It’s Important to Listen to Instruction
June 2, 2019
Commentary
Men often are too proud to listen to instruction. Lasting honor only comes to those who humble themselves and receive instructions from Godly men (v. 18) while poverty and shame will come to those who think themselves too advanced for such instruction. I find this often to be the case when I try to influence men to have a “Family Time." They know they should do it but they fail to heed the instruction in steps of how to do it. In surveys I have taken in the past several years I find that less than 2% of professing Christians actually have a “Family Time” at their house. No wonder Christian homes are falling apart and children are growing up in them with no time for God.
Besides the economic frustrations that come with poverty, poor people often suffer socially (v.20). People refuse to associate with the poor, even to the point of not having anything to do with their neighbor who doesn’t have much of this world’s goods. Instead they shower all of their applause and friendships on the rich. Hard work pays off while people who merely talk about work become poor (v.23). Labor is profitable in the physical realm because of what is produced. Also in the mental realm the mind is kept occupied, thus lessening the danger of giving way to the corrupt nature. In the spiritual realm, mere talk or empty boasting of oneself only results in spiritual poverty.
Application
It is important that I walk my talk. Just to say that I believe something and then live another way can be a very dangerous way of living and reveals the Spiritual poverty in my life.
Proverbs 14:18– 23 (NET)
18 The naive have inherited folly, but the shrewd will be crowned with knowledge.
19 Bad people have bowed before good people, and wicked people have bowed at the gates of someone righteous.
20 A poor person will be disliked even by his neighbors, but those who love the rich are many.
21 The one who despises his neighbor sins, but whoever is kind to the needy is blessed.
22 Do not those who devise evil go astray? But those who plan good exhibit faithful covenant love.
23 In all hard work there is profit, but merely talking about it only brings poverty.
Illustration: A Multimillionaire Living in Poverty
During the depression Mr. Yates owned a ranch in West Texas. With little money for clothes or food, his family (like many others) had to live on government subsidy. Then an oil company came into the area and told him there might be oil on his land. He signed a lease contract and the first well came in at 80,000 barrels a day. Many subsequent wells were drilled and 30 years after the discovery, a government test of one of the wells showed it still had the potential flow of 125,000 barrels of oil a day. And Mr. Yates owned it all. The day he purchased the land he had received the oil and mineral rights. Yet, he’d been living on relief. A multimillionaire living in poverty. The problem? He didn’t know the oil was there even though he owned it. Many Christians live in spiritual poverty. They are entitled to the gifts of the Holy Spirit and his energizing power, but they are not aware of their birthright. (Bill Bright, “How to Be Filled with the Spirit,” Campus Crusade publication)