While studying Proverbs 6 this morning, I was struck by
quite a few things. Let me see if I can
gather all my thoughts into some cohesive ideas here now.
Verses 16-19 list seven things that are an abomination to
the LORD Yahweh. This list includes the
following: haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises evil plans, feet that dash
towards evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord
among brothers, or family.
Wow. I don’t think I
need to even set about to discuss any definition of those. Self-explanatory.
Now, right after these four verses hails a long discourse on
adulterous activities, the damaged caused by them, and the foolishness of being
lured by someone with an adulterous heart.
Bear with me as I configure this in my mind IN CONTEXT of
how it is written. It has been my
practice the past many years to make sure I look at Scripture in context,
looking at all surrounding teachings, cultural ideas presented, audience,
etc. For too long did I take a few
verses, form an opinion I was sure matched God’s, developed a theology, or a
philosophy all with those verses clipped away from any other words around
them. It causes me terrific grief to
think I may have lead someone astray from truth when I dogmatically shared some
teaching from scripture using my method of extracting verses from their
context. Even worse to me is the
knowledge that I was so critical in my spirit of other believers who didn’t tow
the line according to my understanding of a particular teaching of scripture; a
lesson I assumed was the correct version since it was certainly from the Word
of God, notwithstanding that it might not include the actual context of the
teaching. Ugh. I grieve at this.
Proverbs 6 and 7 are full of wisdom teaching. Prior to the list of abhorrent sins before
God are many verses on life’s need for good decision making; lending money,
signing for loans, laziness, hard work ethic, unethical speech, and so on. Right before the ‘List’, I will call it, are
verses about a person who is worthless, wicked – all because he speaks
unrighteous speech, accuses others of sins that he is the one actually committing,
continuously sows discord, and regularly plans evil works. Calamity will eventually come upon such a
person that will cause brokenness for him.
The deal with this type of person, AND with all the sins
listed here that make the Father feel abhorrence, is that he or she hurts
people terribly. Families, communities,
businesses, church groups, neighborhoods, classrooms, social clubs, Bible studies,
long standing relationships – all are damaged or destroyed by the person who is
actively doing the sins in verses 16 through 19, or is like the man in verses
12 through 15, the one in the paragraph above this one. This person lies, connives, disturbs, is
aggressively damaging other people – former spouses, sisters, brothers,
parents, bosses, children, coworkers – the relationship kinds are endless that
are ruined by such people and their sin.
Activity such as these listed create the effect of a large stone tossed
into a still pond, making ripples that spread across the entire surface and
diameter of the water’s limits.
Back to the end of chapter 6 and most all of chapter 7. This portion of the passage counsels against
the activity of adultery. The reason
this study captivated me today is that the word adultery is thrown about so
freely in the church, among believers.
It is cast out so often that shirts with big, glittery letter As should
be sold at churches and courthouses for believers who get divorced or
remarried.
We must be so careful how we define adultery here. WE must understand context, culture, law of
Moses, words of Jesus – all teachings – before we develop our convictions. And
remember, a conviction isn’t just your opinion or idea. It is a well-studied, thought out belief with
foundations that have roots in multiple sources of information that is sound
and accurate. Taking a few verses,
reading them, then declaring a conviction is not a wise method of forming your
belief system.
This Proverbs teaching on adultery is not referring to
divorce or remarriage, though it has been used often to accompany other Old
Testament teachings, and New Testament ones.
This passage is not wisely used for that study.
Let me cut in here to say that I am discussing the idea of
adultery as cast out against people like me, who went through horrendous pain
in their marriage, then endured a ugly or traumatic divorce, THEN dated and
remarried to have a partner in life, and a healthy relationship with a spouse. This passage does not apply to folks like
me.
Proverbs 6 and 7 are discussing adultery, na’aph
transliterated from Hebrew, sexual relations with someone currently married to
another. These passages are talking
about going in to sleep with someone while that person’s spouse is not
home. This is a woman who woos a man
because her heart is evil, not loyal to her husband, lascivious, sexually
immoral, and not a person walking out her faith in the eternal God and his
spirit in her. Or it is a man, who is
married and has a wife at home, but he steals away to a hotel room with his
secretary after seducing her with compliments all morning.
This large section of verses is detailing activity that is
carried out by persons who are already not good of heart or spiritual
health. They are NOT discussing the
woman who is divorced, free from an unhealthy or frightening marital situation
who remarries a man who accepts her children and her life as his own. Much damage is done to the people of Jesus
and all of humanity when such passages
of scripture are used to beat down women and men who have sought to remarry
after a horribly many years of traumatic marriage. But, countless times have I heard or seen
passages like these used to teach against remarriage as adultery.
I am not addressing a full discourse on divorce and
remarriage here. Books by the thousands
address that study and social issue.
Here, I am pointing out that Proverbs 6 and 7 should NOT be used as
foundational teaching passages for your belief on divorce and remarriage. They are not in that context.
There is that word again, context. Let me slip back into the entire passage
here, and not just the verses on adultery.
I hope my point is made on that topic.
As I consider the sins listed here, the ‘not adultery’ ones, I am struck
that these sins do far more damage to the entire globe than divorce ever
could. Yes, divorce, remarriage, and
true adultery as listed here, create pains that are heartbreaking. But, quite frankly, many divorces and
remarriages would never occur if the sins that God abhors didn’t take place so
pervasively.
How many times do you hear whispers about someone getting
divorced, someone left his or her spouse, the divorcing person made out to be
so cold hearted to leave the marriage.
But, has anyone confronted the one in the marriage who was a finger
pointer, the one who devised evil, the husband who trashed his wife and threw
her under the bus far too many times, the wife who gripes and causes constant
strife in the home, the spouse with a mouth that uses words that kill his or
her spouse’s spirit over and over again so that there is no chance of life left
in a being?
When we discuss divorce and remarriage in the context of
adultery, we must be careful which scripture we use as our conviction
bearer. Dare I also say that when
reconciling all Scripture to develop our belief system on issues bearing down
on the Church, we must also consider such passages as Proverbs 6:16-19 as part
of our understanding of what and who causes great damage to people,
relationships, marriages, churches, businesses, communities, families, etc. by
behaviors that God abhors. Divorce and
remarriage seem to be focal point topics amongst churches and Christians as ‘key’
determinates of the liberalism in your soul depending on which stand you
take. They are the words tossed about as
family destroyers, as the key things God hates.
But, I beg to differ with that idea.
The sins of Proverbs 6:16-19 destroy. They kill.
They rob. They devastate far more than divorce or remarriage.
Believe me, I know.
