22:1—A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be
esteemed is better than silver or gold.
There’s a
great Peanuts cartoon from 50+ years ago. Someone asks Linus what he wants to
be when he grows up and Linus replies, “Outrageously happy.” That’s a pretty
good answer! It’s of a piece with this proverb. Linus values happiness overall,
and the proverb values a good reputation over wealth.
Contrast
that Peanuts cartoon with a Zits cartoon from much more recently. The ‘star,’ a
teenager named Jeremy, is trying to decide if he wants to be famous first or
rich first and he settles on famous because riches usually follow fame, but you
could be rich without being famous. In other words, he wants both. Now, the
cartoon is lampooning that attitude, but it reflects a deeply held (and
wrong-headed) value in our society.
The proverb
would suggest that we ought to value our integrity and good reputation even
more than our success.
22:9—A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares
his food with the poor.
I highlight
this proverb because I think that generosity is not talked about enough as one
of the chief Christian virtues. But its fingerprints are all over the place in
the Bible. The logic goes like this: the
Creator God is exceedingly generous with us; life and salvation are His free gifts
to us; we are called to be generous as He is generous. There’s a verse in the Gospel
of Luke in which Jesus suggests that generosity is a less-than-altruistic, that
we use worldly wealth to secure friends for later (Luke 16:9). (I suspect he’s
being a little ironic.) Here generosity is its own benefit.
23:6—Do not eat the food of a stingy man, … for he is the
kind of man who is always thinking about the cost.
Related, to
the previous, one true generosity is not stingy. True generosity doesn’t begin
with its own resources, asking, “What can I afford to give?” It begins with
another’s need, and asks, “How can I help?” (That’s not to say that true
generosity is going to impoverish you, but do pay attention to the different
motivations.)
24:1—Do not envy wicked men…
Wisdom is
known by the company it keeps. On the one hand, it’s really hard to be in
mission if you never hang with unbelievers. (Check the example of Jesus.) On the
other hand, there’s a certain wisdom in recognizing that our company can have
two implications. First, we are sometimes painted with the same brush: hang
with the wicked and people will assume you, too, are wicked. That’s an unfair
assumption, but one we should note. I had a conversation about a church once in
which several leaders always went to a local bar after meetings; unfortunately
that church was getting a bad reputation in its community. Second, sometimes it does happen that bad company
leads us astray, and we need to be honed in on our own moral compass so that we
can be a positive influence instead of being negatively influenced.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.