I’m not going to break down every verse in the book of Proverbs for you. That’s ultimately your job as you study God’s word for knowledge, understanding and wisdom. I can’t spoon feed you the information you need to make you wise but I can guide you and show you the way to achieve the wisdom of God. At the moment of salvation all believers are given one or more spiritual gifts from the Holy Spirit in order to better serve the God who made them. God isn’t going to tell you what your spiritual gifts are. You must find out for yourself what spiritual gifts the Holy Spirit has blessed you with. Sadly, most people have no idea what their spiritual gifts are. In my case, my spiritual gifts from God are exhortation and giving. I received my ministry of reconciliation from the Holy Spirit of God which involves studying God’s word and then giving my testimony of Jesus Christ in writing through my blog (exhortation) and also by funding the distribution of many thousands of Christian tracts and many hundreds of Bibles to inmates in our prison system (giving). God has an individual plan for each of our lives that nobody else can complete. Either you do what God has planned for you to do or it doesn’t get done. In the eyes of God you are irreplaceable.
Psalm 33:11 – The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generation.
Psalm 20:4 – May He grant you according to your heart’s desire, and fulfill all your purpose.
So find out what God has planned for your life and then go do it. You’ll never be truly happy until you let God fill the void in your heart and you do what you were meant to do in this life. I don’t care how much money and power you accumulate during your lifetime. It doesn’t matter. You’ll never be successful in the eyes of God without obedience to his word. You can’t obey God until you study his word for knowledge, understanding and wisdom in order to find out what God requires of you. You cannot “do” until you “know” what to do. It’s not a secret that the number one command of God for all believers is the Great Commission; to share the gospel message of Jesus Christ to all nations and all peoples by your witness in order to save nonbelievers to the kingdom of God. You cannot save everyone but by your witness for Christ you can save one.
Proverbs 11:30 – The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise.
Hosea 13:4 – Yet I am the LORD your God….there is no Savior besides Me.
In the last blog I showed you how to isolate a teaching from God; from the book of Proverbs (verses 1-7 of chapter one). When studying the Bible always have a good dictionary handy to look up the meaning of words in scripture when you’re unsure of the meaning in the context in which it is used. Use the definition of a word that’s most applicable to the culture and historical setting in which it’s used. Also be aware that some words have a biblical meaning that is totally different from the dictionary meaning. Take the word “fear” for example. We all understand what the normal definition of the word “fear” is but, biblically speaking, the word “fear” means to show awe, great respect and reverence for God. Most words have several meanings so choose the one that makes sense to you. If a dictionary definition makes sense to you in the verse you’re reading then it’s probably the right one.
Isaiah 1:18 – Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
Psalm 27:1 – The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
The number one rule of Bible study is the following: “If the verse you’re reading makes sense then seek no other sense.” God never tries to trick you with his word. God wants you to understand who he and what he expects from you. In most cases God will speak clearly and literally. There are some exceptions where it’s obvious God is speaking spiritually, symbolically or metaphorically, like in the book of Revelation. You can almost always tell in scripture when God completes a thought and begins a new topic. Evaluate each thought or teaching from God as a whole; as a group of related verses, so you don’t misinterpret the meaning. Never take a single verse out of context and try to reveal a spiritual truth of God because more than likely you’ll get it wrong. When the meaning of a verse isn’t clear to the reader the surrounding verses will often clear up the meaning.
A classic example of this mistake is the Catholic church taking the verse where Jesus tells Peter, “On this rock I will build my church”, and construing it to mean Jesus would use Peter to build his church. Since the Catholics claim that Peter is their first pope they think it legitimizes their claim to be the one and only true church of God. They are wrong on both counts. If the early church fathers had taken the time to read the surrounding verses they would have known that Jesus was talking about building his church around the “good news”, the gospel message of Christ coming to die for the sins of man and not about building his church by or through Peter himself. Before you begin any Bible study session pray to God for help in understanding his word through revelations from the Holy Spirit of God. You can’t even begin to know the wisdom of God without the help of the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit knows the mind of God. The Holy Spirit is God.
Daniel 12:2-3 – And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.
Proverbs 11:14 – Where there is no counsel, the people fall; but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.
You have God’s promise that when you pray to him he will help you, because God said he would and God cannot lie. You can be sure your prayers to God will be answered when they align with God’s will. What we can’t be sure of is the timetable in which God will answer us. God is inscrutable and his timing is his own business so we need to continue to pray to God until he answers us no matter how long it takes. I had previously studied the book Proverbs and broken it down to a list of core teachings and a list of categories to help me review and understand what God requires of me. I’ll share my study notes on the book of Proverbs in this blog posting. I’m a prodigious note taker and list maker because it helps me organize my mind and in this case it helps me when reviewing the many commands of God so I can be obedient. God wants our worship and he commands us to be obedient. God is glorified when we praise and worship him. We cannot please the Lord our God without first acknowledging the magnitude and majesty of almighty God and we cannot please God unless we’re obedient to his commands to the best of our ability. My Proverbs cheat sheet has twelve key teachings:
1. We must always fear the Lord our God – Jehovah created the universe and us, which he maintains with his upturned hand. Nothing is impossible with God. If the omnipotence of God doesn’t inspire awe in you I don’t know what will. Man is God’s masterpiece of creation and we should have a deep respect for the Lord our maker. We should revere God because he loves us and he has adopted us as children of the Most High so that we will live forever in heaven in his presence where God will shower us with honor, glory and riches. We must continually stoke our fear of God by keeping what he has done for us before our eyes. We should be constantly praying to God, reading our Bible, and meditating on the magnitude and majesty of God so we don’t lose sight of who God is and what he has done for us. As long as we maintain our fear of the Lord we’ll never fall out of fellowship with God. Never get complacent about God.
Job 28:28 – And to man He said, behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.
Psalm 112:1 – Praise the Lord! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who delights greatly in His commandments.
Psalm 33:18-19 – Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy, to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.
2. God is sovereign – God is our Lord and master; our king! God rules the universe from his throne in heaven. God knows all and he sees all; and in his perfect wisdom and his perfect will God directs every aspect of his creation. As the author of history God knows the end from the beginning so God is never surprised about anything. God makes all the rules, and he dispenses judgments for violating those rules and his law. Man is an eternal being because God gave each of us a piece of himself at conception (our eternal spirit) so we’ll live forever. Because God is eternal when God gives a part of himself to us it makes us eternal as well. Only God Almighty God can send man to hell for all eternity; therefore we need to be afraid of God’s judgment.
Nehemiah 9:6 – You alone are the Lord; You have made heaven, with all their host, the earth and everything on it, the seas and all that is in them, and You preserve them all. The host of heaven worships You.
Psalm 104:24 – O Lord, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all. The earth is full of Your possessions.
Psalm 46:10 – Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!
3. God knows you and wants to be your friend – God gave us the Bible so we could find him. I’m awed by the fact that God forgives me of my sins, overlooks my weaknesses, and yet he still loves me and wants to be my constant friend. A person cannot be saved unless God calls them. God made everyone with the same small amount of faith needed to be saved. Everyone needs to humble themselves before God and by faith ask for his saving grace in order for the Holy Spirit to convict them of their sin and save them unto eternal life in heaven. God wants all of his children in heaven so we can rule by his side. Is our God awesome or what!
Psalm 16:11 – You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness and joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Psalm 32:8 – I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.
Psalm 37:23 – The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way.
4. All wisdom is contained in the Bible – The Bible is God’s wisdom; God’s truth. The Bible is our owner’s manual and we cannot successfully navigate our way through this life without an intimate knowledge of the Bible. There’s no true happiness in this world apart from a right relationship with God and the knowledge of his word. True knowledge comes from studying God’s word. True understanding comes from meditating on God’s word. True wisdom comes from applying the teachings of God’s word in our lives.
Psalm 119:97-99 – Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies; for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation.
Psalm 1:1-2 – Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the seat of the scornful; but delights in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.
psalm 19:7 – The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
5. Emulate Christ by the way you live your life – Strive to be a person of integrity and good character. It’s hard work that’ll take you a lifetime to accomplish, if you ever do. Before making any important decision or taking any noteworthy action always ask yourself this question, “What would Jesus do in my place?”, and then act accordingly. When you emulate Christ the nonbeliever can see the light of God in your actions and they’re attracted to the gospel message of Jesus Christ and his saving grace.
Ecclesiastes 12:13- Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all.
Micah 6:8 – He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
Psalm 90:12 – Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
6. Be obedient to the commands of God – Luckily the Bible tells us exactly what believers are to do to please God. The number one command of God is to witness for Christ in order to save nonbelievers unto eternal life in heaven through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. One of the above verses tells us to fear the Lord and obey God’s commandments. Another verse instructs us to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. We cannot please God without obedience to his commandments. God has told us what to do so we have no excuse. There are 129 commandments in the Bible from God to the believer. Quite a few of these commands are redundant but still, that’s a lot of commands to keep track of and the only way to obey God fully is if you know your Bible intimately through daily Bible reading and intense study.
Psalm 19:7 – The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
Proverbs 21:20 – There is desirable treasure, and oil in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man squanders it.
Proverbs 28:20 – A faithful man will abound with blessings, but he who hastens to be rich will not go unpunished.
7. Always do what pleases God – On the flip side, never do what displeases God. The Bible does a good job of telling us what God loves and what he hates. Internalize that message so you also love what God loves and hate what God hates. You’ll never fall out of fellowship with God if you do this. If you’re a believer then you’re indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God and you can hear the still small voice of God inside your head telling you what you should do.
Psalm 34:15 – The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears open to their cry.
Psalm 6:9 – The Lord has heard my supplication; the Lord will receive my prayer.
Psalm 119:2 – Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart!
8. Seek God’s will for your life – God has a plan for each of our lives but we have to go to God to find out what it is. God won’t come to you but God will meet you half way. It’s up to us to seek God’s face through daily prayer and the daily reading of God’s word. God could speak to us audibly if he wanted to like he did with the prophet Samuel. However, God has chosen to speak to us in our time through the pages of the Bible. We speak to God in prayer. That’s how our two-way communication with God works. One thing you can be assured of is that God’s will for your life will be the best life you could possibly live. You will be successful and happy because God wants the best for us. Most believers never come close to achieving the goals God has for their lives. When we get to heaven we’ll all realize how much we left on the table that could have been ours during our lifetime on earth if we had established and maintained our fellowship with God as we should have.
Psalm 51:1 – Have mercy upon me, O God, according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
Psalm 45:1 – My heart is overflowing with a good theme; I recite my composition concerning the King; my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.
Proverbs 21:13 – Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be heard.
9. Shun evil and sin at every opportunity – Avoid people who are evil. You know when you’re around someone you shouldn’t be. I know it. Don’t just walk away from them; run away as quickly as possible! It’s just common sense we need to avoid evil people and those who enjoy sinning so it doesn’t rub off on us. Make a conscious effort not to sin against God. And when you do sin, as we all do, immediately repent of those sins against God and ask his forgiveness. God will forgive us because he said he would in scripture and God cannot lie. When we get to heaven God will glorify us (glorification) to make sure we’re unable to sin, which is comforting to know. People are social creatures, like ants and bees, and we tend to go along with the group and emulate group behavior. Believers should have their spiritual antenna working at all times so as to avoid nonbelievers and then associate mostly with other believers. Don’t yoke yourself to the nonbeliever because on average nonbelievers will sin more than believers do and we don’t want to be tempted to sin by their behavior while in our company. We have to work with nonbelievers and associate with them to some degree. Our witness for Christ will be to nonbelievers so we can’t totally avoid them. I’m just saying don’t hang out with nonbelievers on a regular basis or have a nonbeliever as your best friend or you’ll eventually be corrupted by them. If it happened to King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, it could happen to you.
Psalm 37:27- Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell forevermore.
Proverbs 13:21 – Evil pursues sinners, but to the righteous, good shall be repaid.
Proverbs 16:4 – The Lord has made all for Himself, yes, even the wicked for the day of doom.
10. Be careful what you say – God tells us over and over in scripture we are to guard our tongues because corrupt speech can do us great harm. That’s a hard teaching for most of us to understand. I know we’re saved unto eternal life by the words of our mouth expressing faith if Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. If we’re saved by the words of our mouth then conversely, we can also be condemned by what we say before the Lord. God remembers every word we speak in our lifetime, idle and otherwise, and we will be held accountable. The words of our mouth can bring us blessings or curses from God and he is just telling us to be careful what we say.
Psalm 50:23 – Whoever offers praise glorifies Me; and to him who orders his conduct aright I will show the salvation of God.
Psalm 34:1 – I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
Proverbs 10:19 – In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise.
11. Be generous, loving and kind – Everything we have is from the Lord, including our money. People, especially believers, are to help the poor and needy. When you use the money God gave you to do his work you’re playing with house money. You’re being obedient to the commands of God and God is giving you the means to do so and you’ll be blessed by God as a result. That’s a great deal for us. We are to love others as ourselves and show kindness to everyone. These are the attributes of Jesus Christ during his life and ministry and when we emulate Christ by our good works the nonbeliever will see the light of God in our actions and be attracted to the gospel message of God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord. According to the Bible the more we serve God and give back to others the more God will prosper us and bless our lives. God’s eyes are always upon his saints so do what you know is right.
Proverbs 3:9-10 – Honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the first fruits of all your increase; so your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine.
Proverbs 22:9 – He who has a generous eye will be blessed, for he gives of his bread to the poor.
Proverbs 11:24- There is one who scatters, yet increases more; and there is one who withholds more than is right, but it leads to poverty.
12. Do not commit adultery – In our society adultery has lost the stigma it once had. In our permissive culture adultery is no longer seen as being that bad of a sin. When I read the book of Proverbs I was surprised how many times God commanded man not to commit adultery and God’s detailed explanation of the punishment we’ll receive for committing adultery. I’m taking God at his word and you should too. I can tell by the words God uses in the scriptures that he really hates adultery and those who commit it. Our job is to love what God loves and hate what God hates. If God hates adultery then don’t do it. Our job is to always do what’s pleasing in God’s sight so when we stand before the bema judgment seat of Jesus Christ on the last day we’ll hear the words we all long to hear, “Well done good and faithful servant.” The temporary pleasure you receive from committing adultery is simply not worth the eternal wrath of God on the last day. The wrath of God Almighty is a terrible thing to behold because hell is forever so we need to avoid it at all costs.
Proverbs 5:15 – Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.
I also wrote down a list of do’s and don’ts from the book of Proverbs:
AVOID THESE THINGS: pride, evil, sin, liars, adultery, fornication, bad people, deceitful people, and miserly people.
DON’T DO THESE THINGS: lie, covet, steal, gossip, boast, quarrel, sow strife, bear false witness, do evil, plot evil, repay evil, be a glutton and be a drunkard.
DO THESE THINGS: guard your tongue, study God’s word, never listen to fools, obey God, live by faith and not by sight, do right by everyone, give to the needy, witness for Christ, pick a godly wife or husband, speak only good and not evil, love God, act justly, stand by friends, seek and accept wise counsel, love on another, respect your parents, fellowship with other believers, and discipline your children.
GOD LOVES THIS: a good worker and a generous giver.
GOD HATES THIS: a fool and lazy people
STRIVE TO BE THIS: humble, righteous, discrete and prudent.
KNOW THESE THINGS ABOUT GOD AND APPLY THIS KNOWLEDGE IN YOUR LIFE WHEN APPROPRIATE: God prospers the righteous, for long life honor your parents, for long life stay in God’s word, fear God and stay in his word, God loves us, anything God says is the truth and a promise he cannot break, we are God’s children, everything belongs to God, raise your children on God’s word, you reap what you sow so sow bountifully, repent immediately when you sin against God, love what God loves, and hate what God hates.