CRITICAL NOTES.—
Proverbs 11:5. Direct, “make smooth or even.”
Proverbs 11:6. Naughtiness, “cravings,” “desires,” “covetousness.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE LATTER CLAUSES OF Proverbs 11:5-6
MADE OR MARRED BY DESIRES
The word translated “naughtiness” should be rendered “lust” or “desires.” (See Critical Notes).
I. Sin is compliance with desires that do not harmonise with moral righteousness. A traveller on a lonely and dangerous road may have two guides offered to him by the opposite promptings of his own mind. He may have a strong desire to explore a path which looks most pleasant and attractive but which he knows does not lead to his destination, and is beset with many perils although its aspect is inviting. On the other hand, his good sense tells him it is unwise to run the risk of injury by thus turning aside from the road that he knows leads to the goal which he desires to reach, although the path may be rough and toilsome. If he yields to his first desire and pursues the dangerous path until it is too late to retrace his steps, he may lose his life by a false step over a precipice and so be destroyed by his own desires. All men are under the dominion of desires, and if their desires after God and righteousness have the rule they will be guided by them into the ways of deliverance and safety, as we saw in considering Proverbs 11:3. But if they yield themselves up to the guidance of desires which run counter to the law of God and right, as they are made known both by conscience and revelation, they sink lower and lower in the scale of moral being and become slaves when they might have been free men. “Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.” “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness” (John 8:34; Romans 6:16).
II. The sinner is the forger of his own fetters. If a man labours in his field, his garden, or his vineyard, in harmony with the known laws which God has ordained to be observed, he may reasonably expect a good crop—an abundant harvest. But if he sets at nought these laws—if he yields to desires of self-indulgence—or in any other way acts contrary to the conditions which are indispensable to success—he has no one to blame but himself if he finds himself a beggar when he might have had plenty. The law of God’s moral universe is written in revelation, upon conscience, in the history of men, that “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap,” that “The wages of sin is death” (Galatians 6:7; Romans 6:23). If men are “taken,” are first enslaved by sin and then suffer the penalty of sinning, they have themselves digged the pit of their own destruction—have forged the chains by which they are bound.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Proverbs 11:4. How badly led those are who are not righteous, appears in this: that while righteousness does everything for a man in journeying to his end, wealth does nothing for him. “Wealth,” which seems to be the great guide of the human family, not only cannot deliver, but cannot profit in the crisis of fate. While “righteousness,” all covered with stains, lets no day go to waste; lets no mile be utterly lost; lets no fear ever be realised; still grapples a man’s hand; and still guides a man’s tread, till he steps at last into the regions of safety.—Miller.
It were no bad comparison to liken mere rich men to camels and mules; for they often pursue their devious way, over hills and mountains, laden with India purple, with gems, aromas, and generous wines upon their backs, attended, too, by a long line of servants as a safeguard on their way. Soon, however, they come to their evening halting-place, and forthwith their precious burdens are taken from their backs; and they, now wearied, and stripped of their lading and their retinue of slaves, show nothing but livid marks of stripes. So, also, those who glitter in gold and purple raiment, when the evening of life comes rushing on them, have nought to show but marks and wounds of sin impressed upon them by the evil use of riches.—St. Augustine.
Riches will not even obtain “a drop of water to cool the tormented tongue” (Luke 16:19-24). In vain will “the rich men of the earth” seek a shelter from the wrath of the Lamb” (Revelation 6:15-17).—Bridges.
While the words are true in their highest sense of the great dies irœ of the future, they speak, in the first instance, as do the like words in Zephaniah 1:15-18, of any “day of the Lord,” any time of judgment, when men or nations receive the chastisement of their sins.—Plumptre.
“Wherefore should I die, being so rich?” said that wretched Cardinal, Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, in Henry VI.’s time. “Fie,” quoth he, “will not death be lured? Will money do nothing?”—Trapp.
If righteousness delivereth not from the day, yet it delivereth from the wrath of the day: if it deliver not from death, yet it delivereth from the death of the wicked.—Jermin.
Proverbs 11:5. “The righteousness of the man of integrity” is perfect only in heaven, and how it “directs” or “levels” his way appears best by the perfect facility of walking in that bright abode. It will be no trouble there to travel forward. While more work will be done in heaven than here, yet there it is done so easily that it is called a “Rest.” The paths of this world are not only difficult, but deadly. “The wicked” will not only struggle, but “fall” in them; and the roughnesses at which he stumbles are not ever in the paths themselves, but really his “own wickedness.”—Miller.
Greedy desire (see Critical Notes) will strongly tempt men to sin, and so they will be ensnared.—Stuart.
The first part of this text may be taken—I. As declaring a fact. A real Christian takes, for direction in his way, the rule of righteousness. The question that he continually puts to himself is—“What ought I to do?” This is the character of a believer in the abstract; and though none may lay claim to perfection, yet none can be justly called believers, unless their lives in the main answer to this description. II. As propounding a promise. It is nowhere promised that the righteous shall not come into trouble, but the strait road goes through them. The other statement of the text may also be regarded—I. As an assertion proved by experience. The drunkard ruins his health and shortens his life by excesses. The spendthrift brings himself to beggary. The contentious man brings himself to mischief. They often dig a pit for others and fall into it themselves. III. As a threat. It does not always happen that men are visited for their sins in this life. Still it may be said to every ungodly man, “Be sure your sin will find you out.”—B. W. Dibdin.
Proverbs 11:6. Godliness hath many troubles, and as many helps against trouble. As Moses’ hand, it turns the serpent into a rod; and as the tree that Moses cast into the waters of Marah, it sweeteneth the bitter waters of affliction. Well may it be called the divine nature, for as God doth bring light out of darkness, so doth grace.—Trapp.
There need no blocks to be laid in the way of the wicked, no enemies need to thrust him down, for his own wickedness being his way, by that he shall fall.… Wickedness is fastened, by the devil, like a cord about the wicked; by that he pulls them after him: by that he makes them fall, first into shame and misery here, and into hell when they are gone hence.—Jermin.