Saturday after the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on October 5, 2024 by under
Scripture: Proverbs 14:21-31 (NKJV)
14:21 He who despises his neighbor sins; But he who has mercy on the poor, happy is he.
22 Do they not go astray who devise evil? But mercy and truth belong to those who devise good.
23 In all labor there is profit, but idle chatter leads only to poverty.
24 The crown of the wise is their riches, but the foolishness of fools is folly.
25 A true witness delivers souls, but a deceitful witness speaks lies.
26 In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence, and His children will have a place of refuge.
27 The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to turn one away from the snares of death.
28 In a multitude of people is a king’s honor, but in the lack of people is the downfall of a prince.
29 He who is slow to wrath has great understanding, but he who is impulsive exalts folly.
30 A sound heart is life to the body, but envy is rottenness to the bones.
31 He who oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker, but he who honors Him has mercy on the needy.
Devotion
These proverbs well summarize this week’s readings, speaking to a life that is led (or not) by the understanding that we have life only as we remain attached to Christ, the Vine, and that being so attached manifests itself in the exercise of very specific wisdom.
The “fear of the Lord,” again, is not a terror that runs away from Him, but the desire never to be separated from Him and His favor, so that when we sin, we run to Him to confess our transgression. In the “strong confidence” of His absolution for Jesus’ sake, we run to our Father, rather than cutting ourselves off from Him. Such fear is, indeed, “a fountain of life” and “a place of refuge” for us. Thus, Christians (according to the New Man, not the flesh) love the Law of the Lord, even when we fail in what He instructs us, because it shows us our continuing need.
We are warned by this reading, then, to be like Him who saved us, not despising the poor or allowing our flesh to devise wickedness so that we are unprofitable (cf. Matt. 25:14–30, Eph. 6:5–9). Instead, we remember that we and our neighbors have the same Maker, the same Redeemer, and we confess our trust in Him most highly by confessing the intent of His mercy as being for them as much as for us, perhaps thus adding them to the King’s honor (v. 28).
Collect: O God, forasmuch as without Thee we are not able to please Thee: Mercifully grant, that Thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
