There’s a lot here. The explanations provided are to help with any verses you may have trouble understanding. Please use it as a resource as you read the passage and try not to feel overwhelmed!
(1-2) Although speaking about commerce, the message for everyday life is clear: don’t try to cheat people. And not only is honesty important, so is humility!
(3-4) How do we learn integrity? By the Word of God! God shows us how to live. In contrast, a lack of integrity is destructive, both in this life and in the life to come. When you stand before God in the judgment, it doesn’t matter how much money you have, or how famous you are, or how much power you have. All that matters is your relationship with Jesus Christ, and that relationship is shown by how you live your life.
(5-6) Sin traps us and causes us to fall and fail. Righteousness leads to salvation and serenity!
(7) Not only can’t you take it with you, even if you could, it wouldn’t help you!
(8) The righteous avoid trouble and obtain life because they are wise enough to do what is right. The unrighteous are more than happy to recklessly head into trouble.
(9) Speech can destroy. However, a righteous person who is slandered will be able to handle and counteract it, and/or a righteous person who hears slander will recognize it as such and not engage in it!
(10) Even though verse 10 is given in the context of a godly community, we can see how it works today. Those who emulate the standards and values of the day are celebrated when they do well, and those who do not are celebrated when they fall! We should make sure that within our communities of faith we rejoice when the righteous do well, and we should probably recognize that there can even be a certain satisfaction (and perhaps even sorrow) when those who sin get their just rewards.
(11-12) Liars and slanderers affect communities. Those who build up are a blessing. But, even beyond that, a family, a city, a county, a state, or a nation can all benefit from sound, godly advice. However, bad advice destroys. Sometimes you may wonder why it’s important to know how a person running for office will vote on a certain subject, particularly when it may never come up (like in a local election). What a person believes about a certain issue will probably help you understand their reasoning and decision-making process. It can reveal if they are upright or wicked!
(13) Can you be trusted with a secret? A righteous person doesn’t go around spreading private information about other people.
(14) Although we have the Scriptures and the Spirit, we sometimes need additional help understanding what God wants us to do. Maybe Scripture doesn’t address it specifically. Maybe something could be interpreted in different ways. That’s when other godly people can help us. And if it’s important for us, think about how important it is for those who are running a nation!
(15) Be careful before you cosign a loan. If they default, you’re the one who has to repay it!
(16-17) In our day and age much would be made of the juxtaposition between generous women and ruthless men! Should we read something into it here? Men in that culture did have a much greater opportunity to seize wealth, and that may be why it reads the way it does. Ultimately, the thought behind it is that being generous is right and good, while being greedy is wrong. Kindness brings blessing, while cruelty ultimately ends up costing the one who is cruel. Coupling the two together we could say, “Being generous and kind brings blessing and honor, but being ruthless, cruel, and greedy causes you to harm yourself.”
(18-19) Yes, you can still earn a living by being deceptive and even stealing. But the danger of getting caught is always there. It’s much better to earn a living by being honest and hardworking. That brings a genuine, carefree reward. Once again, righteousness leads to life, but pursuing evil brings consequences and death.
(20) If we want to delight God, we have to make sure that our hearts are pure. We shouldn’t harbor evil inside, because what’s inside eventually comes out. Blamelessness starts within!
(21) Does what we do affect our offspring? Yes, to a point. We protect ourselves and stay out of trouble when we’re righteous, and that protects our families too! Also, when we are good examples and teach righteousness and morality, our children have a head start on pleasing God. Alternatively, we end up in trouble if we make evil choices, and we influence our children negatively with our bad example. What we do has profound impact on the lives of our children and grandchildren. Ultimately, how they end up living is their choice, but our good choices can help protect them for a time.
(22) You can be pretty on the outside and get lots of attention. In fact, this world and human nature drive us to make judgements that are “skin deep.” But what if what was on the inside was readily apparent? What if your nature could be seen? Then it wouldn’t matter what you put on the outside. If you were ugly on the inside and it could be seen, a gold ring wouldn’t do anything to make it better! The warning here is that we need to focus on being beautiful on the inside. Part of that beauty is having discretion or being discerning. In practical terms that means we study to have the knowledge to make right decisions and have godly attitudes. But then we also need to carry through to make and exhibit them!
(23) Does this refer to judgment or desire? Do righteous people desire to do good and wicked people desire to stir up trouble, or do righteous people end up receiving good from God while the wicked can expect judgment (both now and in the age to come)? Perhaps both are meant to be true!
(24) God blesses those who help others, sometimes materially, and certainly spiritually. Here the emphasis seems to be on the physical, revealing that God blesses those who give so that they can give more!
(25-26) The image is not just of generosity, but of grace. Perhaps there is a famine. Will you hoard your grain, or provide it for others? If you are generous and willing to share, people will speak highly of you and treat you well. If not, they will curse you. And that’s just from an earthly perspective! God will certainly enrich and satisfy the generous, and those who are greedy and stingy will have to face His wrath.
(27-28) You tend to find what you are looking for in this life. If you want to find evil, do evil. If you want favor and acceptance, do good! What are you looking for? And if you think riches will bring favor and acceptance, good luck! If you’re looking for something to trust in, look to God!
(29-30) The issue in verse 29 probably isn’t the inheritance you get, but the inheritance you leave, or the inheritance you have left. If you squander what you have, what will you have to live on? What will you leave behind? The fool who squanders an inheritance ends up being servant to the wise who saves and spends wisely. If the inheritance is more spiritual or intellectual, it may connect with the next verse. If you are a fool in the way you live or think, you leave a fool’s inheritance behind. The righteous leave a good inheritance. Instead of a wasteland, you help people grow and bear fruit on the tree of life! You “capture” the souls of those around you by providing good instruction and a good example.
(31) The difference between the righteous and the wicked concerning eternal judgment is one word: Jesus! The righteous allow Jesus to take the penalty and consequences for their sins, but the wicked choose to pay the price for their disobedience.
Thought for the day: There is a lot in here about money and generosity. We would do well to remember that monetary blessing is for the benefit of God’s kingdom, not our own coffers.
Matthew 6:19-21 (WEB) “Don’t lay up treasures for yourselves on the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consume, and where thieves don’t break through and steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Amen!