Turn to the book of Proverbs—the Proverbs—chapter 1. We will read the first seven verses: Proverbs 1:1-7.
The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel;
To know wisdom and instruction;
To discern the words of understanding;
To receive instruction in wise dealing,
In righteousness and justice and equity;
To give prudence to the simple,
To the young man knowledge and discretion:
That the wise man may hear, and increase in learning;
And that the man of understanding may attain unto sound counsels:
To understand a proverb, and a figure,
The words of the wise, and their dark sayings.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
But the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.
The book of Proverbs follows the collection of Psalms. C. H. Spurgeon called the Psalms The Treasury of David. We know that not all 150 psalms were written by David; he composed most of them. But all the rest of the psalms are in the spirit of David.
Now this book of Proverbs is called The Proverbs of Solomon. Again, we find that Solomon probably spoke most of the proverbs in this book, but there are other proverbs by other people. Yet all the proverbs are in the mindset of Solomon.
Psalms speaks of worship. Proverbs speaks of conduct. Psalms aspires heavenward; Proverbs reaches down to the earth. We find that the Word of God is perfect and well balanced.
You know, sometimes we look very highly upon spirituality and overlook practicality. There are even people who think that to be spiritual is to be impractical. If you are too practical, you cannot be spiritual. Some even think that pure spirituality is above morals.
But we find that the Word of God is not so. Real spirituality is deeply practical.
Even though we are not under the law, but under grace, we find that grace demands even more than law.
There are other people who emphasize conduct and morals so much that they neglect life—spiritual life. You know, there are people who try to live a moral life, and yet it is all the effort of the old man. They are trying to improve their flesh, putting cosmetics on the old man.
Even though they may appear good to the world, they are totally unacceptable to God, because God looks upon the heart while man looks on appearance. God knows how crooked, wicked, and corrupted the heart is.
We need a spiritual life in order to live a spiritual living. We need the life of Christ that we may live a Christian living. So you find that these two things must go together. On the one hand, there must be life—a new life. On the other hand, with this new life, you must live a new manner of living.
Solomon is the son of David. Therefore, we find that good conduct is the result of worship. These two things can never be separated; they go hand in hand.
The book of Proverbs is called Proverbs. This title is taken from the first word of the book, and the first word is “proverbs.” In Hebrew, the word mashal means a ruling thing, a proverb, similitude, or likeness.
Proverbs are short, pithy sayings in frequent and widespread use, expressing some well-known fact or truth.
You know, proverbs are common to all civilizations. In whatever country, race, or culture, you have proverbs. Proverbs are the accumulation of age-long observation and reflection.
Many of those proverbs are moral or religious in character, but there are proverbs that are merely philosophical or even witty sayings. When you look at the moral or religious proverbs of the world, they seem to have a resemblance. Why? Because they show that God has put moral laws in the universe, just as He has placed physical laws in the universe.
Even though these proverbs vary according to the culture and background of a country, yet basically they represent the moral laws that God has put in the universe.
You cannot trace an ordinary proverb to any one person because proverbs are usually accumulated through the ages. They are the treasure of the people, and they mold the character of the people.
But when you come to the book of Proverbs in the Old Testament, in the Word of God, you find that they are very, very different.
Some people think that the Proverbs in the Old Testament represent the ethics of the chosen people of God in the old days. On one hand, this is true; yet it is more than that.
What is ethics? Ethics is the philosophy of morals: the moral rules and laws governing our conduct. They give us a moral-philosophy standard by which we judge our actions: “Am I doing the right thing?” Now that is ethics.
But when you come to the Word of God, you find there is something more. You may call it Christian ethics, but Christian ethics is very different from ethics as we commonly know it.
Ethics, as we commonly understand it, consists of rules and laws governing our conduct. But when you come to Christian ethics, you find that they are not rules or laws; they are a Person.
Christian ethics is not based upon observation, reflection, or a moral standard. Christian ethics is based upon a Person—even God Himself. Christian ethics is not the result of human improvement or reform. Christian ethics is the operation of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
In other words, this gives us the right approach to the book of Proverbs. We do not approach this book as external rules or laws that regulate our moral conduct. We approach the book of Proverbs as showing us what kind of conduct and living will result if we live by the life of Christ.
It is not something set before us that we try to do. It is the overflowing of the life of Christ within us, and these are its expressions.
So, in approaching the book of Proverbs, we must approach it in the same way as we approach the Sermon on the Mount. Sometimes people approach the Sermon on the Mount as though it were merely a set of moral standards. They put these standards before themselves and try to imitate them.
Brothers and sisters, I believe we all know that if we do that, we will fail. The more we try to do them, the more we fail, because these things are humanly impossible.
But we approach the Sermon on the Mount with the life of Christ in us. This is His life. If we are abiding in Him and He is abiding in us, then these are the fruits that will be produced naturally, spontaneously, and gloriously.
In the Word of God, you find many places that seem to treat the area of conduct or works. Proverbs is one such book. The Sermon on the Mount is another. Then you find, even in the latter parts of Colossians and Ephesians, instruction on how to be a husband, a wife, parents, children, servants, masters, and how to live together in the church and in society.
Then you go to 2 Peter and find that we need to add one thing upon another, that we may enter abundantly into the kingdom. All these seem to be in the area of Christian ethics. But remember: do not approach them in the way you approach the law.
Receive them as the expression of the life of Christ within you. What you need is to live by His life. If you live by His life, then you will find these are the evidences, the proofs, of His life in us.
Furthermore, these proverbs are called the Proverbs of Solomon. We have said that you cannot trace an ordinary proverb to a single man or people, because they are the accumulation of the ages. But here the book of Proverbs is called the Proverbs of Solomon; in some old manuscripts, it is called the Wisdom of Solomon. It seems that these proverbs can be traced to a man.
Solomon was the wisest of men. The reason he was the wisest of men was because he sought wisdom. He knew that he was not wise enough, and he knew that he needed wisdom. So, when God asked him, “What do you want?” that was the one thing he asked God for.
If you read 1 Kings 4, you will find that God gave Solomon wisdom, great understanding, and largeness of heart as the sand on the seashore. Solomon’s wisdom exceeded all the wisdom of the men of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt. His wisdom excelled even Ethan, Heman, Calcol, and all those men.
The wisdom of the East was basically philosophical, speculative, and mystical. The wisdom of Egypt was scientific and technological, because Egypt built great pyramids and other great works.
Solomon’s wisdom exceeded the wisdom of the East. In other words, his wisdom was not merely philosophical or speculative. It also exceeded the wisdom of Egypt; it was not merely scientific and technological.
His wisdom was compared with Ethan, Heman, Calcol, and others who were singers and who prophesied with songs and music. Here you find another kind of wisdom: divine, spiritual, and prophetic—a wisdom that touches the purpose of God and the mind of God.
So you can see that Solomon’s wisdom was of another kind. It was not earthly; it was heavenly. It was not human; it was divine.
When you read James 3, you find that there are two different kinds of wisdom. One is called the wisdom from above.
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without variance, without hypocrisy.
—James 3:17
The wisdom from beneath is earthly, sensual, and devilish. Solomon’s wisdom is heavenly; it is divine wisdom. It is out of that kind of wisdom that these proverbs were produced.
In all, Solomon spoke 3,000 proverbs. He spoke of the trees, from the cedar of Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall. He spoke also of beasts, birds, creeping things, and fish. He spoke of all these things in nature.
But out of the 3,000 proverbs, there were some that were moral and spiritual in character, and these probably found their way into this book of Proverbs.
As a matter of fact, if you read the book of Proverbs, you will find that the main part is from Proverbs 10 through Proverbs 24. In this main part, there are only 375 proverbs. So, out of 3,000 proverbs, only some are included—but they are moral and spiritual in character.
These proverbs were spoken by Solomon. Some of them may have been adapted by Solomon and put into his own words. Others may have been his own observations as he was given the wisdom of God.
After he spoke these proverbs, who collected them and put them into the book of Proverbs? This is a matter of research.
Most probably, the main part of Proverbs, from Proverbs 1 through Proverbs 24, was put together at the time of Jehoshaphat. King Jehoshaphat lived about seventy years after the death of Solomon.
If you compare the introduction of Proverbs—from Proverbs 1 through Proverbs 9—with 2 Chronicles 17 and 19, you will see a similarity. In the introduction to Proverbs, wisdom is crying in the open spaces, at the gates, and on the streets.
Then, in 2 Chronicles, during the time of Jehoshaphat, there was a revival. He sent out princes, priests, and Levites to all the cities with the Law in their hands to teach the people. Later, he himself went out from Beersheba to Mount Ephraim, calling the people back to God.
So most probably, people believe that it was during that time that the main part of the Proverbs of Solomon was collected and composed into a record.
Then, of course, the second part of Proverbs, from Proverbs 25 through Proverbs 31, was transcribed by the men of Hezekiah. Under Hezekiah, there was another revival, about three hundred years later. Evidently, there were wise men in his court, and they transcribed the proverbs of Solomon. This is how we have this book of Proverbs in our hands.
Martin Luther said, “This book may rightly be called a book of good works, for Solomon therein teaches the nature of a godly and useful life. Everyone aiming at godliness should make this book his daily handbook, a book of devotion.”
Another writer says that this book of Proverbs is the application to the details of life, in a world of corruption and evil, of that wisdom which created the heavens and the earth. This book teaches of the world and of God’s government, according to which man reaps that which he has sown.
This book is so important that everyone, especially young people, should make it their handbook.
Roughly, the book of Proverbs is divided into three parts:
Now that is a look at the book itself. The first six verses tell us the purpose of this book. Why Proverbs? Why do we have this book of Proverbs in the Word of God?
In Proverbs 1:2, we read, “To know wisdom and instruction.” These proverbs help us to know wisdom and instruction.
The word wisdom has a root in the Hebrew language that means being skillful or practical. In other words, this wisdom is experiential wisdom. It is practical wisdom. It is knowledge applied.
The word instruction in the original means discipline, correction, and warning. Immediately you can see that these proverbs are not speculative or philosophical. These proverbs are highly practical, instructional, and concerned with discipline.
So these proverbs help us to know practical wisdom and discipline. How much we need to know these things in these days.
Then again, it says, “To discern the words of understanding.” Understanding comes from keen observation and deep reflection. We are to discern—to know the difference—the words of understanding.
Discernment is very important. Our problem is that we do not know the difference. If we do not know the difference, then we do not know how to walk in the right way.
You find in Philippians 1:9-10 that Paul’s prayer for the Philippian church was that their love might abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that they might approve the things that are excellent—or, in some versions, the things that differ.
We need to know the things that differ. If you do not know the difference between right and wrong, good and evil, life and death, then you are lost. We need discernment, and Proverbs gives us that kind of spiritual discernment for our daily life.
Thirdly, we are to receive “the instruction of wisdom, righteousness, and judgment, and equity.” Or, to put it another way, we are to receive the discipline of wisdom.
The word wisdom here is another word in the original, meaning intelligence. We are to receive the discipline of intelligence, righteousness, judgment, and equity.
You can see an advancement here. First, it is to know. Knowing advances to discerning; and from discerning, it advances to receiving. You not only know it and discern it, but you receive it—you receive the discipline.
The discipline of what? The discipline by which you may live intelligently, rightly, justly, and fairly. Is that not the way we should walk on this earth? These are the things we may receive from these proverbs.
Fourthly, Proverbs is given “to give prudence to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.”
What is prudence? Prudence in the original means shrewdness—the capacity to escape the evils of evil. That is the reason our Lord Jesus said in Matthew 10:16:
Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
Why? Because we are as sheep living in the midst of wolves. Therefore, we need prudence.
To give prudence to the simple—the word simple means open. In other words, it refers to people who are open and readily available to all external impressions. They receive whatever comes from outside. Now that is simple.
These proverbs give prudence to the simple, that we may escape all the snares coming to us and may live justly, fairly, rightly, and intelligently before God.
Then, to the young man, knowledge and discretion. Discretion means thoughtfulness and careful thinking. The problem with young men is that they often do things by impulse. They are very impulsive, rash, and quick, without thinking.
These proverbs give young men knowledge and discretion. In other words, a young man is able to act according to careful thinking based upon true knowledge, and not merely rush into something or say something without thinking.
These are the purposes of Proverbs.
Does this mean that the wise do not need these proverbs? No. “He that is wise will hear, and will increase learning; and the man of understanding will attain unto wise counsels, to understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.”
In other words, Proverbs is not only for the immature and the simple. It is also for those who are wise and intelligent, because it will make you wiser in the Lord. This book of Proverbs is for everybody. Is there anyone who does not need this book?
I think probably the reason we are so simple, foolish, and sometimes wicked is because we do not read the book of Proverbs.
I hope that we will all read the book of Proverbs. If we can do as Luther suggests and make it our handbook, a book of devotion, then probably we will live more to the glory of God.
Verse 7 says:
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
But fools despise wisdom and instruction.
This is the proverb of Proverbs. This is the foundation of all the proverbs that follow. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction—that is, understanding and discipline.
This verse gives us a picture of the two trees in the Garden of Eden. You have the tree of life, and you have the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat of the tree of life, you live. If you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you die.
The way of the wise is the tree of life. The way of the fool is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So there are two ways before us. You can either live the way of the wise or live the way of the fool. It depends on which tree you eat.
The fear of the Lord is the key of life. Despising wisdom and discipline is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The word beginning in Hebrew means the principal part. The fear of the Lord is the principal part of knowledge. It is not merely the beginning of knowledge; it is the main part, the essence, the substance, of real knowledge.
You remember the Lord Jesus in His high-priestly prayer in John 17:3:
And this is life eternal, that they should know thee the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ.
The fear of the Lord is knowledge.
The word fear has many shades of meaning. It depends upon the circumstances and the relationship.
If you do not know God and you live a sinful life, you have a fear of God. Why? Because intuitively you know that one day there will be judgment. Intuitively, you know that torment is waiting for you.
Therefore, you find that people in the world do not like even to hear the Word of God or to hear the name of God mentioned. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” Why do they say there is no God? Not because they do not intuitively know that God is, but because they know they cannot bear to see God.
That fear has torment in it. That is why, when people die without knowing God, they are usually so afraid to die. Why? Because they know that after death there is judgment. That is one kind of fear.
There is another kind of fear of the Lord. If you are under the law, like the children of Israel, God gave them the Ten Commandments, and they had to keep these commandments with fear and trembling. This is the fear of a slave or servant. They were afraid they might not be able to keep the law, and that if they did not keep it, they would be punished.
But, brothers and sisters, thank God: we are the children of God. As children of God, that kind of fear which has torment or punishment in it is gone.
That is why we find in 1 John 4:18:
There is no fear in love: but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath punishment; and he that feareth is not made perfect in love.
We do not have the fear of a sinner, or the fear of a slave or servant. Thank God, we are forgiven.
Psalm 130:4 says:
But there is forgiveness with thee,
That thou mayest be feared.
It is because we are forgiven and are children of God that we have a fear of God. But that fear is filial, affectionate reverence toward our heavenly Father and toward His will. We are afraid that we may not please Him. That is our fear.
Love does have that element of fear. If you love a person very deeply, you are afraid that you may do something that displeases him. You want to please him in everything. That fear must be there. If that fear is not there, then we become careless and irreverent.
Brothers and sisters, as children of God, we do have a fear of the Lord, but it is a filial, affectionate reverence toward our heavenly Father. We want to please Him in all things.
It is interesting that Proverbs says, “the fear of the Lord.” Of course, the word translated “Lord” in the original is Jehovah.
When you read the wisdom books of the Old Testament, there are three books of wisdom: Job, Ecclesiastes, and Proverbs. All three come to the same conclusion.
In Job 28:28, it says:
Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom;
And to depart from evil is understanding.
Ecclesiastes 12:13 says:
Fear God, and keep his commandments;
For this is the whole duty of man.
And here in Proverbs, we find that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. All these wisdom books come to the same conclusion: the fear of the Lord.
Strangely, in Proverbs, the name is Jehovah. In Job, the name is Adonai. In Ecclesiastes, it is Elohim—the Creator. But here it is Jehovah.
Jehovah is the memorial name of God. Jehovah means, “I AM THAT I AM.” It is God’s covenant name with His people.
In Exodus 34, when God appeared to Moses and revealed His glory, we read:
And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness and truth;
Keeping lovingkindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin;
And that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation.
—Exodus 34:6-7
In other words, Jehovah is God merciful and gracious. Brothers and sisters, knowing our God as merciful and gracious, slow to anger, keeping mercy for thousands, and forgiving our sins, transgressions, and iniquities—knowing Him as such—there is a fear within us.
We fear Him because we love Him. We fear Him because we want to please Him. We fear Him because we want Him to be happy and satisfied with us. This fear is the principal part of knowledge. That is knowledge.
In Proverbs 9:10, it says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The word beginning there is another Hebrew word. It means principle—P-L-E, not P-A-L. The fear of the Lord is the principle of wisdom. The very principle of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, if you fear the Lord, you have knowledge and wisdom. If you do not fear the Lord, no matter how much knowledge you accumulate in this world, and no matter how wise you may appear to people, in the sight of God you are a fool.
You may not have much knowledge of this world. You may not be wise in the eyes of people. But if you fear God, you have wisdom; you have knowledge. This is the knowledge and wisdom that we must seek.
Who are the fools? The fools despise practical wisdom and discipline. We live in a world that is witty and undisciplined. How we need to respect practical wisdom and discipline that comes from above.
This is the essence of the book of Proverbs. The first nine chapters are an introduction: wisdom is calling. Wisdom is calling in the streets, at the gates, and in the broad places. She is calling for the simple to come to her and seek wisdom.
The beginning of wisdom is to seek wisdom, not only to seek it but to treasure it. If you treasure wisdom, you have intelligence, understanding, prudence, and all these things. Wisdom is your treasure.
This wisdom is represented by a woman. The woman in Scripture represents subjective truth. In other words, this is not merely objective teaching; it is subjective truth that can be experienced. Wisdom is something we need to experience.
Wisdom is a good woman, and she provides a feast for us to come and enjoy. But in contrast with her, there is a bad woman. If wisdom represents the wisdom from above, the good woman, then that woman represents the wisdom from beneath: earthly, sensual, and devilish.
If you come to Proverbs 8, you will see it even more clearly. Wisdom is personified. Wisdom is a Person. If you read it, you know that it is Christ. Wisdom is Christ. Christ is the wisdom of God.
In 1 Corinthians 1, Christ is God’s wisdom and God’s power. Solomon is a man of wisdom, but the Son of Solomon is wisdom itself. We need to hear the wisdom of Solomon, but we need to hear the One who is greater than Solomon.
God has made Christ our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.
—1 Corinthians 1:30
So, brothers and sisters, God is calling us to Christ. He is calling us to Him. If we come to Him, treasure Him, seek Him, find Him, and possess Him, then there is wisdom and there is knowledge.
This is the first part, the introduction. The second part is from Proverbs 10 through Proverbs 24. This is the main part of Proverbs, containing 375 proverbs. It is wisdom builds.
In Proverbs 9, we are told that wisdom builds her house and hews out her seven pillars. Using that as a kind of hint, we can group these proverbs into seven categories—the seven pillars.
As a matter of fact, these proverbs are character-building. What is character-building?
We have the life of Christ in us. This life of Christ in us has a new nature. But this new nature needs to be exercised and developed into new character. That is Christian character.
Christian character is not the improvement of the old nature. It is not trying to put cosmetics on the old man. That is pretense.
Christian character is the developing, cultivating, growing, and exercising of the new life of Christ in us according to the new nature. When you follow that new life and new nature long enough, it becomes character. You are characterized by that which is Christ.
Christian character is not given; it has to be built. Christian life is given, but Christian character has to be built. How much character have we built with this new life in us?
This character builds the house. These are the pillars of the house. The reason the house of God is so dilapidated and in such ruin is because of the lack of Christian character. The building of Christian character builds the house of God.
There are seven pillars. I do not have time to go into every pillar; that would take us until tomorrow. But I will mention these seven characteristics, which you can find throughout the main part of the book of Proverbs:
Brothers and sisters, you will find that all these are the character of Christ.
Christ is the Righteous One. That righteousness is not merely a matter of position; it is a matter of condition. He lived a righteous life. We who are the Lord’s are exhorted in 1 John to practice righteousness. We are not only positionally righteous; we need to live righteously—to be right in the sight of God and before man.
Our Lord Jesus is most diligent. In the Gospel according to Mark, you find the words “straightway” and “immediately.” You find that He is so diligent. Naturally, we are lazy. Some people may be naturally more or less lazy than others, but when we come to the things of God, we are all lazy in the same way.
You may be diligent in other things, but when you come to the things of God, you are lazy. But our Lord Jesus is diligent. He is diligent in hearing God and diligent in doing the will of God. We need to develop that diligence.
Love, of course, is gracious, kind, gentle, and liberal—not cruel or stingy. We need to be disciplined, not loose. How we need to be faithful, fruitful, and real instead of lying and hypocritical. These characteristics must be developed within us.
Paul’s exhortation to Timothy is that bodily exercise is profitable for a little, but exercise unto godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life which now is and of that which is to come.
Brothers and sisters, this is godliness. This is to be like God. This is exercising godliness. It is something that we need very much.
Finally, in Proverbs 25 through Proverbs 31, you find wisdom strengthens, beautifies, and overflows. Proverbs 25 through Proverbs 29 are proverbs of Solomon transcribed by the wise men of Hezekiah.
If you read these proverbs, you find that they are almost the same as the main part of Proverbs. They are more pictorial and picturesque, but they are more or less the same.
But when you come to Proverbs 30 and Proverbs 31, you find something very different. These two chapters are not the proverbs of Solomon. They are the words of Agur and Lemuel.
I cannot go into the details, but according to the original there may be another translation. The words are connected with Massa, a place outside Palestine in northern Arabia, on the southeastern border of Palestine. In other words, these prophecies are not from Solomon; they belong to people outside Israel, from an Ishmaelite kingdom.
It is very interesting. While Solomon was on the throne, you remember the Queen of Sheba came from the south to test him with hard questions and to hear his wisdom. The Queen of Sheba was wise herself, but she came to Solomon to receive wisdom.
In a representative way, Solomon represents our Lord; He is Wisdom Himself. Here, the words of Agur and Lemuel were actually the words of their mother—most likely a queen. These are the mother’s prophecies.
Symbolically and typically speaking, this may speak of the church. Christ is Wisdom, and we become the sons of wisdom. We are Gentiles, and yet we come into contact with Solomon—the greater than Solomon—and become the sons of wisdom. We belong to the church.
In Proverbs 30:7-9, we find this prayer:
Two things have I asked of thee;
Deny me them not before I die:
Remove far from me vanity and lies:
Give me neither poverty nor riches;
Feed me with the food that is needful for me:
Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord?
Or lest I be poor, and steal,
And use profanely the name of my God.
We need this prayer. We need to pray that God will deliver us from vanity and lies. The whole world is vanity; it is a lie. May God deliver us from seeking vanities and lies.
We need to pray that God will give us neither poverty nor riches, because if we become too rich, we may forget Him; and if we are too poor, we may disgrace His name. I think that is a beautiful prayer. We need to pray that we may live in a godly way.
When you come to Proverbs 31, you find a beautiful picture: the picture of a man and the picture of a woman. The man is a king, and the woman is a queen. Typically speaking, it speaks of Christ and the church.
The man is to be just, sober, and sympathetic. The woman is to be diligent, gentle, and kind.
It all concludes with this:
Grace is deceitful, and beauty is vain;
But a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.
—Proverbs 31:30
In other words, outward appearance is deceitful, but the fear of the Lord is forever. May the Lord help us and create within us, brothers and sisters, a real desire to study this book of Proverbs.
Shall we pray?
Dear heavenly Father, we do praise and thank Thee for giving us this book of Proverbs. Thou dost not want us to be foolish or simple, but Thou wantest us to be wise.
We do praise and thank Thee that Thou hast given us Thy life. Our Lord, we do pray that we may, by Thy grace, exercise godliness in the fear of the Lord, that our life on earth may really glorify Thee and that Thy church may be built.
In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.