12:1-8
The first four verses of this chapter represent the themes of proverbs and continue to practically apply them. There is the wise person who accepts discipline and learning and therefore gains knowledge. This is contrasted with the stupid person who hates being told what to do or how to do something differently and instead becomes stupid.
The good person gains God’s favour, but God condemns the wicked. The wicked never feel secure but the wise place their trust in the solid foundation of God and are secure.
Lastly, our behaviour reflects on those around us and the wise are far more favoured as reflecting favourably on their family and friends than the evil.
Verses 5-8 continue these discussions by contrasting the use of good and evil words. The righteous speak in words of justice and encouragement. Not so the wicked who speak deceit and put downs. They are described as having warped minds. Many people think it is okay to put other’s down and sadly, this often occurs in families with parents and other adults in the family thinking it is okay to put their children down by making jokes about their mistakes and shortcomings within the family and to people outside the family. Even comics think putting their families down is great for a laugh and those who listen to them often laugh in response. But what harm are those words causing? Jesus never put people down or made jokes at their expense. People think it is okay to do this because their family or friends do it, but this type of negativity is never funny to the target of the joke. This type of behaviour is abusive and incredibly damaging to the target. Instead of encouraging and building up the target (who is often a child or uncertain teenager/young adult) the abusive behaviour sends messages designed to put the child down and disempower them.
If we listen to these verses and what we have already read in the first twelve chapters, then we know that instead there should be words of love spoken. Words of affirmation. Words of encouragement. Words that build up, not destroy. We should laugh at the genuinely funny, not at the put downs and the words spoken at another’s expense. When we do that we are the wise, loving knowledge and discipline, obtaining favour with God and being of noble character that bless others and bring glory to them and most particularly God.
 

11:22-31
These verses are based on the theme of money. We start with the description of the indiscrete woman whose beauty does not prevent her from being like the ring worn in a pig’s snout. It is this emptiness that the unrighteous possess.
Those whose ambition comes from righteousness find good for themselves and others. But those whose ambition is greed and serving self will find themselves facing God’s wrath in time.
There are people in this world who are generous and give of themselves, their money and freely assist others in justice, goodness, kindness and benevolence. Their lives will be ones of abundance in God’s riches. But those in this world who hold tight to everything they have and cut themselves off from others will know want. The one who seeks the good of others will receive good will from others. This will not happen to the evil ones who will reap instead evil. As a bonus, the righteous will lead others to Jesus through their actions that honour God.
The one who puts his faith in what he owns will fail. Not so the one whose faith is in God. He will prosper because God is with him.
The unrighteous lay the framework for their destruction but the righteous man will receive the fruit of life for his love of God. In life, the good often seem to suffer, but remember – the unrighteous will suffer more.
The money and possessions God gives us is to be used with common sense and not to be wasted on tricky business dealings or unwisely supporting a risky venture without God’s approval. It is to be used with kindness and generosity. It is not to be trusted in. That trust is God’s due. We can serve only one master (Matthew 6:24). Make sure the master you serve is God.
 

11:15-21
These verses start with a repeated warning to not put up security for another person. It is one thing to follow God’s instructions to offer a loan to someone who may be risky, but to offer up that loan without God’s approval is dangerous, and He does not require it of us. So no matter what pressure other Christians may put you under because of a faulty interpretation of the scriptures, remember that God does not want you to risk yourself like that, unless He asks you to. Stories abound about the person who lost everything lending money to a friend for a business venture that failed, or of the child who lends some money to another child who refuses to pay it back. Proverbs tells us to exercise wisdom and not lend what we cannot afford to lose. Lending money is risky and should not be done without God’s approval.
Despite this warning, we are to remember that the use of money is never to involve ruthlessness but is to be bound up in kindness. We read that the woman who is kind is given more respect than the wealthy man who is ruthless. Remember this was written in a time when women were treated as secondary to men, which emphasises the importance of kindness that a woman can be respected ahead of a man. So many people seek money because they think it brings safety, but it doesn’t. Wealth is easily lost. The only true safety is with God. To reinforce this we read that the merciful, kind and generous person’s good deeds bless him so that ultimately his kindness brings reward. For the greedy, ruthless, callous, person that ruthlessness brings retribution. Kindness, generosity and wisdom is the true riches of life and God will delight in such a person.
At a time when the world’s economy is creating a wealthy group of people who grow richer and a poor group of people who grow poorer, it is easy to lose hope. Don’t despair. For the ruthless, callous, greedy person will not go unpunished. The punishment may fall in life or when standing before God in judgement. It will happen. And those who are kind, generous and wise will receive their eternal reward.
 

Hebrews 12:15 “Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many.” NLT
Like many who write Christian blogs, I come from a very difficult background. Without going into the details, I have had to make the difficult decision in the last few years to no longer have contact with my siblings. This has been due to their extremely toxic behaviour, in particular that of my sister-in-law. This was something I struggled with for years until God directed me to take the step to cut off contact. It has been difficult because my brother and his wife were the only other Christians in my family. I looked up to them as being the ones who would show me the way to live a Christian life. Sadly, over the course of my adulthood, I have come to realise that I have outgrown them in my spiritual walk. Far from being shining lights as God’s disciples, they have become harsh, judgemental followers of Churchianity.
Christmas time is a time when my sister-in-law especially delights to “dig the knife in” and a previous Christmas was no exception. I may have cut off contact with them, but they do not honour that and, although they ignore me at all other times, they insist on sending Christmas cards at Christmas. These cards are not sent in love, but in hatred, and my sister-in-law uses my father, who is old and frail to visit her particular brand of hatred upon me. This paraticular Christmas the card from my father came and I opened it to find it had been completely depersonalised. There was no hint of love in it. My father’s dementia is such that he doesn’t know who he is writing to and writes in cards what he is told to write. I knew the card did not represent any feelings of my father but of my sister-in-law, so his words did not upset me. It was the nastiness of what she had done that upset me. I couldn’t believe someone could be so vindictive when I had done nothing to incur this wrath.
I spent the rest of that day in prayer and meditation, asking God for help. I chose to forgive her. I realised her behaviour was due to her own pain from her past and she was using me as a scapegoat for that pain, but that did not excuse her behaviour, or lessen the hurt. There were a few things that I realised as I prayed.
• Jesus was angry at her behaviour, just as he had been angry at my parent’s behaviour towards me as a child.
• In her desire to hurt me, she was allowing herself to be a tool of satan.
I asked God to keep me very aware of any time I may allow myself to be used by satan in this way because I am determined I will not serve him as she is doing. I only want to serve Jesus. However, the thoughts about what she did kept coming back and that makes me vulnerable to being used by satan. So how do I stop them?
God reminded me of Romans 12:2a “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Neuroscientists have found that the brain has the ability to renew itself if each person intentionally works on teaching him or herself something new. So how does that apply to me? I choose to replace those thoughts with something else. What better to replace my negative thoughts with than the knowledge that Jesus is my Lord and Saviour, and has overcome the world (1 John 5:4).
So remember:
“…whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.” Philippians 4:8 NASB
And you will be transformed by the renewing of your mind and will be better able to resist being used by satan to hurt another person.