As righteousness tendeth to life: so he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death.
The reward of righteousness
Life and death are objects of universal interest. Life here is life spiritual and eternal. Death is viewed as involving separation and exclusion from God.
I. Righteousness proves the spiritual life to be begun in our souls; evil shows that our souls are still dead in sin. Naturally we are all dead in sin. There is a life which God’s life-giving Spirit begins in us. One of the most marked indications of its existence is righteousness developing itself in the whole character and conduct.
II. Righteousness is connected with the spiritual nourishment which maintains life; evil with the neglect of such nourishment, which occasions death. Man’s spiritual nature must receive spiritual sustenance. The soul that is quickened to righteousness hungers and thirsts after righteousness, and God bestows upon it what it seeks, so as to nourish it and strengthen it.
III. Righteousness leads to courses of action which prolong life; evil, from its very nature, conducts to death. God’s ways tend not only to the preservation and prolongation of life in this world, but to the full enjoyment of life for evermore.
IV. Righteousness associates us with those who are alive to God, thus helping to maintain life in the soul; evil unites us to those who are spiritually dead, and brings us into the same state with them. To be the living among the dead is no easy thing. If voluntarily we associate with the dead, imbibing their spirit, and following their ways, we must be conformed in likeness to them.
V. Righteousness ensures the Divine protection, so that life is guarded and defended; evil incurs God’s wrath, which is death. Life is a brittle thing. The great God who gives it is ready, however, to ward off all the dangers which may menace it. His favour is life; His frown is death.
VI. Righteousness conducts to life everlasting in heaven; evil to eternal death in hell. The world of glory shall be peopled by the righteous. The evil and unbelieving shall inhabit the world of woe. (Anon.)
Pursuing evil
The “sure reward” in the preceding verse is “life” in this; and as that reward is sure in the one case, the deceitfulness of the wicked s work” lies in its affecting “death” as its result instead of “life.” He who “pursueth evil” may overtake it, and may boast himself in the success of his pursuit. But the very evil that he overtakes shall slay him. It is as if a man were to pursue a serpent, captivated by the beauty of its appearance, in its shifting and glistening hues, but ignorant of the venom of its sting, or its fang, and in the act of laying hold of it, were to receive the deadly wound. Death treads on the very heels of the man who “pursueth evil “; and when he overtakes the evil, death overtakes him. (R. Wardlaw.)
The natural history of evil
Every sinner plans and acts against his own personal interest; and fond as he is of life, he is a self-destroyer. He is allured by false appearances, enveloped in sense and sensual delights, and follows a path that ends in destruction.
I. The commencement of moral evil in the human soul. He is born in a state of impurity. Evil is interwoven in the very texture of his being. It commenced with the first family of the human race, and the evil spirit of unrighteousness has been transmitted from father to son. When a man is not properly acquainted with the corruption of his nature, he mistakes a want of opportunity to sin for moral purity of heart, and the absence of temptation for a truly virtuous mind. Evil in actual operation in human life--
1. Springs up in thoughts.
2. Finds expression in overt acts.
II. The progress of moral evil. “He that pursueth evil” There is not the root only, but also the tree and the growth. A man seldom becomes a sudden profligate. By a continuance in evil the feelings become less affected with its enormity, the conscience is less tender and scrupulous, the base inclinations and passions of the heart gather strength, and temptation finds an easy dupe to every impious proposal. Sin has not a resting-place. It carries within itself the power of perpetual motion. Sin hardens the heart.
III. the completion of moral evil. It has its seed-time, its growth, and its harvest.
1. The completion of sin is the death of reputation.
2. The death of enjoyment.
3. The death of the body.
4. The death of the soul. (Thomas Wood.)