#37 Sept 14, 2015
2015 Devotional. Our goal for these weekly devotionals is to grow in humility and to grow spiritually by memorizing selected passages, putting them into context, and by applying them to our daily living. These passages are taken from: “100 Verses Every Christian Needs to Know” by Freeman-Smith. All passages are from the NIV.
Proverbs 22:24-25
Saying 3
24 Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person,
do not associate with one easily angered,
25 or you may learn their ways
and get yourself ensnared.
The use of the Proverbs in Scripture is to convey a truth or an established beneficial practice for those who are willing to listen and to apply these principles to their lives. In Hebrew the word proverb means “comparison”. The parallelism of Hebrew poetry is often used in couplets and triplets to compare a desirable and undesirable practice. The verses we are memorizing are part of a larger section called the “Thirty Sayings of the Wise” starting in Chap. 22:17-Chap. 24:22.
The introduction, “Saying one”, tells us to keep these “Thirty Sayings” in our hearts and on our lips so that we trust God, speak the truth, and give true report to those we serve. The closing saying tells us to be faithful: “Fear the Lord and the king, my son,
and do not join with rebellious officials,
for those two will send sudden destruction on them,
and who knows what calamities they can bring?”
Our verse tells us to stay away from anger, intolerance, and impatience. Anger does not build up but promotes more anger and discord. Anger is a response that is learned, destroys peace, and is closely linked to the refusal to forgive. What we see here is a life of peace promoted by faithfulness, tolerance, and forgiveness “because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires”(James 1:20).
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