Lessons from Proverbs

Themes and Lessons from the Book of Proverbs 

 

Wise                                       Foolish        

Wisdom
Values wisdom, searches for it, guards it, watches daily to hear wisdom	Complacent in their lack of knowledge, lacks sense, not interested in understanding
Hungry for knowledge	Feeds on mental trash
Listens to instruction, loves discipline	Despises and abandons instruction, scoffs at it
Open to correction	Stubbornly repeatedly refuses correction
Respects a command	Rebellious, despises commands
Accepts God’s discipline, accepts correction, listens to constructive criticism	Hates discipline, insults those who correct them, ignores criticism
Has many advisers, listens to others	Doesn’t listen to others’ advice, relies only on themselves
Walks with the wise	Associates with fools
Remembers lessons	Ignorant of why things go wrong
Reflects on and learns from failures	Doesn’t learn from mistakes
Wants to teach others, prepares hospitality to invite others in to learn	Wants others to join them in their folly, wants to use others in their folly
Understands things can change, is flexible	Is rigid, keeps going when a plan is no longer a valid
Personal Righteousness
Fears the Lord	Despises the Lord
Trusts in God vs self, humble	Prideful
Knows God is in control	Trusts in high walls for defense
Tries to find, then follows, God’s plan	Sets their own plans
Keeps a fluid heart, able to be directed by God	Has a hard heart
Doesn’t try to understand all of God’s plans, but trusts that God does have plans	Doesn’t believe in Divine purpose or planning
Acknowledges God will examine them	Denies the reality of God’s judgment
Knows their faults, understands they are not innocent	Thinks more of themselves than they should
Knows God sees everything in their heart	Justifies everything in their heart
Repentant	Unrepentant (14:9)
Confesses their sins	Conceals their sins
Doesn’t trust their own discernment	Trusts their own discernment
Rejoices in the Lord	Rejoices in their own achievements
Rejoices in creation	Rejoices in pleasure
Delights in other people	Uses other people
Watches over their heart	Opens themselves to following deceptive feelings
Guards against temptation, avoids it	Invites temptation
Consistent	Backsliding
Self-controlled	Lets their hungers make them partake of things that are not good
Doesn’t fail under pressure, builds endurance to all types of stress	Caves in to stress, remains defenseless to stress, finds negative coping skills
Encourages	Worries
Does not give in to the wicked	Gives in to peer pressure
Not a drunkard, doesn’t overdrink alcohol	Drunkard
Doesn’t get drunk, because if they do, they won’t be able to do their duty	Values pleasure over responsibility
Recognizes and submits to proper authority	Eager for rebellion
Noble	Self-indulgent
Not trapped by sin	Thinks they can’t escape sin
	Feels the freedom to sin after being forgiven
Engages in physical discipline	Engages in pleasure
Doesn’t praise themselves, lets others speak in their favor	Boasts
Doesn’t claim the place of honor but waits for an invitation	Self-aggrandizing
Earns a good reputation	Earns a bad reputation
Righteousness Toward Others
Respects their parents	Embarrasses their parents
Avoids evildoers and their ways, fears God and turns from evil and hates evil, doesn’t envy the violent, lives at peace with others	Violent and greedy toward others, stirs up strife
Is gracious and kind to others	Ruthless, cruel
Is truthful, is not devious, fair to others	Devious in their ways, lies, flatters others, cheats others
Doesn’t tell lies about others	Lies to take revenge
Doesn’t use double standards	Is hypocritical
Follows through on their word	Does what is convenient
Loyal, helps in time of need, loyal to friends in hard times, loyal to people whether rich or poor	Loyal only when they benefit from the relationship
Educates and protects the naive, informs them of potential dangers	Takes advantage of the naive, is naive of the true cost of sin
Has empathy	Doesn’t give mercy to their neighbors
Knows they can’t know everything someone is thinking	Thinks everyone thinks like them
Doesn’t think they know what other people feel	Assumes
Doesn’t rejoice about an enemy’s downfall	Is glad when their enemies get what they deserve
Won’t sin even against those who deserve it	Sins against godly people
Sex, Marriage, Children
Builds up their house	Tears down their house
Doesn’t marry or be a quarrelsome wife	Isn’t careful about who they get into a relationship with, quarrels
Is satisfied with their spouse	Sexually immoral, not satisfied with their spouse
Disciplines their children	Doesn’t discipline their children
Directs children onto the right path	Sets a bad example for their children
Dresses and asks modestly	Dressed as a harlot
Is humble, subdued, self-controlled	Boisterous
Is happy to be home with their family	Does not remain at home
Is rewarded by having a virtuous wife	Is punished by getting with an immoral woman
Speaking
Speaks righteously, uses pure words	Speaks evil, crude
Speaks gently	Speaks harshly
Discreet, keeps a confidence	Lacks discretion, eagerly listens to gossip and slander, tells rumors and likes to hear rumors
Doesn’t associate with gossips	Seeks out drama and gossip
Doesn’t waste on breath on fools, doesn’t argue with fools	Is argumentative with people they disagree with
Listens	Babbles
Thinks before speaking	Overflows evil words
Says valuable things to encourage others, gives wise advice, speaks helpfully, speaks healing words	Babbles worthlessly, belittles others, makes cutting remarks
Says the right thing at the right time	Is insensitive to others
Speaks only the truth	Traps themselves with words
Justice
Just, judges rightly	Judges based on their feelings and opinions
Understands justice	Biased
Hates bribes	Greedy, takes bribes
Openly rebukes people	Talks behind people’s backs
Thoroughly punishes the wicked, punishes foolishness, doesn’t tolerate mockers	Is too lenient
Lets people bear their consequences	Is too quick to help others get out of their consequences
Takes responsibility for their mistakes	Blames God after getting consequences from foolishness
Doesn’t reward foolishness, doesn’t put a fool in a position of authority	Is swayed by charisma
Repays good with good	Repays good with evil
Respects the godly	Punishes the godly for being good, flogs leaders for being honest
Peaceful
Loves - covers offenses	Hates - stirs up quarrels
Stays calm when insulted, controls their anger	Quick-tempered, loves to quarrel
Avoids a fight	Insists on quarreling
Stops fights	Starts fights
Doesn’t befriend hot-tempered people	Is attracted to people who act tough
Plans peace, plans to do good	Plots evil
Peaceful	Jealous
Flips a coin to decide a dispute	Insists on proving themselves right
Forgives others	Dwells on others’ sins
Cares for animals	Cruel to animals
Prudent
Cautious, not hasty	Reckless
Doesn’t make rash promises to God, counts the cost	Vows too hastily, without thinking about the long-term sustainability of their promise
Foresees danger, takes precautions	Waves away any threat of danger
Considers what they hear	Believes everything they hear
Weighs all the evidence	Makes a quick decision
Doesn’t pick a fight they can’t win	Lets their anger get them into trouble
Lives appropriate to their age	Lives according to their feelings, immature
Work Ethic
Focused, committed, motivated, has goals	Distracted, easily changes paths
Is not lazy, works hard	Lazy, chases fantasies, get-rich-quick schemes, talks about ideas
Doesn’t spend too much time on pleasure and luxury	Wastes time on pleasure and unproductive activities
Is productive rather than oversleeping	Oversleeps
Reliable	Unreliable, Irritates their employers
Works at the right time	Doesn’t work at the right time
Optimistic about work opportunities	Sees only obstacles - pessimistic
Produces their own fruit	Envious of others’ loot
Master workman	Sloppy
Becomes skilled in their profession and earns a better position	Doesn’t put any effort into improving their professional skills
Changes their habits to achieve their goals	Refuses to turn from evil to attain their dreams
Money
Trusts in God	Trusts in wealth
Honors God with wealth, uses wealth to enrich their lives	Squanders money on sin, wastes wealth on pleasure and has nothing to show for it afterward
Values reputation over riches	Values money over earning and spending it virtuously
Saves money, builds wealth against disaster	Doesn’t save money, lives in poverty - cant handle an emergency
Plans financially	Lives day to day
Saves money	Spends on sinful desires and foolishness
Makes use of everything they find	Wastes what they have
Pretends to be poor	Pretends to be rich
Does not withhold what they owe	Breaks covenants
Does not take on others’ financial obligations	Voluntarily burdens themselves offering to take on others’ financial obligations
Doesn’t borrow money	Weighs themselves down with debt
Gives freely, loves to give	Stingy, is greedy for more
Helps the poor	Oppresses the poor
Gives a gift to gain an audience	Demands an audience with no benefit given to the other person
Doesn’t try to get an advantage by oppressing the poor or giving gifts to the rich	Cheats or bribes others to get more money for themselves
Doesn’t invest in someone who won’t learn	Pays to educate a fool
Doesn’t give an inheritance too early - learns the lesson of working for what they have	Sets their children up to fail, giving them money before they’ve learned how to earn it
Doesn’t eat or earn money more than he needs	Gluttonous, greedy
Lives in hope of reward	Lives in fear of consequences