Well, anything, really.
A Proverb that caught my attention in a big way this past week was Proverbs 15:27:
Whoever is greedy for unjust gain troubles his own household,
but he who hates bribes will live.
Before I start into my thought process on this verse, I wanted to look up the definition of "bribe" for expansion of clarification in my own mind, if not for yours also.
The first definition is a bit technical:
"A price, reward, gift or favor bestowed or promised with a view to pervert the judgment, or corrupt the conduct of a judge, witness or other person. A bribe is a consideration given or promised to a person, to induce him to decide a cause, give testimony, or perform some act contrary to what he knows to be truth, justice or rectitude..." (1)
The second definition is much simpler and hits more at the heart of how this verse convicted me:
"That which seduces." (2)
Three words that, when strung together, carry heavy meaning. They kind of scare me, actually. Also, the result of a bribe is most commonly 'unjust gain', as the verse says.
To be unmistakably clear up front, I am not by any means interpreting the strict meaning of this verse, but rather sharing the conviction that the Lord brought to me through it as an offshoot.
So, as to my very first thought upon reading verse 27, it went something like this:
"Yeah.......
...........
......Wow."
The Proverbs of the Bible very frequently state the results of one action or attribute, and then in contrast, that of the opposite action or attribute. If you're a diligent reader of the book of Proverbs, that was an obvious statement.
I don't think I'm off in believing that the purpose of this method of writing is to make very clear the wisdom that the writer means to impart to the reader, no matter how simple he/she may be. It works, right? The Proverbs are certainly not guessing games. You can't pretend to be confused or baffled by them. The vast majority of them, anyway. It's like telling someone, "If you jump off that 100-foot cliff, you'll die. If you don't, you'll live".
But I digress.
The first half of this verse, "Whoever is greedy for unjust gain troubles his own household", in my own heart, quickly translated into this concept:
Seeking my own desires, being greedy with my "own" time and resources does not lend to unity in my household, namely my family.
The heart of God, among other things, is family unity, because it is a pattern set by the Godhead. It pleases the Lord, and thus it must be, and by the grace of God has become, very important to me. But if I am going to live out my belief in the immense importance of family unity, I need to know my role, and how to exercise it. This verse gave me some insight.
If applying my mind to knowledge and understanding means secluding myself for hours at a time while sacrificing the needs of my family, I am not lending to family unity.
If I am being diligent in my work around the house, but placing that above spending time with my younger sibling loving and (coming alongside my parents) discipling them, I am not lending to family unity.
If, in anything, I am exampling self-indulgence, no matter how righteous the use of "my" time may be, and a negative response to the denial of my desires, no matter how good and acceptable they may be, then I am leading my younger siblings astray, and not lending to family unity.
Along those lines, Proverbs 18:1 says that whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire.
Family unity is a result of love, and love only comes from God, because God is love, (1 John 4:8) and thus defines love. One of the places in Scripture where He defines love is in 1 Corinthians 13, where it is stated that love does not insist on its own way.
In conclusion, for there to be unity in Christ, we must not insist on our own way.
But I don't have the capacity to be concerned with "our". All the ability God has given me is to be concerned with my own life before Him. So, by His grace, and through His strength, that's what I'm going to.
In Christ, Emily
(1), (2) Taken from Webster's 1828 Dictionary