Prayer
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. How wonderful you are! I give thanks to you, O Lord, on this new day, in the morning I call upon your name. Speak, O Lord, and renew my mind as I meditate upon your word. Help me to make known your deeds to all people that I meet. I seek your face, I need your strength, my hope is in you. Thank you for the great salvation that you have made for us through your Son, the Lord Jesus. My heart looks up to you now, Lord, please be not far from me. Change my heart, O God, make it ever true, change my heart O God, may I be like you. Amen.
Reading
Prov 1:10 - “My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.”
Meditation
I wonder if you think of yourself as being an impressionable person? Probably in our pride, we don’t like to think of ourselves as being easily influenced. We’d prefer to think of ourselves as determined, strong-minded, and resistant to the influence of others. We want to be, and perhaps think that we are, the sort of person who can make our own way through life. There’s no easy way to put this, so best to just say it plainly: these kinds of ideas are totally foreign to biblical thought. Even for the most mature and godly people the warning of 1 Corinthians 15:33 makes no exception “Do not be deceived:“Bad company ruins good morals.”
With these things in mind, please listen carefully to what I’m about to say: the people you take to be your companions will, without a doubt, have a significant shaping influence on your life. In the words of one preacher, we are the sum total of our five closest friends. Proverbs 1:10 furnishes us with a dramatic illustration of this principle. Solomon’s particular concern in this verse is to warn his son about the dangers of falling in with bad company. Proverbs 1:10 says “My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.”
The world in which we live in is a spiritually dangerous place, and one of the primary aspects of wisdom is to be aware of that danger so we can avoid it. Our verse introduces us to one of the chief dangers, the danger of taking sinners to be our companions. Who we spend time with profoundly shapes who we ourselves are and who we become. We tend to go in the same direction as the people around us. Be careful, then, whom you take to be your friends – that is the warning that Solomon is laying out here.
Be ye doers of the word…
Now we will unpack this warning further over the next few studies, but to prepare us to receive it well, I want you to pay attention to something very important here at the start: that this is a loving warning. In the most affectionate of terms, Solomon says: “My son, if sinners entice you…”. Solomon is concerned for his son, he doesn’t want to see his life ruined by foolish decisions. Heed this warning because it is given to us in love.
When you talk to older believers who have children who have grown up and walked away from Christ, you can sense that it’s a true burden of the heart. Proverbs 10:1 says: “A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother.” So take this warning to heart. We generally don’t like to be told “no”, and especially when we’re young we tend to strain against the limitations our parents place on us. This is a foolish way to live. To young people especially I must say: when your parents warn you, you ought to take it to heart, and know that it’s in your best interests to do so.
The warning of Proverbs 1:10 comes to us from our heavenly Father, and so with even more force, we all – young and old – must take it to heart. Some of the things we consider over the course of the next few studies may not be initially welcome or comfortable, but nevertheless, we would be wise to listen with open hearts and take the full warning of this passage on board. Suppose you were at the beach going for a swim, and the lifeguard says “There’s been a shark sighting today, do NOT go into the water!” Would you be thankful? The warning comes to us in this passage: there are spiritual sharks in the water… beware.
This warning comes with authority as well. Not only is it a loving warning from a father to a son, but – as with all instructions from fathers – this warning comes with authority. We reject or neglect Proverbs 1:10 at our own peril. We must actually obey this warning. Sons ought not to ignore the instruction of their fathers, and we ought not to ignore the instruction of our Heavenly Father. We must fear God, revere his commands and instruction, and submit to them. We must fear the consequences of disobeying – that’s something that 1:10-19 lay out very clearly to us (we’ll get to that). So consider the following studies well, take them to heart, and submit to your Heavenly Father. SDG.
Prayer of Confession & Consecration
Lord I thank you for the warnings you give to us in your word. Thank you for drawing dangers to our attention. Without your wisdom, we would simply walk in heedless to such dangers, to our own hurt and perhaps destruction. Please give us discernment as we consider where and how to invest our friendships, and please keep us from the temptations that the world will offer us to draw us in. Please give us a discerning heart, and forgive us for the times when we have succumbed to such temptations and fallen in step with the wicked ways of the world. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
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