Proverbs 27:1 commentary; now is the time

1 ¶ Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.

At other times God has said;

Luke 12:16 And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: 17 And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? 18 And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. 20 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? 21 So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

James 4: 13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: 14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. 15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.

We should not boast about what great things we will accomplish tomorrow, next week, or next month. We only have today. Life can turn on a dime and you can be alive one second and the next be in eternity. All boasting is foolishness anyway.

This Proverb is not against preparing for tomorrow, for doing things that will afford oneself or one’s family a better life, or some temporal security which, within our power, it is prudent to do. It is about bragging on the great plans we have, all plans of which are completely in God’s hands. He may not allow us a tomorrow.

Another thing that can be said is to not put off any needful thing until another day, a day which you might not have. When the Holy Spirit directs you to witness to someone, to do some thing to tell others of Christ, don’t put it off as you don’t know what the day will bring, for you or them.

Finally, save your words of vanity. If you knew that this would be your last day, what would you do? If you knew that tomorrow you would be in Heaven or in Hell what would change about your plans? I would hope that if you haven’t trusted Christ yet that you would declare your faith in Him now. There may not be a tomorrow in which to do it.

All that is required to have eternal life is to believe on Jesus Christ and to trust in His righteousness, not your own, to get to Heaven. Give up all of those things that you think about yourself and how good you think you are. Just follow the literal statements in the Bible in order to be saved right now. Don’t let any TV preacher or religious celebrity fool you. The answer is found right in God’s word.

Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Paul told the Philippian jailer;

Acts 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

Jesus Himself said;

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
And Peter admonished us;

Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

If anyone adds any words to those verses reject what they say.

It is the simplest thing in the world and yet it’s the hardest. You haven’t done it yet, have you? Pray for Christ’s salvation and God will send His Holy Spirit into you to live and dwell there until He calls you home to Him. Once you have spoken and prayed that belief to Christ then read His Bible and pray about what you read, asking for guidance.

At some point you should unite with a body of believers, even if it’s only two or three who believe and will discuss the Bible with you and pray and worship Christ with you but a good church family is a blessing and will help you in your spiritual walk, believe me. Notice I didn’t say you had to accept someone’s political or economic beliefs, to deny your family, to quit your job, or to sell all your possessions and home and move to a compound. I didn’t tell you to beat your children black and blue or wear a Moslem Burkha. You should avoid angry, paranoid, and hateful Christians, as well as preachers with ANY political agenda or jingoistic, hyperpatriotic or any masochistic, America hating ideology. Just believe and trust in Christ and let His words have their way with you. God wants to use you to save others right where you are and He wants you to grow in grace and grow in Him. You’ll be amazed at what can happen in your life.

I know you’re thinking you have time to think about eternity later, that you have your own spirituality now, that you’re a good person. But, there is no tomorrow for you. Don’t boast of it. You don’t know what the day will bring.