YOUR SPIRITUALITY AT HOME

RETURN TO SYLLABUS

PROVERBS 17:1-14
Lesson #28
YOUR SPIRITUALITY AT HOME

• Memory Verse: Pro 17:6
• There are several proverbs in today’s lesson that deal with how you live at home.
  • It is possible to go to church every week and appear to be a good Christian. But how should you live at home with people in your family?
  • Through the Old Testament the exterior practice of religion was prescribed in the Law of Moses with a list of what to do and what not to do. The Ten Commandments is the example.
  • However, in the New Testament God deals with man’s inner being. It is what Proverbs calls the “heart”.
  • Therefore, even in the Old Testament God had in mind the internal condition of man.
• “Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therewith, than an house full of sacrifices with strife.” (1)
  • We had a proverb very similar to this one in Pro 15:17. “Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.”
  • The proverb in Pro 15:17 deals with secular life in the family.
  • However, Pro 17:1 deals with religious life in the family.
    • In a home sometimes people claim to be religious: where they go to church, give their sacrifice of praise to God, give there sacrifice of money to God, and then they go home to strife, arguments, and hatred in the family.
    • What benefit was their busy church attendance and their sacrifices? There was no benefit.
    • In other words, it is better to get alone with God in private so that you permit Him to change you from the inside.
      • Our relationship with Jesus Christ is not a religion but a practiced lifestyle.
      • This practiced lifestyle is discipleship where the believer becomes more and more like Christ because the Holy Spirit inside of him changes his thoughts, his attitudes, his perspective, his actions, and his relationships with other people.
  • The atmosphere in your home with the people who know you best is the thermometer for your spiritual life!
• ^“A wise servant shall have rule over a son that causeth shame, and shall have part of the inheritance among the brethren.” (2)
  • Key words: wise (the believer in Christ).
  • The New Testament tells leaders of the church that they must rule over their homes and their children. (1Tim 3:4-5)
  • Read 1Sam 15:23
    • The Bible is filled with examples of rebellious people. The Bible says that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.
    • In other words, for a young person to rebel against his parents is the same as the worship of Satan. Why?
    • God placed authority of leadership in the hands of parents over their children. When a child rebels against his father, he is rebelling against God and God’s authority over him.
    • If a child is not submissive to God and God’s authority, he is submitting himself to Satan and Satan’s authority. There is no other authority in this world but these two.
      • Satan is the god of this world (system). (2Cor 4:4)
      • Jehovah God is the ultimate authority of this universe as He is the Creator.
  • David’s son, Absalom, was not to be trusted. David went out of town and Absalom, in rebellion, took over the kingdom. (2Sam 15)
  • The believer in Jesus Christ is co-inheritor with Christ of all the blessings of God both spiritual and material.
• ^“The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the Lord trieth the hearts.” (3)
  • Key words: fining pot (a pot for refining metals); hearts (alma).
  • The metals of silver and gold found buried in the earth have impurities mixed with them. The only way to refine these metals is to heat them in a furnace to very high temperatures. In the process of refining, as the gold and silver melt, the impurities rise to the surface. The worker removes the impurities from the surface leaving a pure metal.
  • God has a refining process that He uses on believers in Christ to make the believer pure and more like Christ in his character. What is God’s refining process?
    • God tests the many aspects of our character.
    • God uses the indwelling Holy Spirit and the Word of God to convict us of sin so that we might repent, and so that we might learn that what we did was not pleasing to God.
      • God uses circumstances and people in our lives as the fire to bring certain character qualities to the surface of our life.
      • For example: When God keeps bringing people into your life that makes you angry, He obviously wants you to deal with anger.
  • That refining process often occurs in the home.
    • Why?
    • It is because in the home you are living very closely with other people. The rough character qualities of one person rub up against the rough character qualities of another person and conflict results.
    • In the home you are forced to deal with the conflicts and smooth out the rough edges of your character.
• ^“A wicked doer giveth heed to false lips; and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue.” (4)
  • Key words: wicked (lawless evil); naughty (scoundrel).
  • The person that lives his life in rebellion against God and against those that God has placed in authority over him will listen to the lies of the devil.
  • In reality he is lying to himself when he thinks he will get away with rebellion, and he is listening to Satan, the father of lies, (Joh 8:44) who is the scoundrel that tells him he will not pay for his sins.
• ^“Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker: and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished.” (5)
  • Key words: reproacheth (censure); calamities (extensive evil).
  • On the surface, we do not see the strong emphasis in this proverb. However, when we consider the moral aspect of the meaning of certain words in Proverbs, we can see the strength of the emphasis that God intends.
  • When a person mocks someone for something he cannot change, he is mocking the God that created that person. This is an attitude of pride in thinking that you know more than the Creator.
  • Why would God punish someone that is glad when problems fall on people’s lives?
    • Here is where we do not see the strong emphasis that God intends.
    • The person that is glad when extensive evil is manifested participates in either excusing that evil or promoting it. It is that attitude of excusing and/or promoting extensive evil that God will punish simply because that person does nothing to correct the evil when it is in his power to change it.
• ^“ Children’s children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers.” (6)
  • Here is the key verse for our lesson.
  • This proverb clearly indicates to us that God initiated and works in families.
    • Families are the strength of a nation and for that God began to work in and through Abraham’s family.
    • God entrusted the promise to Abraham’s family to pass to many subsequent generations a personal relationship with Christ by faith until a great multitude, as many as the stars of heaven, would be reached.
  • Grandchildren are the crown of an old man because he is able to see how well he did raising his children and how well his children did in raising those grandchildren.
  • The glory of children is their parents that taught them about God and Jesus Christ.
• ^“ Excellent speech becometh not a fool: much less do lying lips a prince.” (7)
  • Key words: fool (no God for me).
  • A person that says he wants nothing of God in his life will try to promote himself by his pride. He will lie about his accomplishments to gain a good reputation and position. His words will not promote truth.
  • As we have learned in Proverbs, all wisdom comes from God who gives it to His believers in Christ. With that in mind, we can say that the fool has nothing of importance to say that will have an eternal meaning.
  • The ultimate Prince in the Bible is Jesus Christ. His lips did not lie. He will fulfill all of God’s promises and prophecies.
  • In contrast is the Antichrist that is the false prince of the tribulation period that will speak only lies.
• ^“ A gift is as a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it: whithersoever it turneth, it prospereth.” (8)
  • God’s most precious gift to man is Jesus Christ. (Joh 3:16)
  • The believer in Christ realizes that this gift of an eternal, personal relationship in the blood of Christ is precious to him and to God.
  • Jesus Christ is the basis of all of God’s blessings in this life and in eternity.
• ^“ He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.” (9)
  • Key words: transgression (broken law).
  • Transgression in the Bible is another word for sin. It is to cross the line to break God’s Law.
  • When a believer sees a fellow believer sin, he is supposed to cover it. Cover it with what?
    • He is not to cover it with gossip, but to cover it with love by praying for him, encouraging him to live correctly in Christ.
    • Read 1Cor 13:4-8a
  • Gossip separates friends. Therefore love is not extended to a brother or sister in Christ when his sin is repeated through gossip.
    • No human being is perfect. We all commit sins and make mistakes. That is why we need that precious gift of Christ’s forgiveness mentioned in verse 8.
    • And we need our brothers and sisters in Christ to be as careful not to repeat our sins as we should be careful with their sins.
• ^“A reproof entereth more into a wise man than an hundred stripes into a fool.” (10)
  • Key words: reproof (correction); wise (believer that has skill in living); stripes (punishment); fool (no God for me).
  • The believer that is living skillfully in Jesus Christ will receive God’s correction through the conviction of the Holy Spirit that lives inside of the believer.
  • Unfortunately all believers in Christ are not wise. In other words they are not living skillfully because they do not listen to the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
    • This is what the Apostle Paul called the carnal believer.
    • He is saved but his life is more like the life of a non-believer.
  • The person that wants nothing to do with God will continue in his lifestyle of sin. He will not listen to the Holy Spirit that calls him to repentance. Even physical punishment that marks his life will not persuade him to repent. This is the hardened heart of the non-believer that rejects Christ and God.
• ^“ An evil man seeketh only rebellion: therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him.” (11)
  • Evil and rebellion are often linked in the Bible because the first sin in the universe consisted of Lucifer’s pride that caused him to rebel against God.
  • Satan’s tactic is to promote rebellion against God.
    • We see that when Lucifer, who became Satan, brought 1/3 of the angels with him in rebellion against God.
    • We see that in Satan’s temptation of Eve that promoted her rebellion against God’s command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
    • Evil and rebellion never want to act alone, but always seek others to participate.
  • The destructive consequences of rebellion:
    • A person who rebels against God will not find himself in heaven with God.
    • A person who rebels against society will find himself in jail.
    • A person who rebels against his family will eventually discover that he is alone.
    • A person who rebels against his teacher will find himself in ignorance.
  • Who is the cruel messenger sent against him?
    • It is either an angel that brings judgment,
    • Or it is Jesus Christ that is the judge in the end.
• ^“ Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly.” (12)
  • Key words: fool (no God for me); folly (wrong way).
  • A bear that loses her babies becomes a very dangerous animal. If she meets a man who took her babies, that man has no chance of survival against that angry bear.
  • The proverb tells us that a person is in greater danger from a fool that persuades him to go the wrong way in life than his danger from an angry bear.
  • Why is the angry bear less dangerous?
    • Going the way of the fool has eternal consequences because the fool that has nothing to do with God will not spend eternity with God. Your eternal life is in the balance.
    • Confronting an angry bear means you will only lose your temporary physical life.
• ^“ Whoso rewardeth evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house.” (13)
  • Throughout the entire Bible we find the concept of sowing and reaping. When you plant seeds of good in your life, you will reap the harvest of good. When you plant the seeds of evil, you will harvest evil.
  • Notice it says that “evil shall not depart from his house.” That speaks of descendants and subsequent generations.
    • How is evil passed to subsequent generations?
    • Parents model a life of Godly righteousness or worldly situation-ethics to their children.
    • For example, some sins or evil seem to run in families. Sins like alcoholism, pornography, drugs, sexual immorality, involvement in witchcraft, and etc.
• ^“The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water: therefore leave off contention, before it be meddled with.” (14)
  • Key words: contention (strife).
  • This proverb reminds us of the little boy that put his finger in a hole in the dam. When he removes his finger, the flood of water is released and increases.
  • Strife begins with a small argument, but if a third person gets involved in it, it expands the circle of contention.
  • The message for the person with wisdom (expert living) is that you don’t get involved in arguments between two people unless they ask you to mediate the problem as a peacemaker.
  • As we end this study of your spirituality in the home, this verse is good advice in a family. Do not make family members take sides against other family members.

Homework
Proverbs 17:15-28

• Application of Pro 17:1-14
  • What do you think verse 3 is trying to tell us about the Christian life?
    • God refines our character by the people and situations He brings into our life in order to make us more like Christ.
  • What is verse 9 telling us not to do?
    • We must not gossip.
  • What is God’s perspective of rebellion (11) (1Sam 15:23)
    • It is as bad as witchcraft because rebellion like witchcraft makes someone else the god of your life.

• Preparation for Pro 17:15-28
  • Read Pro 17:15-28
    • Why is it better to have a true friend than a sometimes brother? (17)
    • What do you think the phrase “exalteth his gate” means in verse 19?
    • What does a merry heart or a broken spirit do to the body? (22)
    • What is the gift out of the bosom? (23)
• Memory Verse: Your choice of memory verse from Pro 17:15-28 (Be prepared to explain your verse).