Proverbs 3:27-35
Do not…
- Withhold good when you can do it (Pr. 3:27)
- Put off your neighbor when you can provide his due (Pr. 3:28)
- Plan evil against your neighbor (Pr. 3:29)
- Be contentious without cause (Pr. 3:30)
- Envy a man of violence (Pr. 3:31)
- Choose the ways of a man of violence (Pr. 3:31)
In other words, love your neighbor as yourself. (Lev. 19:18; Mt. 22:39; Mk. 12:31; Rom. 13:9; Gal. 5:14; James 2:8)
We can readily see in today’s passage that the way of wisdom is the way of righteousness. The two go hand in hand.
Do not contend with a man for no reason, when he has done you no harm. (v. 30) At first I thought this verse didn’t mean much – why would I contend with someone who had not done anything to me? But then I remembered a Christian speaker named Bill Gothard who advised us at a seminar against “taking up an offense” – being angry or upset at someone because of what we had heard about that person from a second source. Unfortunately, that’s too easy to do when that “someone” is a person of authority. In the church I think it happens all too often with “gossip” about the pastor. Something the pastor did or said upset or troubled Person A who then told Person B – and Person B then gets angry or upset at the pastor. And then it spreads…!! True.