Proverbs 21:6-8 - Homilies By E. Johnson

Marks of sin

Here we have four marks of that many-sided evil which God condemns as sin.

I. ITS MANIFOLDNESS OF FORM . Of its varied developments we have four forms here specified.

1 . Falsehood, with a view to temporal enrichment, or the sin of cheating—a crime which has dishonoured the markets and counting houses of every land.

2 . Violence, with the same end in view—the breaking into the neighbour's treasury, or the assault committed on his person.

3 . Injustice, or the sin of withholding from our neighbour that which we know is his due; whether it be a weekly wage ( James 5:4 ), or whether it be the appointment to which he is entitled by his merit, or the honour he has gained by his services.

4 . Perversity, or frowardness—the attitude of wanton and determined rebelliousness against God's rule, or insubmission to his claim, or disobedience of his particular commandment.

II. THE UNSUBSTANTIAL NATURE OF ITS SUCCESS . Enrichment by falsehood is "a vanity [or, 'a vapour'] tossed to and fro." It is proverbial that wealth that is ill-gotten is quickly lost; this is to be accounted for by the action of God's righteous punitive laws apart from the doctrine that sin commands his condemnation. Independently of this, it is certain that the satisfaction which comes from sin is short-lived and continually declines. Sin allures its victims with fine promises, but it breaks every one of them; its bread may be sweet for a moment, hut "afterwards the mouth is filled with gravel" ( Proverbs 20:17 ). The hope of the sinner is very fair, but soon comes the strong wind of penal law, and its castle is on the ground; it is "swept away" ( Proverbs 21:7 , Revised Version).

III. ITS SUICIDAL CHARACTER . These guilty ones are "of them that seek death." "Death is the wages of sin," and those who consciously live in sin and those (more especially) who know that this is so may be fitly spoken of as "seeking death." Suicide is not confined to those who deliberately take away their life with the pistol shot, or the cup of poison, or the fatal plunge. It is a folly and a crime that is being committed day by day at the hearth and at the table, in the office and in the study. Men are transgressing those known laws of God on the observance of which life as well as health depends. They who live in conscious wrong doing are determinately travelling toward death, and are guiltily "seeking" it.

IV. ITS DEEP AND WIDE DEPARTURE FROM THE HOLY PURPOSE OF GOD . The way of (the) man (of whom we are speaking) is "strange" ( Proverbs 21:8 ). It is quite foreign to the thought and contrary to the will of God. He is saying, "Go not along this path; turn from it, and pass away." It is sin which has cut this path for the feet of the human traveller, and it is one which lies quite outside the King's highway. So strange is it to him, so alien to his purpose, so far from his l)resent desire, that he is ever saying to his erring children, "Return, return!" And he has made, in the gospel of his Son, a way of return and restoration. Indeed, it is his Son Jesus Christ who is "the Way." To know him and to love and serve him is to have our feet planted in "the path of life."—C.