Reading
SAA Notes
Prudent men and wise women: There are plenty of proverbs in this chapter explaining how to find the wise way in life for each sex.
SJA Notes
* Mighty God, in You is the water of life, a fountain never-ending – Flowing from the rock!
“The backslider in heart will be filled with the fruit of his ways, and a good man will be filled with the fruit of his ways.”
What kind of fruit do we bear?
Jesus gives us instruction on bearing fruit in His sermon on the mount, where He speaks of false prophets, and then speaks of good and bad trees and their fruit, and finishes the thought with,
“Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.”
God’s people are called to be discerning.
It is a hard line to keep falling over either side, either into negligent niceness or into merciless and never-satisfied critique.
This proverb tells us that both sets of people will be filled with the fruit – of their ways.
What is the way of God’s people?
Galatians 5 tells us that we are to go about our lives practicing the fruits of God’s Spirit.
Love. Joy. Peace. Patience. Kindness. Goodness. Faithfulness. Gentleness. Self-control.
This can be a hard list to process when reflecting honestly into our own lives.
What kind of fruit do we bear?
What of the other way, the backslider in heart?
Galatians 5 gives us a list for this way as well.
Sexual immorality. Impurity. Sensuality. Idolatry. Sorcery. Enmity. Strife. Jealousy. Fits of anger. Rivalries. Dissensions. Divisions. Envy. Drunkeness. Orgies.
This too is a hard list to read through with open and honest mirror-reflection into our own lives.
What kind of fruit do we bear?
Jesus tells us so well in John 15,
“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
To bear the fruit that matters, the right fruit – We need Jesus, we need to abide in Jesus!
* God Above,
Thank You Lord for Your word today.
Please sink us in self that we might rise in You.
May we be good soil and bear much fruit today, You planting Your word in us and growing it, writing it on our hearts.
Amen.