1My son, if you have become collateral for your neighbor,
if you have struck your hands in pledge for a stranger,
2you are trapped by the words of your mouth;
you are ensnared with the words of your mouth.
3Do this now, my son, and deliver yourself,
since you have come into the hand of your neighbor.
Go, humble yourself.
Press your plea with your neighbor.
4Give no sleep to your eyes,
nor slumber to your eyelids.
5Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,
like a bird from the snare of the fowler.
6Go to the ant, you sluggard.
Consider her ways, and be wise;
7which having no chief, overseer, or ruler,
8provides her bread in the summer,
and gathers her food in the harvest.
9How long will you sleep, sluggard?
When will you arise out of your sleep?
10A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to sleep—
11so your poverty will come as a robber,
and your scarcity as an armed man.
12A worthless person, a man of iniquity,
is he who walks with a perverse mouth,
13who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet,
who motions with his fingers,
14in whose heart is perverseness,
who devises evil continually,
who always sows discord.
15Therefore his calamity will come suddenly.
He will be broken suddenly, and that without remedy.
16There are six things which Yahweh hates;
yes, seven which are an abomination to him:
17arrogant eyes, a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,
18a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are swift in running to mischief,
19a false witness who utters lies,
and he who sows discord among brothers.
20My son, keep your father’s commandment,
and don’t forsake your mother’s teaching.
21Bind them continually on your heart.
Tie them around your neck.
22When you walk, it will lead you.
When you sleep, it will watch over you.
When you awake, it will talk with you.
23For the commandment is a lamp,
and the law is light.
Reproofs of instruction are the way of life,
24to keep you from the immoral woman,
from the flattery of the wayward wife’s tongue.
25Don’t lust after her beauty in your heart,
neither let her captivate you with her eyelids.
26For a prostitute reduces you to a piece of bread.
The adulteress hunts for your precious life.
27Can a man scoop fire into his lap,
and his clothes not be burned?
28Or can one walk on hot coals,
and his feet not be scorched?
29So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife.
Whoever touches her will not be unpunished.
30Men don’t despise a thief
if he steals to satisfy himself when he is hungry,
31but if he is found, he shall restore seven times.
He shall give all the wealth of his house.
32He who commits adultery with a woman is void of understanding.
He who does it destroys his own soul.
33He will get wounds and dishonor.
His reproach will not be wiped away.
34For jealousy arouses the fury of the husband.
He won’t spare in the day of vengeance.
35He won’t regard any ransom,
neither will he rest content, though you give many gifts.
This chapter is one of the heaviest theological chapters in the New Testament. As we hear the words of Jesus, we have a glimpse into the mind of Christ. Famous Welsh theologian, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, wrote several books and hundreds of pages on what goes on in this chapter. It has been discussed and debated by many Christian thinkers. In the first four verses, we hear Jesus, God in the flesh, praying to God the Father in heaven. Those who deny the divinity of Christ sometimes point to these verses, showing that in no way did Jesus claim to be God, because how and why would God pray to Himself? But the stickler is there in verse five. Jesus says, “5 Now, Father, glorify me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world existed (v.5). Jesus clearly states that He was there, in the beginning, “with the glory which I had before the world existed.” There was none there at the beginning, before the world began, other than God Himself. In short, Jesus is God in the flesh.
His prayer continues. He prays for those with whom He has had contact and fellowship while here on earth in His earthly ministry. He prays for His disciples and others in the world at that time, and then He gets to us! “Not for these only do I pray, but for those also who will believe in me through their word.” He is talking about you and me, who have believed in Him through the testimony of the disciples, which has made its way down to each one of us. If you read this, and you are ‘in Christ’, you heard the gospel message, and you received it. Jesus is praying for our unity. He is praying that we may be one in Him as He is in us. Unity is important to God. The Shemah Yishrael states, “Hear oh Israel, the Lord our God is echad (unity)”. (Deut 6:4). Unity in the family of God is also very important to God. We derail this unity when we create division over all kinds of things. The Holy Spirit speaks through the Psalmist when he says, “See how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to live together in unity! (Psalms 133:1 WEB) God is interested in our unity. Interestingly, He doesn’t call for our uniformity.
We disrupt this unity in the Church when we argue or create division over peripheral issues. What are peripherals? That word means the “outer boundaries.” So, the outer boundaries of what? I would say the outer boundaries of the faith's core tenets. When we argue about the color of the carpet, the inadequacy of the youth pastor, the delivery of the associate pastor’s sermon, the timing of Jesus’ return, the intricacies of exactly how God saves us when we come to Him. The last one is a doozy because we pretend to have the theological imagination to fully understand the mind of God. These can easily become divisive. I am not saying these things might not be important. I am saying that they are not to be ARGUED over. They are not to be the central thing. They are the peripheral things. We are clearly warned in Scripture that God doesn’t like those who create needless division, and He gives great scrutiny to those who sow discord. “There are six things which Yahweh hates, yes, seven which are an abomination to him, and he who sows discord among brothers. (Proverbs 6:16a and 19b WEB) Jesus prayed for unity. Now do your part to live in unity. That is what God loves.