When you walk, they will lead you;
when you lie down, they will watch over you;
and when you awake, they will talk with you.

For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light,
and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,

What is the “they” that will lead us, and watch over us, and talk with us in these verses? As verse 20 from last week informs us, it’s the commandments of a father and the teaching of a mother to their son. And now as Scripture, Proverbs offers itself to us as the very commandments of God and the teaching of God to us, his children.

And if, as verse 21 instructed, we bind Scripture on our hearts and tie its words around our necks through meditative, worshipful memorization, those words will be transformed into Friends.

To the casual reader they will remain mere words, but to the one who clings to them, they become a skilled Guide to lead when the way is treacherous. To the unthoughtful memorizer they will only be information to boast of, but to the needy possessor, they act as a Sentry at night. To the rebellious rejector they will be foolishness, but to the humble student, they are the wisest Teacher (verse 22).

The Word of God is not just true for us, it is also good for us. Like a light, it shows us how not to fall in the dark. It also reproves us when we are wrong so that we might walk in life (verse 23).

Whether it warns us against adultery (as verse 24 will do), or whether it teaches us to give to the poor, the Word of God does so for our gain. That’s why these verses were written, so that we understand that when we treasure God’s Word in our hearts and minds it is for our good!

And what is our good? Our good is to know God more and to enjoy his glory being seen in this world more and more. Jesus died and was raised for us so that God might be glorified in a redeemed people who enjoy abundant life in him. His Word instructs us so that we might walk the path where God’s glory and his people’s welfare collide: a path that trusts in Jesus for all righteousness and help, and trusts that his instruction brings us life in him.

Reflection

1. What can you do to make your memorization of Scripture more thoughtful and worshipful?

2. What instructions in Scripture don’t feel like they are for your good? How might you fight to believe that they are for your good?

1. Proverbs and the Earthly Jesus

2. Proverbs and the Ontological Jesus

3. Proverbs and the Gospel of Jesus

4. Proverbs and the Risen Jesus

He concludes:

[T]here is also a practical benefit to recognizing that Proverbs speaks of Jesus.  Once we recognize that Jesus is the wise man of Proverbs we find a deeper impetus for embracing the life of wisdom outlined in Proverbs.  For we know that when we live wisely according to Proverbs, we are in fact living like Christ, being conformed into his image and reflecting his glory to the world around us.  The imperative to live a Proverbs driven life flows directly from the grand indicative that Jesus first lived that life for us.

Read the entire article.

My son, keep your father’s commandment,
and forsake not your mother’s teaching.
Bind them on your heart always;
tie them around your neck.

It is generally acknowledged that the original setting of Proverbs was in the home of the courtier where the parents who were responsible for the social, moral, and religious training of their children employed the material in this book (Proverbs 8:15-17; 31:2-3). Not only in Israel, but throughout the Ancient Near East, wisdom teaching was thought to be especially important to prepare young men to be able to function smoothly and rule well in spite of the many strained relationships involved in court life. In that regard, there is probably no better curriculum for leadership training than Proverbs. However, Solomon intended that his wisdom be transmitted beyond the court to all the youth of Israel by putting it in the mouths of godly parents, so that they might teach it to their children. As Moses disseminated the law to be taught in the homes of Israel, so Solomon disseminated wisdom to be passed on from parents to their children (Proverbs 1:8-9; 6:20-21).

In Proverbs, education in wisdom, or the fear of the Lord (1:7), involves different members of the family; even the grandfather and grandmother are mentioned in the exhortation in Proverbs 4:1-9. However, the father and mother share responsibility for the pedagogy of the child. It is implied that the mother’s teaching begins early, because twice the son is told not to “forsake” it (Proverbs 1:8; 6:20). She begins her instruction of the child from the moment she first takes it in her arms, and her influence continues until the child reaches maturity (Proverbs 10:1; 31:1, 26). Proverbs suggests that the father is the leader in the training of the child, because he is the only one who speaks in the first person to the child (Proverbs 2:1; 4:1-4), and he connects the mother’s teaching with his, never his with hers. Furthermore, the father explains how his father taught him (Proverbs 4:3–4). Thus, in the godly home the father takes ultimate responsibility, under God, for the training of the children and works together with his wife to teach them the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom.

The father’s commandment (singular) that the son is to keep (6:20) is developed in the following context (see all of Proverbs 6:20–35); it is the commandment to be on guard against the adulteress. If the son will keep his father’s commandment (6:20), the commandment will keep him from the adulteress (6:22–24) and from the devastating consequences of a relationship with her, which are described in Proverbs 6:26–35.

In Proverbs 6:21 the wiseman gives his son two strategies to employ in his fight against sexual immorality. First, the son needs to bind his parents’ teaching on his heart always. In the Old Testament the word “heart” refers to the emotions, to the mind, and foremost to the will. It could be described as the indivisible central unity of the person, which manifests itself in the whole of the person’s outward life (Proverbs 4:23). To bind the parents’ teachings on the heart involves memorizing, meditating on, and whole-heartedly embracing these teachings. If the teachings of the parents are not bound on the child’s heart, the desire for the beauty of the adulteress will take root there and entice the child into sin with her (Proverbs 6:25).

Second, the son needs to tie his parents’ teachings around his neck. In Israel one would hang something around the neck because it was valuable and/or because one wanted others to see it. An important archaeological find illustrates this. The two silver amulets from the seventh century B.C., which were found in Jerusalem and contain the priestly benediction (from Numbers 6:24–26), were to be worn around the neck. They were apparently a kind of early phylactery, and they would advertise and make public the beliefs of the person wearing them. In the same way, if a child goes public in his or her submission to God ordained authority, it serves like a wedding ring to be a defense against the seductress. To go public with one’s commitment to the Lord and his will is one of the best defenses against temptation.

Reflection

1. What is the connection between submitting to the authorities God has ordained in our lives and resisting temptation?

2. What do you treasure above all else in your heart?

3. Do you openly share with others your commitment to the Lord and his will? Do others realize from the way you live that you know and love the Lord?

We are new creations, children of God, and our lives should reflect this reality. And remember, please, that this life in the Spirit is not spinning our wheels. We are moving somewhere. In Romans 8 Paul reminds us of our groanings in this world. Along with the whole creation, we are waiting eagerly for the consummation of our redemption — the redemption of our bodies (Romans 8:23). He means the time when we will be raised from the dead and our corruptibility will put on incorruptibility (1 Corinthians 15:53–55).

And in fact, Paul says in Romans 8, it is in this very hope that we were saved (verse 24). Our faith inherently has a forward trajectory. We embrace Jesus by faith because eternity is real. It’s because there is a God. We have a Creator for whom we were made. So then it’s not about our best life now or reaching our best potential or blah blah blah. We have a hope that we cannot see (Romans 8:24). A hope that this world surely can’t see. We are gazing ahead at a new cosmos — a world filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea.

We have a hope that we wait for with patience (Romans 8:25). God knows it isn’t easy. Here is where the Spirit shines, because in all our waiting, in our eagerness and struggles, even when we don’t know how to pray, the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words (Romans 8:26). He’s driving our waiting and fueling our hope.

And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

Character is determined by identity. At the end of the day, we live as who we are.

Start with Paul’s primary command in verse 16: walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. The Spirit, Paul tells us, not the flesh. Then he moves into a parenthetical discussion where he shows us the contrast. Gratifying the desires of the flesh look like this: Galatians 5:19–21. The fruit of the Spirit look like this: Galatians 5:22–23. And then in verse 24 he gets back to his main point with a clarifying statement. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passion and desires.

The command of Galatians 5:16 lands on us. It’s a real command. Walk in the Holy Spirit, that is, live your life in the path of the Holy Spirit. Walk in step with the truth of the gospel (Galatians 2:14). Operate your moments in the Holy Spirit so that you will not fulfill the desires of your flesh. But understand something: Spirit-living versus flesh-gratifying isn’t a coin toss of our will.

We often act as if the Spirit and flesh are another version of ‘Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots.’ We act as if the Spirit will win if we can only move our thumbs quicker than the other guy. But how does Paul picture the competition?

“If you belong to Christ Jesus,” he tells us, “the flesh is dead.” The flesh has already been knocked out of the ring. Or better, cut off at the cross. The flesh with its passions and desires has been crucified. Paul is tapping back into the great passage of Galatians 2. Remember what he says there: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

In Christ, we are new creations. The flesh that used to hold us captive is now the flesh to whom we are unrelated. It’s been handled. We are, at the very core, people of the Spirit. And therefore, since we live by the Spirit, since this is who we are in Christ, let’s keep in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5:25). As those who belong to Christ Jesus, as those who have the Spirit, let’s grow into the people God has created us to be.

Reflection

1. If death to our sins is indicated by the cross, where do we see the empowering for life?

2. What does it mean to walk in the Spirit?

As the Father has elected those who trust in Jesus, and Jesus has accomplished their redemption by his cross and resurrection, so the Spirit completes this work by empowering a new identity that will eventually result in the incorruptible (2 Corinthians 3:18; 1 John 3:2; 1 Corinthians 15:49). This is the salvation of a triune God who’s work to save is an electing, reconciling, and perfecting work (Ephesians 1:3–14).

Another tip in the Galatians 5 passage that signifies a cosmic undercurrent comes in verse 21. After describing the works of the flesh, Paul concludes that “those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” The issue is now amplified. All the talk about vice is put into a different perspective. The way you live now signifies a greater, eternal reality. It manifests whether you are of the kingdom of God, or not.

Gordon Fee explains,

[F]or Paul there is an eschatological consummation of the kingdom of God that has already come present through Christ and the Spirit. The outcome for any individual is predicated on whether or not one is a Spirit person, having become so through faith in Christ Jesus. Thus for Paul, “inheriting” or “not inheriting” the kingdom, the final eschatological glory, is a matter of whether or not one is a believer. (God’s Empowering Presence, 443).

Are you a citizen of this coming new and better world? Do you have the Holy Spirit? Do you embrace the work Jesus Christ for sinners?

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

John Calvin summarized the Christian life as a transformation of identity, or better said, an exchange of possession. “We are not our own, but the Lord’s,” he writes. And thus, the first and perpetual step of discipleship is “to abandon ourselves and devote the whole energy of our minds to the service of God.” This devotion of service he speaks about is a yielding of our totality to God, including our reason. Contrary to what the world thinks, Calvin explains, “The Christian philosophy bids reason give place and yield complete submission to the Holy Spirit, so that the man himself no longer lives, but Christ lives and reigns in him (Gal. 2:20).”

We are not our own, we are the Lord’s, therefore we live yielded to the power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the giver of life (Romans 8:11) and the witness of life (Romans 8:16). He gives us our new identity and guarantees it (Ephesians 1:13–14).

When Paul tells us to “walk by the Spirit” in Galatians 5:16 this is what he is saying. Our lives are now ordered by another.

So often I think we read about the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 and immediately jump to searching for the fruit. Then this easily can become a passage about our doing because of the Spirit when in reality it is about the Spirit’s doing in and through us. It is about his fruit, his work. It is manifested in our character, to be sure, but it is never ours to claim.

May your love abound, your joy and your peace, and patience, and kindness, and goodness, and all fruit. Make these all abound and more (Paul hasn’t given us an exhaustive list). And know that the presence of this fruit points to a reality bigger than the universe. God, the Creator of all things, made you his own by the death of his Son and has filled you with his Holy Spirit to produce a lifestyle characteristic of a coming new and better world.

Reflection

1. What challenge do you face most often where you need the Spirit’s fruit?

2. Do you find comfort in knowing you are not your own?

3. Are you yielding the totality of your life to the Holy Spirit?

John Piper writes,

What does he promise to give to his little flock — to prove once and for all that it is not only his good pleasure to give, but that it is his good pleasure to give big? He promises to give them the kingdom of God.

And what does it mean to be given the sovereign reign and rule of God?

It means simply and staggeringly and unspeakably that the omnipotent rule and authority of the King of the universe will be engaged forever and ever on behalf of the little flock of God. What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, God has prepared for those who love him (1 Corinthians 2:9). And it is the Father’s good pleasure to give it to his little flock.

Who can describe what it will be like when that saying comes to pass which Jesus spoke at the Last Supper, “As my Father has appointed a kingdom for me, so do I appoint for you that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom” (Luke 22:29)?

Listen to the entire message.

Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Promises motivate in two ways:

Some promises are compelling. These act like carrots dangling in front of a donkey: urging and coaxing us on to gain treasure.

Other promises are assuring. These act like a coat of armor as we go out to gain that treasure in the middle of a dangerous battle.

We need both and this passage shows us why.

Jesus promises that if we sell our possessions and give them to the needy, we will gain a greater possession. He is compelling us with a promise to pursue the gain of joy in God in the new creation. This kind of wealth won’t ever let us down; it can’t be stolen, and it can’t be destroyed. The exchange rate in in the new heaven and new earth is incomprehensibly great!

But Jesus knows this isn’t enough! Even if we feel compelled to sell our possessions for the sake of the poor, fear will try to talk us out of it. “What if I sell my assets and some emergency comes up? What if I lose my job? What if…?” Fill in the blank. The real question is, “Will God take care of me?”

So, Jesus gives another promise, a promise of assurance: “It’s the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”  Jesus is saying, “Don’t be afraid! God wants to make your life effective for his glory, and he will give you everything you need to do it. So maximize your joy in God forever with abandon! God will take care of everything you need to gain the kingdom!”

Finally, Jesus lets us know that our hearts will follow our investment. If we treasure God, our hearts will be with him in fellowship. If not, we won’t have him.

Jesus secured our fellowship with God forever at the cross. And he secured promises for us, as well as the power to believe those promises. By trusting them, and giving ourselves in acts of love, he gives us fuller and fuller enjoyment of our fellowship with God in the age to come and makes our hearts to follow our great Treasure: God himself.

Reflection

1. What sacrifices is God calling you to make for the sake of loving others?

2. What could you sell in order to give for the sake of the Kingdom?

3. In what practical ways can you fight with promises to enjoy Christ and pursue the spreading of his kingdom?

Craig Bartholomew and Michael Goheen write,

Two great figures stand at the entrances to two worlds: Adam stands at the gate of the old world, Jesus at the gate of the new. Adam’s first sin inaugurated the old age and brought sin, death, and condemnation. Now in Jesus a new day of righteousness, life, and justification has come (Romans 5:12–21). If we are “in Adam,” we are part of the old age and under its sway. But if we are “in Christ,” we are part of the age to come and can already experience God’s life-giving power. (The Drama of Scripture, 189).

This is the context in which we read Paul’s amazing words in 2 Corinthians 5:17. If you are in Christ you are a new creation. And that means you have been transferred from the old creation that has passed away. Being in Christ means a switch of kingdom residence and evidences something that transcends our individual lives (Colossians 1:13–14).

God’s new world has broken in upon the old. Jesus is making all things new. And we are part of his work.