How good for the believer that he has the plain, simple, understandable Word of God for his help and guidance through life! Let us make more diligent use of it.
Verse 1. Evil men are often prosperous, and their troubles seem light, or at least they make light of them. We are warned against enjoying such, or wishing to be with them, because they are the wrong kind of companions for those who would please God.
Verses 3 and 4 in the figure of a house, set out the great importance of beginning right and going on right, God having freely proved the wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:30; 2:6), understanding (Luke 24:45) , and knowledge (Romans 15:14) needed by the believer for his passage through life.
Verses 11, 12. Man's course since Cain has been marked by the open or the covered avowal concerning his fellows, "I am not my brother's keeper," and from this principle of fallen man the present depression is sprung. In these verses the opposite, the divine principle is seen. I am to look with the deepest interest upon my fellow-men, to do what is in my power for them. Man being a sinner, and the wages of sin death, but the gift of God eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, we see in verses 11 and 12 the call of God to seek the salvation of all whom we can reach with the good news. With a direct commission of the highest order, the apostle Paul could say,
"Necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel." 1 Corinthians 9:16. O, for more earnest seeking the salvation of the lost in these closing days!
Verse 29 speaks of another principle of man's, but for the believer it is "Say not!"
"And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise" (Luke 6:31), is the language of our blessed Lord concerning ways that are pleasing to Him. Verses 30-34 are, of course, the truth concerning our natural lives, but a lesson is contained in them for the Christian. Are the things of God, things which concern Him, receiving due attention from us His children? Is our "vineyard" all grown over with "thistles and nettles," instead of the "vines" being carefully tended and cultivated? Is our "stone wall", intended to keep all intruders out, all broken down? Amusements, filling the mind with the literature of the day, the pursuit of business,—these divert the Christian from the Bible and prayer, from the prayer meeting, and make him barren (or idle) and unfruitful as regards the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (See 1 Peter 1:1-11.)