Proverbs 1:1-7 (NIV) amplified
1The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:
2for attaining wisdom and discipline; for understanding words of insight;
3for acquiring a disciplined and prudent life, doing what is right and just and fair;
4for giving prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the young--
5let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let discerning get guidance--
6for understanding proverbs and parables, the sayings and the riddles of the wise.
7The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but those who are morally deficient despise wisdom and discipline.
2for attaining wisdom and discipline; for understanding words of insight;
3for acquiring a disciplined and prudent life, doing what is right and just and fair;
4for giving prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the young--
5let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let discerning get guidance--
6for understanding proverbs and parables, the sayings and the riddles of the wise.
7The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but those who are morally deficient despise wisdom and discipline.
posted by Mel at 10:06 AM
2 Comments:
Let me take a stand on something: Evil is evil. Saying that something is "just the way I am" is nuturing that seed of evil and allowing it to flourish and grow. Some things, such as murder, rape, molesting children, alchoholism, gambling, compulsive lying (and the list could go on) are recognized by large segments of our society as evil. Others, such as smoking, pornography, homosexuality, lewdness, abusiveness (and the list there is also capable of going out to a very large number) are seen more as vices, or as I mean to say, treated even more mildly as choices that we are welcome to make, or even seen as things we have no power to make a choice about at all. You, as an individual reader or as a collective subculture, may categorize some of these that I have mentioned higher or lower than I have mentioned them here. So let me restate it differently: Your opinion or my opinion of a thing does not make it more evil or less evil. It is what it is. Evil is evil.
My personal belief is that we are born into this world basically good & innocent, with a seed or many seeds within us, of evil. First, our parents let these seeds grow (not deliberately -- I am not trying to cast blame here) and later we let those seeds grow even more, and evil creeps into our beings. It is a progresion. If you know a criminal profiler, ask them about progression. What is true about the henious things they deal with is true of those things we treat as small.
An alcoholic has to excercise extreme discipline to deal with their personal evil. Most people respect that, even. Why then I wonder, if a person has homosexual tendancies, and they choose to fight that evil, do they put up with such persecution from that "free loving" gay community? They are more likely to be ridiculed and despised for taking what they believe to be a stand for what is good and right, and against their own personal evil, than if they simply wallowed in their sin. For the persecution they suffer, if it is for Christ that they do it, their reward is in heaven.
I could say similar things about other evils and for those of you I have not offended yet, let me say this: Your evil, even though I may not have mentioned it, still offends. Whether it offends me personally or not is not what is important. It offends God. But he still loves you and cares about you, even though he hates the evil you and I do, for that is why he sent his son Jesus, to save us.
Now I am sure you are wondering what my previous comment has to do with this passage. Let me explain.
I find it hard to understand how in this PC world we live in (PC officially standing for Politically Correct, but often as not, really meaning Probably Crap to me) those who are constantly banging the drum for acceptance of different cultures are the ones who have the most difficulty in accepting my culture. Generally, I accept the People but not everything that they do. To expect that kind of unconditional acceptance is ludicrous, especially when put in the light of what those who play this card the most claim as their exemption to their own clearly stated (albeit deliberately ambiguous) policy.
In their world, Acceptance means Endorsement, and certainly, they will not get that from me. Acceptance, at the very least, means to Condone. Unfortunately, I have been brow-beaten enough by the PC Thugs into allowing this far too often. The only level of Acceptance I think they have any legitimate right to ask of me is that I accept that their view is their view. If they demand that, then I demand the same. My view is my view, and certainly due the same respect as theirs is.
Ok, this is something that has been brewwing under the surface for quite some time for me, and the militant factions that are making these demands upon our society are the ones that bother me the most. It should not be that way. I should treat all evil the same and oppose it firmly. This passage just brought this roiling up.
The part that I put as "those who are morally deficient" is most commonly translated only as "fools" and the fact that even our translation of the bible seems to play to avoiding offending people bothered me greatly. I am not above being tactful, but there are times when being blunt is the only way to say the truth.
So, in truth, the previous comment is really not tightly related to the scripture passage in any close manner that I can see, other than the advice to fear the Lord, and the reflection of the opposite position that "fools" take.
;'{P
Post a Comment
<< Home