CRITICAL NOTES.—
Proverbs 20:6. Miller reads the first clause of this verse, “Much of the mere man one calls his goodness,” i.e., “Much that is merely human.” He allows, however, that the usual rendering conveys a very striking meaning and agrees admirably with the second clause. The Hebrew word means literally abundance of men. Delitzsch translates, “Almost everyone meeteth a man who is gracious unto him; but a man who standeth the test, who findeth such a one?”
Proverbs 20:7. This verse should be, “He who in his innocence walks uprightly, blessed are his children,” etc.
Proverbs 20:8. Judgment. Rather justice. Scattereth or winnoweth.
Proverbs 20:10. Divers weights. Literally, “a stone and a stone, an ephah and an ephah.”
Proverbs 20:11. Touching the second clause of this verse, Miller says, “It is too terse for English, and we cannot translate it. Nor can we brook the English version. Doings are in the same category with work. How can one be the test of the other? The only room for a proposition is, obviously, for this: ‘A child is known by his doings; and the question, Is he pure? is but the question, Is his work right?’ ”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Proverbs 20:6-12
AN UNIVERSAL CHALLENGE, A GENERAL RULE, AND A RARE VIRTUE
I. A double challenge to all men. Who can say, I am pure from my sin? A faithful man, who can find? To the first of these questions the answer must be in the negative.
1. God answers No to it. The testimony of Scriptures is that in His sight “shall no man living be justified” (Psalms 143:2): that “all have sinned” (Romans 3:23): that “if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). His ability to form a correct judgment rests upon His omniscience—He hath made the “hearing ear and the seeing eye” (Proverbs 20:12), and shall He not hear and see and know the thoughts of man? (Psalms 94:9-10). He is the ideal King who winnows the actions of men. See Miller’s note on Proverbs 20:8 (Matthew 3:12).
2. Man’s experience answers No to it. “Even a child is known by its doings” (Proverbs 20:11); the actions are like the hands of a clock, which tell to those who look upon them whether all the wheels within are in perfect working order. When we mark at all observantly the actions of even the best of men, we shall be most likely to detect here and there a flaw in their characters—some inconsistencies which tell of moral imperfection—but if not, man needs only to look within with some degree of impartiality to be convinced that his “own heart condemns him” (1 John 3:20). But to the second challenge we need not give an universal negative. Faithful men are rare, but they can be found. Even Solomon could point to the “just man” who “walked in his integrity,” leaving a blessing behind him. His father David, although he was far from being free from sin, yea, although he sinned deeply and terribly, was yet a man who could appeal to God to witness to his integrity (Psalms 7:8)—to the general intent and purpose of his life being toward God and goodness—to his being in the main faithful to his convictions of the right and true. (On this subject see on chap. Proverbs 11:3, page 196). And although faithful men are still rare enough to need search, they are more common than they were in Solomon’s days. There are many men scattered throughout the world who put duty before worldly interests, and God’s glory before their own, and are thus earning for themselves the well-done of the faithful though not the perfect servant (Matthew 25:21). For it is certain that if a man is faithful to himself—if he subjects his own moral condition to that scrutiny which must convince him of his own impurity before a heart-searching and Holy God, and accepts His method of being cleansed from guilt—he will be faithful both to God and man.
“To thine own self be true:
And it must follow as the night the day;
Thou canst not then be false to any man.”
II. A general rule. Another proposition here laid down is, that although absolutely pure men are not to be found, and although faithful men are rare, yet “most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness” (Proverbs 20:6). There is a natural tendency in men to shrink from a very close inspection of their own motives, and desires, and feelings—they look anywhere rather than within, and, consequently, very few have any conception of their own depravity. They have never measured even their actions, much less their thoughts, by the requirements of God’s law, and consequently, while He pronounces them “wretched, and miserable, and poor,” they are saying, “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing” (Revelation 3:17-18). Most men are thanking God that “they are not as other men are” when they ought to be smiting their breasts and saying, “God be merciful to me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13). It is this wide-spread self-deception concerning their real condition that renders men so indifferent to God’s method for restoring them, and thus keeps the world in its present state of soul-sickness and death.
For Homiletics on Proverbs 20:10, see on chap. 11, page 1.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
This faithfulness, where it exists, develops itself in two branches; the one suppressing our neighbour’s vanity, and the other our own. The last mentioned is first in order of nature and in relative importance the chief. True faithfulness, like charity, begins at home.… Faithful reproof of another’s foibles is a virtue which some can exercise without an effort. They deal a hearty blow on the head of a luckless brother egotist who stands in the way of their own advancement, and then expect to be praised for faithfulness. But it is Jehu’s driving. The zeal which impels it is not pure.—Arnot.
The meaning is (see Critical Notes for Miller’s rendering) that a man is apt to call mere animal traits, like amiableness, or good nature, by the name of goodness; and the caution is, that seeking deep for piety (Proverbs 20:5), we should be careful to take up with no such stupid counterfeit. Much of the mere flesh, to borrow a New Testament expression, is kind and honest. There is much of the mere man’s native morality. We must take care not to take that for “goodness.” There is a certain true fidelity that embraces everything. That is religion. It embraces God. It embraces spiritual faithfulness. It may be easily counterfeited. It has been the snare of our race to take “what is of the mere man,” and confound it with it.—Miller.
A faithful man—as a parent—a reprover—an adviser—one “without guile”—who can find? (Micah 7:1-2.) Look close. View thyself in the glass of the Word (Psalms 101:6). Does thy neighbour, or thy friend, find thee faithful to him? What does our daily intercourse witness? Is not the attempt to speak what is agreeable often made at the expense of truth? Are not professions of regard sometimes utterly inconsistent with our real feelings? In common life, where gross violations are restrained, a thousand petty offences are allowed, that break down the wall between sin and duty, and, judged by the Divine standard, are indeed guilty steps upon forbidden ground.—Bridges.
But the manner in which men make known what they account their goodness is very various. Some are open with it. They almost literally “proclaim” it upon the housetops. To every individual, and in every company, they speak of it—of what they are, of what they have said, of what they have done, of what they think, and of what they wish and intend to do. And O! if they had but the means, what would they not accomplish!
Some there are who are quite as vain, and as ambitious of commendation and praise—who, knowing that everything of the nature of ostentation is exceedingly unpopular, and lets a man down, and tempts others to pluck his feathers from him—set about their object with greater art. They devise ways of getting their merits made known so as to avoid the flaw of ostentatious self-display. In company, they commend others for the qualities which they conceive themselves specially to possess, or for the doing of deeds which they themselves are sufficiently well known to have done; and they turn the conversation dexterously that way; or they find fault with others for the want of the good they are desirous to get praise for; or they lament over their own deficiencies and failures in the very points in which they conceive their excellence to lie—to give others the opportunity of contradicting them; or, if they have done anything they deem particularly generous and praiseworthy, they introduce some similar case, and bring in, in as apparently accidental and unintentional a way as possible, the situation of the person or the family that has been the object of their bounty.—Wardlaw.
Proverbs 20:7. Many are the several walks of men in this world—one walketh in his pleasure, as it were in the walks of a garden; another walketh in his profit, and he walketh as it were up and down the exchange; another walketh in troubles, and he walketh as it were in a wood; another walketh in his poverty, and he walketh as it were in a desert; another walketh in his beastly lusts of drunkenness and uncleanness, and he walks as it were in mire and dirt; the just man walketh in his integrity, and he walketh as it were in the holy temple.—Jermin.
Proverbs 20:8. We must be very careful, then, how we do our sifting. God’s is perfectly complete … He winnows us at a glance. It is important, therefore, that we have something more than “evil,” because “all” that He shall winnow bodily away.—Miller.
Proverbs 20:9. Behold here the king sitting upon the throne of His judgment, whereof the former verse speaketh! Who can say it, and say it truly? Who will say it, and so be untrue in saying it? Who shall say it, and be so impudent as to say it? For to make clean the heart is His work who hath made the heart, thou who hast made it unclean canst not make it clean.—Jermin.
This proverb is especially noteworthy because, in contrast with the style of conception which is elsewhere predominant in the Proverbs, according to which the imperfection of all human piety is but slightly emphasized, and he who is relatively pious is allowed to pass as righteous, it gives expression to the unsatisfying nature of all moral endeavours, as never conducting to the full extirpation of all sense of guilt, and a perfect feeling of peace with God: it accordingly suggests the need of a higher revelation in which the sense of guilt and of an ever-imperfect fulfilment of duty shall finally be overcome.—Elster, in Lange’s Commentary.
Proverbs 20:10. Originally, as in Proverbs 11:1, of dishonesty in actual trade, but here perhaps as a companion to Proverbs 20:9, with a wider application to all inequality of judgment, to all judging one man by rules which we do not apply to ourselves or to another.—Plumptre.
That whereby thou takest from others shall add unto the weight of thine own punishment; that whereby thou addest in measuring for thyself shall make God to take away from the measure of His mercy towards thee.—Jermin.
Proverbs 20:11. There is no tree that in growing doth not bend rather to the one side or the other; there is no river which, although it have many windings and turnings, yet in the course of it doth not rather turn one way than another; and so it is in the life of man, even from the childhood of man’s life. Do not judge, therefore, of any man by one work or two, so thou mayest wrong him and deceive thyself.—Jermin.
For Homiletics on Proverbs 20:13 see on chap. Proverbs 6:10-11, page 79.