Godly Character pt. 2

Overview of 1-11:

v. 1-4 | Conditions for gaining character through wisdom, receive, listen, ask for insight, and seeking it out.

v. 5-8 | Consequence one of gaining wisdom is understanding the fear of the Lord and finding the knowledge of God.

v. 9-11 | The sort of character of a person who gains this wisdom: understands righteousness and justice, full of wisdom and knowledge.

v. 12-15 | Description of those who try to deter the one seeking wisdom.

Perverted speech- a twisting of words, attempting to turn things upside down so that they might be different than what they seem. They don’t value the truth and have their own objective in mind instead.

Forsake the paths of uprightness- This frees them up to walk in the way of evil and have no care for the paths of uprightness.

Rejoice in doing evil- not just taking part but applauding all evil that is done.

Not only having perverse speech but also taking part in twisted activities as well.

Their paths and ways are those which should be avoided.

v. 16-19 | Godly character leads away from “strange” women

This describes a woman who allures with words that flatter and attract. She has left commitments of home and forsaken a covenant of God.

The consequences of following this woman will lead to a premature death. We ought to keep in mind that the goal of these verses is to bring us to a point where value is placed on wisdom and character. Those things will deliver or rescue us from such entrapment.

v. 20-22 | The path to continue down

The way of the good for those who fear the Lord and the paths of righteous for the one who avoids that of evil.

There are benefits, the blessings of God, which is given in example of inheriting the land, to choosing Godly character. The opposite is given to. Those who are wicked will have these blessings withheld from them.