Let your eyes look directly ahead and let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you. Watch the path of your feet and all your ways will be established. Do not turn to the right nor to the left; turn your foot from evil. (Prov 4:25-27)I think Solomon's wisdom is a bit more extreme than most of ours. He warns to guard his heart by first guarding his eyes. "Look directly ahead." Not to the side. Not at the temptations. Not at the things that might draw you away. Not the billboard with the scantily clad woman or that click bait on the news webpage you're reading. Know where you're going and look that way.
Then he warns him to guard his paths. If you watch where you are walking, "all your ways will be established." "Don't turn right. Don't turn left. Don't even take a step toward evil. Walk on by." Earlier he had told his son, "Do not enter the path of the wicked and do not proceed in the way of evil men. Avoid it, do not pass by it; turn away from it and pass on." (Prov 4:14-15) Don't even get close. No, wait, more than that. Turn away from it.
Not us. Sure, we're aware of temptations and evil around us. We see it on our TVs and internet. It's quite difficult to avoid, in fact. It's just ... there. But it's okay. We'll be strong. We'll hold out. But too often we don't. We trip and fall. We turn right. Or left. We don't turn away; not in time.
Perhaps we would benefit from Solomon's advice. Perhaps we'd be better off taking drastic measures (Matt 18:8-9) to avoid the path of the wicked rather than dancing on the edges and thinking we might be immune. Instead we should guard our hearts, watch where we're going, know where we're going, and absolutely avoid those places of evil. Well, that is, if you have a problem with sin. If you've already arrived at perfection, none of this is applicable, of course.
3 comments:
I know too many Christians who seem fascinated by how close they can get to the edge of sin, yet still be "safe".
My usual response is, "What are you hoping to accomplish by continually walking up to the edge of the cliff? Why wouldn't you be better off by staying as far away from sin as possible?".
It seems strange to me, but it's certainly a common enough practice.
I often hear, "Is it a sin to ...?" I sometimes think it's a question in the wrong direction. How about "Is it good to ...?"
I agree that the best path is to strive to do good, rather than simply to avoid sin. Yet, there are times when the question should probably be answered to set boundaries.
I'd suggest that the likelihood is that someone who lives as close to the edge of sin as they can, is probably going to end up asking redefining things to allow themselves to get closer and closer to the line, before inevitably crossing the line and redefining sin entirely.
Whereas, someone who takes the opposite approach will certainly sin, but their response will be to recoil from the sin and to focus on the good.
like many things, it's all about your focus.
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