What is your favorite proverb?
Some Proverbs are comfortingTrust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths (3:5-6).
Some Proverbs are blunt
Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly (26:11).
Some Proverbs are apropos
Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment (18:1).
This last Proverb sticks out to me these days, not as a prophetic political statement about social distance but as a warning about avoiding being known in a godly community. None of us willingly wants to break out against all sound judgment. Yet, people do. As a pastor, I see some function independently of others in unhealthy ways, again and again, creating a mess down the road. Even in my own heart, I recognize this temptation. Isolation and privacy can be good from time to time, yet they can also cloak choices that are not in our best interest. Proverbs 18:1 teaches that we are better together than apart. Indeed, A cord of three strands is not easily broken (Ecclesiastes 4:12).
God has designed community into much of life. In the creation story, we see the value of community. After making Adam, God soon said it was not good that man should be alone (Genesis 2:18), so the Lord made Eve. In the New Testament, the Lord compares the local church to the human body. Every person is essential like every part of us. The bottom line is the Maker made us for being in a community.
Not only that, through Jesus, we mortals can also enjoy a communion with the immortal God. Jesus said, Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them (Matthew 18:20). Wow! We followers of Jesus exist in a community with the Trinity.
I am so grateful for friends, to be in a small group, studying the Bible each week, and my local church. I hope and pray you can find an uplifting community during this time of social distance.
For more of my thoughts on this Proverb, you can watch and listen HERE.
Rob
