An Idea Borrowed

Years ago on a radio program someone shared that they read a chapter in Proverbs every day. Since there are 31 chapters and the longest month has 31 days it allows you to read through Proverbs on a regular basis. I use it as the launch pad for my personal worship time and branch out from there. On this blog I will try to share some of the insights I have in the Word. I will try to organize them in the archive by reference.

Monday, April 13, 2015

Book Covers

(Proverbs 13:7 KJV)  There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing: there is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches.

I don’t see any value judgement here.  Everyone “pretends”, as the NASB puts it.  The idea of masquerade is part of both “rich” (6238) and “poor” (7326).  You might translate these as “one who riches himself” and “one who poors himself.”

Again, I don’t see that one is good and one is bad.  Both are concealing what they are.  Maybe the idea for us is the saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”  Or maybe it is a warning.  The warning is for us, not the person hiding themselves.

So?  This recommends that we treat people as individuals not as members of a social class.  Courtesy is the default option.  It is a good place to start. 

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