Righteousness and Discernment

"Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things. All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them... The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate... I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me... For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death (Prov. 8:6,8,13,17,35,36). This passage is from the testimony of wisdom in Proverbs 8, which actually is the testimony of the Son of God, whom the new testament scriptures tell us is the person of wisdom (I Cor. 1:30). A thorough study of the chapter shows that this is in fact a person speaking, not just the faculty of God's wisdom and mind. Verses 22-31 really show plainly that it is a person speaking in these verses, and that it is indeed the Son of God. But the more pertinent point that I would like to make here is the reality that loving righteousness equals life, whereas hating righteousness equals death. This passage also clearly shows that loving righteousness and fearing the Lord includes hating that which is evil. As we see written here, those who seek God early will find him, and what they will find is that there is nothing froward or perverse in him, and that he speaks only "right things." The scripture instructs us to be "followers of God, as dear children, [and to] walk in love" (Eph. 5:1,2). If we are going to walk in God's love, that means we are going to walk in the love of righteousness and the hatred of iniquity, as we see from our text passage. The love of God is holy, and it never speaks froward things or compromises with wickedness. God's mouth speaks only "right things," and if we claim to follow him, then so should ours.

There simply is no such thing as hating evil, as the scripture says, and compromising with it at the same time. That is not the fear of the Lord, and that is not loving wisdom, meaning the Son of God Jesus Christ. Many people want to stand against some evils to some extent, unless and until it means they are at odds with everyone around them. But we should carefully consider the words of Jesus in these matters: "Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels" (Mk. 8:38). Again Jesus made it crystal clear that we are either all the way in or all the way out: "He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad (Mat. 12:30). There is a great spirit of compromise in this age that we live in, and it is on every level among God's people, and in the world. As followers of God we will have to speak straightly according to the way Jesus speaks, and we will have to be willing to suffer the loss of men's acceptance as he was willing. When we are in tight spots with issues involving what is truly right verses what is wrong, we need to be thinking what is it that will gain us favor and acceptance with Jesus, and not what will keep us on the 'good' side' of men. If we are any other way then Jesus will have no choice but to see us as he saw those who were likewise in his day: "I receive not honour from men... But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you... How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?" (Jn. 5:40,42,44) That sounds a whole lot like our text passage to me, and to punctuate the point I'll copy it again: "For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death." I believe that says it clearly enough.