we might enjoy his presence and blessing in the most significant ways.

O Word of God incarnate,

O Wisdom from on high,

O Truth, unchanged, unchanging,

O Light of our dark sky,

we praise Thee for the radiance

that from the hallowed page,

a lantern to our footsteps,

shines on from age to age.

O make Thy Church, dear Savior,

a lamp of burnished gold,

to bear before the nations

Thy true light as of old.

O teach Thy wand’ring pilgrims

by this, their path to trace,

‘til, clouds and darkness ended,

they see Thee face to face.   --William Walsham How (1867)