Love is More Important Than Riches
August 19, 2019
Commentary
It is better to have little on earth and joy in the heart than to have many luxuries accompanied by great trouble (vv. 16-17). Some writers have suggested that vegetables (herbs) represented the diet of the poor, while meat (ox) was the food of the rich. Generally speaking a person will choose wealth over poverty but what is more important is love for one another.
A hot tempered man stirs up anger while a patient man can quiet quarrels (v. 18). The lazy person finds all kinds of obstructions in his path while the upright and diligent lives on more like a smooth highway (v.19). In fact a lazy man sleeps on a bed of thorns. Usually, however, the thorns are imagined and just provide him with excuses for not facing the responsibilities and realities of life.
Love in a home brings peace, obedience and wise conduct of the children which in turn brings joy to the parents (v. 20). All of this starts with the parents and how they train their children (Proverbs 22:6). In many homes today where both the father and mother work away from home the children just grow up with very little training. Regardless of his background however, it is a foolish man who considers himself superior to his mother and ignores her loving advice. Stupidity brings happiness to senseless fools, but everyone with good sense follows the straight path (v. 21).
Application
Love is a key ingredient to having a happy home, a happy work place and a happy life. I need to be more conscious of loving the Lord, loving my wife and loving those around me.
Proverbs 15:16– 22 (NET)
16 Better is little with the fear of the Lord than great wealth and turmoil with it.
17 Better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a fattened ox where there is hatred.
18 A quick-tempered person stirs up dissension, but one who is slow to anger calms a quarrel.
19 The way of the sluggard is like a hedge of thorns, but the path of the upright is like a highway.
20 A wise child brings joy to his father, but a foolish person despises his mother.
21 Folly is a joy to one who lacks sense, but one who has understanding follows an upright course.
22 Plans fail when there is no counsel, but with abundant advisers they are established.
Illustration: Angry Professor Thrashes Kids
Pastor Joel Gregory tells the story of a seminary professor who taught the Christian graces of love and forbearance for forty years until he retired. Occupying himself in his retirement years, he poured a new concrete driveway to his house. Finished, he went in to rest and get a glass of ice tea. Returning later, he discovered that the neighborhood kids were putting their footprints all in the wet concrete. The angry professor chased the kids down in a rage and beat the tar out of the ones he could catch. Hearing the commotion, the professor’s wife rushed into the yard, saw the angry professor thrashing the kids, and began to reprimand him: “What a shame,” she said. “For forty years you have taught love, forgiveness and forbearance. Now look at you. You’ve lost your testimony.” To which he replied: “That was all in the abstract. This is in the concrete.” (Source Unknown).