Proverbs

At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

Who can say, I have made my heart clean,
I am pure from my sin?

Proverbs 20:9

This is a rhetorical question, with the expected answer of “no one,” but all of us would still like to be able to answer in the affirmative. But unfortunately, we cannot see the backs of our own heads. The eyes we use to look around for sin in our lives are themselves marred by sin, and how can we use sinful eyes to look for the blemishes in our eyes?

When it comes to the day-to-day matters of conscience, we are supposed to keep a clean conscience, but even a clean conscience is no absolute.

“For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me” (1 Cor. 4:4, ESV).

“for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything” (1 John 3:20, ESV).

So having a troubled conscience means that it is likely that something is wrong and needs to be put right. But having an untroubled conscience doesn’t mean the same thing. We have to leave that kind of ultimate evaluation up to the Lord. He knows all things. He knows exactly how much we are kidding ourselves. Not only so, but He loves us anyway.

How is this possible? And how is it possible for us to recognize that we cannot identify all of our sins and not have this understanding paralyze us with holy terror? The answer of Scripture is justification, the forensic and final declaration of God that we are in fact righteous. Because the Father has uttered the great “not guilty” over us through the bloody death of Jesus, and because He then uttered the stupefying “well done, good and faithful servant” over us through the resurrection of Jesus, it is possible for us to be liberated into the task hunting down our remaining sins through the process of sanctification. When we find and kill one, we might feel chagrin, but no dread. The entire process of sanctification is taking place under a banner that reads “no condemnation.” And this means that the fact that I do not know the extent of my remaining sin does not matter. And all of it is nothing but a cleansing grace.

“Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb. 10:22).

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At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

A talebearer revealeth secrets:
But he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter.

Proverbs 11:13

There are times when Scripture tells us to go in opposite directions, sometimes this way and sometimes that. Should we answer a fool according to his folly (Prov. 26:5), or should we not answer him according to his folly (Prov. 26:4)? And because we are dealing with wisdom literature, and not stacking blocks of wood, the answer comes back to us in the form of it all depends.

If someone has done something particularly ripe, and won’t deal with it, are there times when it should be told to the church? Absolutely (Matt. 18:17). And when Paul rebuked Peter at Antioch to his face, he did so in front of them all (Gal. 2:14). It is a sin to sin, and it is another sin to hide the sin. “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: But whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy” (Prov. 28:13). That seems plain enough.

And of course, these are the sorts of passages that the talebearer will be quick to point to. He reveals secrets, and he is doing as a gossip. So the gossip has a line of defense—he portrays himself as a truth teller. He is not a snitch. He is not a security risk, or a criminal leaker, but rather a whistleblower. He is one of the good words, not one of the bad words.

But the contrast should be plain. In those circumstances when the talebearer is sharing everything he knows all over the place, what does a faithful spirit do? He conceals a matter. But if we remember what we have discussed just a moment ago, this is righteous when it is done righteously, and it is wicked when it is not. How are we to tell? This is wisdom literature, and so we should be steeped in the way this principle is taught.

We begin with the fact that it can be a scriptural requirement to cover up sins.

Cover ups can clearly be a godly endeavor that we are called to strive for. Joseph, being a righteous man, determined to divorce Mary quietly (Matt. 1:19). Had Mary actually been unfaithful to him, she would have been pilloried by the discernment bloggers. This would have been right before they keel-hauled Joseph for “hushing it up,” and that would be right before they tarred and feathered their pastor for the counsel he had given, forcing him to apologize for protecting “that hussy.”

But . . .

“He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; But he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends” (Prov. 17:9). “Hatred stirreth up strifes: But love covereth all sins” (Prov. 10:12). “A fool’s wrath is presently known: But a prudent man covereth shame” (Prov. 12:16).

This is something that pastors are particularly summoned to understand. The devil is the one who accuses the brethren, day and night, and I am afraid there are far too many Christians who do not really understand the diabolical spirit they are of (Rev. 12:10; Luke 9:55). They think they are doing the work of God when they are indulging in what He flat prohibited.

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At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

Hatred stirreth up strifes: But love covereth all sins.

Proverbs 10:12

The second half of this proverb is quite familiar to us. It is quoted two places in the New Testament, and a variation of it is found elsewhere in Proverbs. “He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; But he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends” (Prov. 17:9). “And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). “Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins” (James 5:20). In all these places, the practice of covering sin is contrasted with an alternative behavior, or amplified by a compatible attitude.

Solomon contrasts this covering of sins with the attitude of hatred, which stirs up strife. Elsewhere in Proverbs, the contrasting behavior is that of talking out of school. And Peter tells us that we are to have fervent love for one another, with the implication that it is this kind of love that is capable of covering a multitude of sins. In James, we are shown that the behavior that actually covers sin is the evangelistic endeavor of turning a sinner away from his wandering path.

If we put all this together, what do we find? We cover a multitude of sins when we refuse the temptations of tale-bearing, when we refuse stir up strife by digging up bones, when we seek to persuade someone away from a pattern of behavior that is destroying him, and when we love one another fervently.  

This last item, the one that Peter mentions, is the key to all of it. Without fervent love, refusal to be a tale-bearer can be silent complicity. Refusal to stir up strife can be craven compromise, accompanied by a fearful reluctance to address something that should have been addressed years ago. Without fervent love, evangelistic endeavors are nothing but a hectoring nuisance.

This word is particularly important for pastors, who are called to cover things up for a living, which is obviously a calling that can go badly wrong. Without fervent love for the flock, warning the people about their sins is just being a time-serving hireling, not to mention a pain in the neck. Without fervent love, neglect of the people’s sins is cowardice and compromise masquerading as a judicious pastoral approach.

Fervent love imitates the love of Christ, which provides the only real covering for sin.

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At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

He that covereth his sins shall not prosper:
But whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy

Proverbs 28:13

One of the basic questions of practical religion is the matter of covering sin. We all acknowledge that sin must be covered, and so the question relates to who is authorized to do it. Related to this is the question of who can do it effectively.

This proverb starts by saying that a man ought not to cover [his own] sin. In other words, this kind of covering is actually a covering up. If a man does this, his sins are hidden, not dealt with, and this will keep him from prospering. What he has done is to get tangled up in the sins that so easily entangle us (Heb. 12:1).

When you sweep sins under the carpet, the end result is a lumpy carpet. But in the second half of the proverb, the sinner is promised mercy. But what is mercy but the effectual covering of sin? The path to this desired result is the path of confession and forsaking. In other words, an honest and open acknowledgement of sin is the confession, and the forsaking of sin, turning away from it, abandoning it, is what we call repentance. So when a man is honest about what he has done, and when he walks away from it in repentance, the Lord promises mercy. That which is exposed is thereby covered. But when we try to cover things ourselves, we do not prosper, and our folly will be exposed.

All this relates to what the New Testament teaches us in a similar vein. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Confession means that we are to say the same thing about our sins that God says about them. We must not try to cover our sins through a clever renaming of them—where adultery is called indiscretion, where a bad temper is called passionate, where cold anger is called parental firmness, and so on.

Prospering is in the hand of God, as is mercy, and we should always remember that He is the ones who sees everything.

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At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

The legs of the lame are not equal: So is a parable in the mouth of fools (KJV).

Like a lame man’s legs, which hang useless, is a proverb in the mouth of fools (ESV).

Proverbs 26:7

Legs are not merely decorative. They have a function, and the function is that of being applied to the actual circumstances of life.

The verb that refers to speaking of proverbs is mashal, and it also means to rule. But rule is not simple punditry. Rule is not a spectator sport. A good and godly ruler makes things happen that would not otherwise happen.

However, we must be careful here. Jesus taught with authority, and not like the scribes (Matt. 7:29). But both the scribes and Jesus taught. Although Jesus also did things (like healing the sick or feeding the multitudes), there was a difference between Him and the scribes in how He taught. In other words, in the mouth of a wise man, a proverb is not a lame set of legs. The word is active. The word is potent.

God created the worlds by speaking. In the beginning God said the heavens and earth (Gen. 1:1). In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God (John 1:1). God created all things through the Son, and He upholds everything by the word of His power (Heb. 1:3).

In the same way, God wants us to reshape the world through speaking. Christ told us to disciple all the nations of men, and to teach them obedience to Him (Matt. 28:18-20). We believed, and therefore we have spoken (2 Cor. 4:13). How will they hear without a preacher (Rom. 10:14)?

But fools talk to the back wall. Fools talk to the ceiling. Fools talk to the air in the classroom, and that’s about it. Fools write books full of words.

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