My Bible reading plan has me reading a chapter each day from Proverbs, right now. One of the things that has been of interest to me has been this phrase that is repeated over and over in the Proverbs - "Better is..." Usually, it's a statement about how it is better to have what the world considers the lesser things with honor and peace than to have what the world considers the greater things without honor and peace. There are a bunch of these in Proverbs, some with slightly different variations in the wording. I want to draw your attention to 3 of them and then comment briefly.
Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it. - Proverbs 15:16
Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it. - Proverbs 15:17
Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice. - Proverbs 16:8
Each of these is basically saying it is better to be poor and have 1) fear of the Lord (which is the beginning of wisdom, remember), 2) love (which is better even than faith and hope!), and 3) righteousness than to be rich and lack these things.
The thing is, I see all around me, as one of the dominant messages of our culture, that being rich is the most important thing. Sometimes, this even invades my heart, where I wonder, at times, how my life might be better if I had just a little more (or a lot more). By faith, we must believe what this Scripture says, and we must follow up that belief by taking steps toward fear of the Lord, love, and righteousness, even if it means giving up on the wealth of the world. And, so often, we absolutely must choose between the two. Choose well!
No comments:
Post a Comment