CRITICAL NOTES.—
Proverbs 11:9. Zӧckler here reads, “The hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbour, but by the knowledge of the righteous shall they (the neighbours) be delivered.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Proverbs 11:9
THE JUST MAN DELIVERED FROM THE MOUTH OF THE HYPOCRITE
I. We have here—
1. A character most difficult to maintain. The actor cannot always be playing his part, he must have times when his own individuality asserts itself—when he appears the man he really is. The man most in love with the dramatic art finds a few hours’ practice at a time enough for him, and feels it a relief to throw off his stage character and be himself again. He cannot, if he would, be ever trying to live in an experience that does not belong to him—be ever assuming an individuality which is not his own property. It would be an intolerable burden to be always endeavouring to sustain a part. A hypocrite has set himself a hard task. He has undertaken to pretend to be living a life which he knows does not belong to him, and which he never can possess unless his whole nature is regenerated. Now to keep up the deportment and to use the language that belong to a true nature must be as difficult as for a professional actor always to be playing the part of a king. The hypocrite must sometimes feel that his life is a sort of treadmill, and must sometimes be overcome by his real self in spite of all efforts to prevent nature from asserting her rights. No hypocrite can be always in his stage dress. The character is difficult to sustain.
2. A character most injurious to mankind and most miserable for the man who owns it. The actor plays his part by assuming the character of another man, but he does this without necessarily injuring himself or any of his fellow-creatures. But it is not so with the hypocrite. If a bad man assumes the garb of a good man he tends to lessen the estimation of real goodness in the minds of men. The existence of false coin makes us suspicious of genuine gold. The hypocrite must be conscious that he is a living lie, and so a living curse to his fellow-creatures, and this consciousness can but make him miserable.
3. A character in danger of becoming irreclaimable. A man who tries to pass for a scholar when he is utterly ignorant is the most difficult person to change into a scholar. The man who desires to be always first among his fellows is the least likely to become a qualified leader of men. We have it on the best authority that whatever such a man may desire, that “whosoever will be chief shall be a servant” (Matthew 20:27). He is only fit for a low position who is ever straining every nerve after a high one. The hypocrite is ever desiring to pass for what he is not—he is ever desiring to fill a place for which he is utterly unfit. He is less likely than the most openly vicious man ever to become in reality that which he is ever seeming to be. This was the judgment of the Son of God concerning the hypocrites of His day: “Verily I say unto you that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you” (Matthew 21:31).
4. A character most hateful to God and to man. A hypocrite must be disliked by those whose character he endeavours to personify. The good must hate hypocrisy because, as we said before, it lessens the power of goodness in the world by making men suspect the really good. A hypocrite is hated by other hypocrites. If a man wants to utter false coin himself, he prefers to enjoy a monopoly of the business. The more of it there is in circulation the less likely people are to be deceived by it. A hypocrite is hateful to God. No sin is so denounced under both the old and new dispensations as the sin of hypocrisy. “Incense is an abomination unto Me; the new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with it.… Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth” (Isaiah 1:13-14). The God of Israel reserves these burning words for His own people, who were drawing near to Him with their lips, while their hearts were far from Him. The most terrible denunciations of the Son of God were uttered against those who were guilty of this sin. “Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,” is repeated again and again in one discourse (Matthew 23).
II. The chief instrument used by the hypocrite. “The mouth.” The power of speech is a most precious gift of God, and is intended by Him to be an instrument of blessing to the human race. It is this most precious instrument of good that the hypocrite is here represented as turning into an all-devouring weapon of destruction. He is like a man who gives potent poison for healing medicine. He may have disguised its deadly nature under an unknown and high-sounding name, but this will not lessen its deadly effects. The hypocrite is the man who above all others is skilful in making words the means of concealing thoughts—who speaks so plausibly that men believe they are drinking a healthful draught when they are imbibing a deadly poison. The tongue of the hypocrite destroys his neighbour because he makes him believe that he has his welfare at heart when he is really plotting his destruction. He makes him believe that some utterly worthless commercial speculation is sound and profitable, and so involves him in material destruction. Or he persuades him that a certain course of dishonest conduct is without moral danger, and so brings him into spiritual destruction. His neighbour’s destruction is certain in proportion to the strength of his confidence in the words of the hypocrite.
III. The means of deliverance from the hypocrite’s mouth. “Through knowledge shall the just be delivered.” The just man possesses a knowledge of God, and thus has a correct standard of character by which to judge men. If a man walks in the light of the sun he will be able to avoid pitfalls and open graves. A just man has an acquaintance with the character and the laws of God. He “walks in the light” (1 John 1:7). And this gives him an insight into character—this furnishes him with a test to “try the spirits whether they are of God” (1 John 4:1). The more men come into contact with reality the more quick will they be to detect unreality. The more men know God the more correct will be the estimate they form of their fellow-men. The Spirit of wisdom is a Spirit of “enlightenment” on this point as on all others (Ephesians 1:18). The law of the Lord “makes wise the simple” or the unwary (Psalms 19:7). That scripture which is the “inspiration of God” “furnishes the man of God” with a means of escape from the snare of the hypocrite’s mouth (2 Timothy 3:16). The knowledge which is derived from its study is a foil for the attacks of the most subtle seducer.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Haman, under the pretence of loyalty, would have destroyed a whole nation (Esther 3:8; Esther 3:13). Ziba, under the same false cover, would have destroyed his neighbour (2 Samuel 16:1; 2 Samuel 16:4). The lying prophet, from mere wilfulness, ruined his brother (1 Kings 13).
Then look at the hypocrite in the church—“a ravening wolf in sheep’s clothing,” devouring the flock (Matthew 7:15); “making merchandise with feigned words” (2 Peter 2:1; 2 Peter 2:3); an “apostle of Satan,” so diligent is he in his master’s work of destruction (2 Corinthians 11:3; 2 Corinthians 11:13). “These false Christs,” we are warned, “deceive many,” if it were possible the very elect (Matthew 24:24).… Learn the value of solid knowledge. Feeling, excitement, imagination, expose us to an unsteady profession. (Such as Ephesians 4:14) Knowledge supplies principle and steadfastness. “Add to your faith knowledge” (2 Peter 1:5).—Bridges.
Hypocrites are awful stumbling blocks. Full many has the detection of their true character hardened in sin and worldliness, and established in infidelity. Full many have they thus destroyed.—Wardlaw.
When God converts a soul, He gives it light. That light makes it invulnerable. All things afterward help it. “Virtue may be assailed, but never hurt.” Satan is one of the blessings of a Christian.—Miller.
It was an ordinary prayer of King Antigonus, “Deliver me from the hands of my friends.” When asked why he did not rather pray for preservation from his enemies, he answered, “That he guarded against his enemies, but could not guard against false friends.”—Lawson.
How to detect a hypocrite. To make a man a good man all parts of goodness must concur, but any one way of wickedness is sufficient to denominate a bad man.—Tillotson.
A hypocrite is hated of the world for seeming to be a Christian, and hated of God for not being one.—Mason.
The meaning of the verse as a whole is, “By the protective power of that knowledge that serves righteousness, they are delivered who were endangered by the artifices of that shrewdness which is the instrument of wickedness.”—Elster.
The just man is too wise to be flattered, and too knowing to be plucked away with the error of the wicked (1 Peter 3:17-18).—Trapp.
Beware of carrying deadly weapons. An untrue man is a moral murderer, his mouth the lethal weapon, and his neighbour the victim.—Arnot.
“Neither man nor angels can discern
Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks
Invisible, except to God alone,
By His permissive will, thro’ heaven and earth:
And oft though Wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps
At Wisdom’s gate, and to simplicity
Resigns her charge, while goodness
Thinks no ill
Where no ill seems.”
Paradise Lost. Book iii.