We come this morning to the end of Collection II of Proverbs. Collection I was Proverbs 1–9. Collection II is Proverbs 10:1–22:16. And Proverbs 22:17 starts Collection III. And the end of Collection II is similar to the beginning, because the emphasis is on young people maturing into wise God-fearers. Proverbs 10:1 starts with this statement, “A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother.” Now in Proverbs 22, we have statements about training up “a child in the way he should go” (22:6) and “folly is bound up in the heart of a child” (22:15). And even when children aren’t expressly mentioned in Chapter 22, we see Solomon dealing with human behavior that we might call immature or even childish. 

When I was a teenager, I had a life-verse. For whatever reason, Christian teens in my day had to have a life-verse. So I scoured the OT and the NT for mine. And I landed on 1 Corinthians 13:11: “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.” I would utter that verse, blissfully irrespective of context, to whoever asked. And it represented where I was in my stage of life. I was a child trying to become a man. I listened to the musical group, “Boyz II Men.” And I strove in my life to be less childish.

Little did I know, though at the time, that there are lots of fully grown, adult men in our world who live their lives like children. They are petulant. They are selfish. They are, spiritually speaking, immature. And that’s not a new thing. Solomon noticed that 3,000 years ago. And he wrote these pages of Scripture to the ancients and to us, telling all of us, to “Grow Up.” Or in the words of Paul, “Put childish ways aside.”   

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So let’s put childish ways aside. Go ahead and write this down as #1 in your notes. Let’s put these childish ways aside. 

1) Impudence and imprudence (22:1–4) 

Let’s talk first about “impudence.” Solomon says in verse 1, 

1 A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.

What’s more valuable to a person than wealth? Answer: “a good name.” And “favor” is better than silver or gold. You might ask, “Whose favor are we talking about here?” Well, the word for “favor” here is the Hebrew חֵן (ḥēn), which can be translated “grace” or “favor” or even “fondness.” And we’re talking here about God’s favor towards human beings. God supplies all wealth in this world. God disperses all wealth in this world. And you’d rather have God’s favor than God’s wealth. And you’d rather be a man of character than a man of great wealth. That doesn’t mean you have to choose between the two. Sometimes men have both character and wealth. But if you had to choose between the two, you’d want character. 

Look at verse 2.

2 The rich and the poor meet together; the Lord is the Maker of them all. 

One of the great temptations for the rich in this world is pride. It’s thinking more highly of yourself than you ought. It’s elevating yourself above your peers in this world and even elevating yourself to “God status.” The word for this is “impudence.” It’s presumptuous, egotistical effrontery to the God of the Universe. And rich are poor both are wise to remember Yahweh created them both. The ground is level in the hospital where human beings are born and die. The Lord is the Maker of them all.

Speaking of impudence, John Lennon said once that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. He said, “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I’m right and will be proved right.” That is what you might call delusional, irrational, childish impudence.

Now let’s switch to imprudence. Look at verse 3.

3 The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go onand suffer for it. 

This is the ancient equivalent to “fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” The prudent person knows that nothing good happens after midnight. The prudent person knows to stay away from dangerous people who are looking for cheap thrills. The prudent person has boundaries in his or her dating life. A married man knows to abide by the “Billy Graham rule” when he travels, even if the world laughs at him.

  The imprudent man is blissfully oblivious to the danger he stumbles into. He’s like a mouse eating peanut butter off of a mouse trap. All of a sudden—snap! And he suffers for it.

Look at verse 4.   

4 The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life. 

Jesus said similarly, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt 5:5). Solomon has already espoused the virtues of humility in this book. Here’s another installment in that theme. 

This verse could be read as follows: “The reward of humility [is] fear of the Lord.” How countercultural is that? You are rewarded with fearing God! We think of the fear of the Lord as a kind of punishment. Something to be avoided. It’s not. It’s a gift. Because when you are humble, and not impudent, you have the right perspective of yourself and the God of the Universe. And that leads to blessings. That leads to “riches and honor and life.”

Some people might object and say, “Yeah, but I knew someone, Pastor Tony, who was incredibly humble. And she feared the Lord. And yet she was poor, and dishonored, and she died an early death. What do I do with that?” Well, I feel like we’ve said this thirty times in Proverbs, but let me say it a thirty-first time. God’s best gifts are not given in this world, they are given in the world to come. And God has a perfect memory. He doesn’t forget. And he knows how to reward those who missed out on “rewards” in this life. 

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Go ahead and write this down as #2 in your notes. Let’s put these childish ways aside too. 

2) Indiscipline and injustice (22:5–8)

Solomon says in verse 5, 

5 Thorns and snares are in the way of the crooked; whoever guards his soul will keep far from them. 

How do you guard your soul? You engage in what’s called “spiritual warfare.” You deflect the arrows of the enemy with the shield of faith. You stab back with the sword of the Spirit. You shod your feet with the shoes of the gospel of peace. You put on the helmet of salvation and you guard the thoughts and images that come into your mind. And you don’t poison your mind with crooked ideas and wicked images and twisted ideologies (see Eph 6:10–20).  

And if you are a parent, you help your kids with this. Because look at verse 6. God has called you to…

6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. 

The word “train up” in Hebrew is probably better translated “dedicate.” It’s the Hebrew חָנַךְ (ḥā·nǎḵ). It’s the word that is used in 1 Kings when Solomon dedicates the temple with thousands of sacrifices (1 Kgs 8:63; 2 Chr 7:5). 

Some of you might ask, “Why do you do child dedications here, Pastor Tony?” Here’s why. Proverbs 22:6 challenges parents to dedicate themselves and their child to the way that he or she should grow up. 

Let me take the mystery out of that for you. There is only one way that a child should go. That is the way of God-fearing. That’s what every parent at VBVF should be fully committed to. You should be giving yourselves to raising your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And you should be giving yourselves to regularly sharing the gospel and living out the gospel in front of your children. That will serve them well in future days. 

A 2004 study by the Barna Group found that nearly half of all Americans who accept Jesus Christ as their savior do so before reaching the age of 13. The figure given is 43%. I’m part of that 43%! That same Barna study had the following statement: “Families, churches and parachurch ministries must recognize that primary window of opportunity for effectively reaching people with the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection is during the pre-teen years. It is during those years that people develop their frames of reference for the remainder of their life – especially theologically and morally. Consistently explaining and modeling truth principles for young people is the most critical factor in their spiritual development.”

“Do all Christians come to Christ in their youth?” No. Many of you came to Christ well after adolescence. “Do all kids who grow up in the church grow up to serve Christ?” No. Remember the genre of Proverbs. These are truisms, not promises. Undoubtedly there are parents in this room right now that did right by your children, and your children rejected the Lord. That’s not on you. That’s on them. God has no grandchildren. No child gets grandfathered in by the faith of their parents. Each child has to turn to Christ himself or herself. 

Why do some kids, who grow up in horrible homes, turn to Christ despite the agnosticism of their parents? I don’t know. Why do some kids walk away from Christ and the church despite having every advantage of a godly home and godly parents? I don’t know. Raising kids in Christ is not like baking a cake. You don’t just mix flour, sugar, and butter and whip out a cake. If only, it was that easy!

But here’s what you do, parents. You do what you are called to do. You do Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go.” And then, you pray like crazy. And you leave the results to God. 

Listen, it’s not unlike… forgive me for this analogy… it’s not unlike being a pastor. I can preach my heart out here every Sunday. Do all who hear this message embrace Christ and follow the Scriptures? No. If that had to happen for me to keep preaching, I would have stopped a long time ago. 

Look at verse 7. Here’s some more indiscipline.

7 The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender. 

Augustine said once that a man needs to be especially vigilant regarding two things: his conscience and his credit. “Neither a borrower nor a lender be” is not in the Bible. It’s Shakespeare. But it’s good advice, nonetheless. 

Tommy Nelson described debt once as like an anaconda. Anacondas are beautiful, powerful creatures. Even if you don’t like snakes, you have to admit that anacondas are impressive. And if you play with an anaconda, at first, it’s exhilarating. But if you are not careful, that sneaky snake will wrap himself around you and squeeze the life out of you. 

By the way, the word “mortgage” is derived from two Latin words: “mort” meaning “death” and “gage” meaning pledge. Your mortgage is a pledge unto death. Hopefully that is only applicable for the house that you own and not other unnecessary debt obligations. 

I had a friend in Chicago, who was phenomenally successful in business… like “multi-million dollar” buyout successful in business. And he made and lost more money than most of us will ever dream of. And he gave this seminar once about debt. And he said to a room full of men at a men’s conference, “Men, if you make $200,000 a year and spend $210,000 a year, you are poor. But if you make $30,000 a year, and spend $25,000 a year, you are rich.” How could he say that? What a ridiculous statement? Is it? He can say that because, “the borrower is slave of the lender.”

In America, it’s not really about how much you make. Most of us in this country make way more than the rest of the world… it’s not about how much you make, it’s about how much you spend relative to how much you make. 

And there is an incipient childishness that constantly spends more than one makes. Our government does it. Most families do it. Many single people go into marriage with lots of debt. And there is in our world a childish aversion to what we might call delayed gratification. I want it all, and I want it now! That’s what children say. And we need to be disciplined.

Now let’s move from indiscipline to injustice. Look at verse 8.

8 Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of his fury will fail. 

There’s an old Chinese expression that speaks of “riding a tiger.” And the idea of that proverb, is that once you mount a tiger, it’s impossible to get off. Because the minute you get off that tiger, you’re that tiger’s lunch. And that’s a parable for risky behavior. Once you engage in a risky or dangerous enterprise, you had better keep at it. Because once you stop, you’re done!

Living a life of crime or sowing seeds of injustice is like that. You’ve got to keep that going as long as you can, because the minute you let down your guard, the gig is up. You will reap calamity, and the rod of your fury will fail. 

By the way, let me just say that there are a lot of people out there these days who are calling things “injustices” that aren’t really “injustices.” For example, you have college students who think it’s an injustice that they have to pay off their own college loans. That is not an injustice. And there are “social justice warriors” (SJWs) out there who are fighting the wrong battles for the wrong causes based on a number of “social justice fallacies.” Are there injustices in our world? Yes, there are! But let’s be careful about what we identify and attack as injustices in our world. Let’s make sure they are actually injustices. 

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Write this down as #3. 

3) Ungenerous and ungracious behavior (22:9–12)

Solomon says in verse 9, 

9 Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor. 

Literally Solomon writes here, “Whoever has a [good] eye will be blessed.” To have a good eye is contrasted with having an “evil eye” in Proverbs. Someone who has a “good eye” is someone who looks to bless others and benefit others, not use them, or manipulate them for one’s own purposes. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 9:7 that God loves a “generous giver.”  

And the second part of this statement makes clear, that a “good eye” is demonstrated by acts of charity and generosity. And generosity isn’t just a sign of character. It’s a sign of maturity. No child needs to be taught how to be selfish. Kids naturally learn to say, “Mine!” Unfortunately some adults never grew out of that childish behavior. 

Look at verse 10.

10 Drive out a scoffer, and strife will go out, and quarreling and abuse will cease. 

I doubt that Solomon meant that verse to be used for church discipline in the NT era. But it’s a great verse that parallels what we see in the NT. Paul wrote in Titus the following: “As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned” (3:10–11). 

You might say, “That’s so mean, Pastor Tony. That’s so unloving.” No, actually it’s unloving for pastors and elders to not protect the unity and the spiritual health of the church. There is, even in the church, such a thing as “addition by subtraction.”

By the way, the Hebrew verb for “drive out” is the word גָּרַשׁ (gā·rǎš). It’s the same word used in Genesis 3:24 when God drove out Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. It’s the same word that God uses when he says in Exodus 34:11, “Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.”

Now compare verse 10 with verse 11.

11 He who loves purity of heart, and whose speech is gracious, will have the king as his friend. 

This is Solomon saying in effect, “The person who is gracious in speech will have my ear. In fact, he will have me as his friend!” “The scoffer, on the other hand, will be thrown out of my presence.”

Now look at verse 12.

12 The eyes of the Lord keep watch over knowledge, but he overthrows the words of the traitor. 

The “eyes of the Lord” is what’s called an anthropomorphism. God the Father doesn’t have literal eyes like a human. But he does have perfect sight over the whole earth. He is omnipresent, and he is omniscient. And he guards knowledge. In other words, there is no knowledge apart from him, and he gives it to whomever he chooses. 

And that’s why Solomon says at the very beginning of this book, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (1:7). The Lord doesn’t just reward those who seek him and seek his knowledge. He also punishes those who reject him. The word for “traitor” here can also be translated “the one who acts faithlessly.” Pseudointellectuals who seek pseudo-knowledge are upended by the Lord! Genuine God-fearers who seek God are rewarded with true knowledge. 

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Write this down as #4. Here’s some more childish behavior. I’m going to call this…  

4) Fear Folly and Rash Folly (22:13–15)

Here’s what I mean by those two terms. There’s a kind of childish foolishness that is irrationally fearful. And there is a kind of childish foolishness that is gullible and hasty and rash.

Fear folly is demonstrated by the sluggard in verse 13.

 13 The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside! I shall be killed in the streets!” 

Rash folly is demonstrated by the simpleton in verse 14, who brazenly embraces the forbidden woman.

14 The mouth of forbidden women is a deep pit; he with whom the Lord is angry will fall into it. 

And verse 15 says that the rod of discipline is the cure for what ails these two.

15 Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him. 

Let’s take a deeper look at these two. First, the sluggard. The sluggard is described here in utterly ridiculous ways. Some day you should just look up all the references to “the sluggard” in the book of Proverbs. Many of those proverbs are laugh-out-loud hilarious. And here’s an example.

13 The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside! I shall be killed in the streets!” 

Yes, there were lions in ancient Israel. But they didn’t gather in the streets. In fact, most animals have a healthy dread of human beings… especially when human beings gather in busy places like “the streets.”

But this statement is even more ridiculous than you realize. Because the sluggard uses the Hebrew word for “killed” here. It’s the word that Moses uses in the Ten Commandments (Exod 20:13) that indicates “murder” or “homicide.”

Let me just state the obvious, lions don’t commit homicide. Humans commit homicide. So this ridiculously lazy sluggard says, “I’ll get murdered by a lion if I go out there and work.” It’s laughably ridiculous. But then again so is laziness. Then again, so is laziness that is encouraged or even incentivized by parents or by the government. 

So that’s fear folly. Let’s talk rash folly. 

14 The mouth of forbidden women is a deep pit; he with whom the Lord is angry will fall into it.

That sounds like the femme fatale of Proverbs 1–9, doesn’t it? That sounds like the adulteress of Proverbs 7 who said, “I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. Come, let us take our fill of love till morning; let us delight ourselves with love. For my husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey; he took a bag of money with him; at full moon he will come home” (7:18–20) And Solomon said of this forbidden woman that, “With much seductive speech she persuades him [the simpleton]; with her smooth talk she compels him. All at once he follows her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast till an arrow pierces its liver; as a bird rushes into a snare; he does not know that it will cost him his life” (7:21–23).

So here’s the irony of these two foolishnesses. The first person is afraid of something he shouldn’t be afraid of. He thinks there’s a lion in the streets. The second person isn’t afraid of something that he should be afraid of. A tigress is seducing him into her sheets. And both of these young people are ruined by their folly. 

If I was a young man in today’s world, I would be incredibly discouraged by this. What am I supposed to do? If I stay at home safe and sound, I’m lazy. If I run out into the world, I get gobbled up by a seductress. I can’t win! I’m stuck between an unstoppable force and an unmovable object. What’s a boy to do in a world like this?

Well, here’s the answer. You discipline yourself. You train yourself to not be lazy and to not be seduced by the forces of this world. You are in the world, but not of the world. And parents, you’re supposed to help with that. Because look at verse 15.

15 Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.

Fear Folly and Rash Folly! Discipline is the antidote for both. And parents are called to help drive the folly out of their children by the rod of discipline.

By the way, there was a French philosopher named Jean Jacques Rousseau who thought that children were born innocent. And the only reason they sinned or did evil was because of the evil influence of their parents. So he thought that if he removed children from their parents after birth, then children would retain their innocence. He actually did some bizarre experiments to try to prove this. And do you think those experiments worked? You know what they found out about kids removed from their parents? They found out that those kids are just as sinful as kids who stayed with their parents… even more so!

Unfortunately there are a lot of people that think that children are innocent and sinless in our world. They’re called non-parents! If you are a parent, you know that “Folly is bound up in the heart of a child.” This verse is not exactly parallel to the ideas of original sin in Romans 5. But it’s awfully close. You know as well as I do that your kids are sinful. Your grandkids are sinful. They inherited it from Grandpa. They inherited it from their Grandpa Adam and their Granny Eve.  

And you know, it’s understandable when children act like children. That’s understandable and that’s to be expected. But when adults act like children… when they are impudent and imprudent and ungenerous and ungracious and lazy and rash… that’s shameful. When Christians act like that… that’s bad. 

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Write this down as #5. Here’s one more thing. I’ll just call this “cruelty.” 

5) Cruelty (22:16)

Solomon says in verse 16.

16 Whoever oppresses the poor to increase his own wealth, or gives to the rich, will only come to poverty.

This statement in verse 16 goes beyond just lacking generosity. There’s something twisted and corrupt in this statement. It’s someone who oppresses the poor to increase one’s own wealth. And they give to the rich… I don’t know why… to ingratiate themselves with rich people? But Solomon says that leads ultimately to poverty. You might say poverty in one’s soul or poverty in one’s bank account? I don’t know. God’s greatest gifts aren’t always financial, and God’s greatest punishments don’t always involve loss of finances. 

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“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.” (1 Cor 13:11). “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways [impudence, imprudence, indiscipline, injustice, ungenerousness, ungraciousness, fear folly, rash folly, cruelty]” (1 Cor 13:11). Paul says something similar in 1 Corinthians 14:20: “Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.”

Let me close with this. I started this message by saying, “Grow Up.” “Put Childish Ways Behind You.” I stand by that as an essential aspect of Christian life. But I’m going to totally reverse course as we close this message. Because here’s what I want to tell you as we close. 

As a follower of Jesus Christ, you should never pursue childishness and immaturity. But you should always be childlike. “What do you mean by that, Tony?” I mean that you never outgrow your status as a “child of God.” In fact, the only way to become a Christian is to be childlike.  

And here’s why I say that. According to the Gospel of Mark, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” What in the world does that mean? “And [Jesus] took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them” (Mark 10:14–16).

Now why did Jesus say that? What does he mean by “the kingdom of God belongs to such as these?” Well let me be clear what it doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean that children are inherently innocent, and so we need to become innocent like them in order to be saved. Children are not innocent. They have just as much capacity for sin and for cruelty as adults. How many times have you heard it said, “Kids can be so cruel sometimes.” Why do people say that? Because it’s true. Children have just as much capacity for sin and for cruelty as adults.

So what did Jesus mean then? He meant this, and this is an advantage that children have over adults. Children have a greater capacity for faith than do adults. They have a greater capacity for trust. They are not inherently skeptical or suspicious. That comes later. They believe. And Jesus knowing that children have that greater capacity rebukes his disciples and says, “Don’t chase the children away. Don’t look down on them. You need to be more like them.” “You need to have a simple child-like faith like them.”