"From those who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness"
The instruction process continues as these young people are told that there are people who choose to leave the paths of morality and instead inhabit the ways of darkness. This is shocking to many young people in the beginning of their training. Many have lived a protected, sheltered life in their youth.
Solomon is telling these naive beginners at adult living that there are "bad" people: These people, through their own choices, live under a different set of rules than you have been used to. They will do almost anything if it brings advantage to them. It is these people that you must protect yourself from. In fact, wisdom is the primary protector of those who are out dealing with people in the real world. The people who leave the paths of uprightness do not announce that they are evil. They do not have distinctive dress or distinctive features; they instead look like friends and like helpers. But they actually come to consume you and your resources for their own purposes.
Clearly in Proverbs the paths of uprightness are those actions and ways of living that are within the boundaries of the Ten Commandments. There are people who do not just occasionally break these significant moral boundary markers; they live beyond these moral lines. According to the book of Proverbs, when you choose to live beyond the Ten Commandments, you are choosing to live in the way of darkness. It is a dark way and will result in difficulties and unexpected disasters in your life. Do not go there. Now it is true that everyone at one time or another violates these laws and needs a Savior who is Jesus Christ the Lord.
Those who enter the way of darkness are more interested in themselves than the society at large or even their own loved ones. The deeper one gets into the ways of darkness, the more selfish it gets. Solomon is trying to educate and protect the naive and the simple and even the wise about those who have chosen to live by these rules of the jungle: "Get yours before someone else gets it."
Let's do a little review of the Ten Commandments so you can see who the people are who are living in the ways of darkness. Unfortunately it is always shocking to see God's standard and realize that some "good" people that you know have chosen to live on the other side of God's clear direction. Our present society is full of rebellion to God's standard and the devastation just continues to increase.
Where are God's boundary lines:
When you place something or someone as first in your life or the organizing principle of your life.
When you bow down to an idol or misrepresent the Almighty God in some way.
When you speak or live in such a way as to deny that you represent God or know Him. This would include the constant use of the sacred or the perverse to strengthen your words.
Present at least one in seven days to God for worship and physical rest. In the New Testament it became present every day to Jesus Christ as His day to work through you.
Are you adapting to and valuing those leaders that God has righteously put in your life?
When you become violently or murderously angry.
When you refuse to contain sexual pleasure within the lifetime marital relationship God designed.
When you profit by making another person lose – either by direct theft or through deception, fraud, or scheming.
When you are not honest in your comments with a person who deserves the truth.
When you crave, plan, or scheme to have what another already possesses.
Until tomorrow,
Gil Stieglitz