Proverbs 29, verses 5 and 6, flattery

 

Proverbs 29:5 ¶ A man that flattereth his neighbour spreadeth a net for his feet.

There have been several warnings against flattery in Proverbs, particularly that one should look out for it and not be deceived when someone tries to get an advantage over us with it.

Proverbs 2:16 To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words;

Proverbs 6:24 To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.

Proverbs 7:5 That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.

Proverbs 7:21 With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.

Proverbs 20:19 He that goeth about as a talebearer revealeth secrets: therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips.

Proverbs 26:28 A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it; and a flattering mouth worketh ruin.

Proverbs 28:23 He that rebuketh a man afterwards shall find more favour than he that flattereth with the tongue.

The person who flatters you, who pumps you up, pays undue attention to you, and exaggerates your better traits is after something. He or she is laying a trap for you. People in authority are prone to have people flatter them to gain some advantage. Many a powerful man has been knocked out of his place by his own lust and the attentions of a young woman. People who know where they are going, though, and what their purpose here on earth is are not so prone to being found the victims of their own weakness for self-worship and the flattery of another.

When someone knows what is in man as Jesus did spoken of in John 2:25 and when someone knows the condition of the human heart as in Jeremiah 17:9 then the flatterer will have a frustratingly difficult time with him or her. However, the fact is that if certain people ever change their religion it will be because they no longer think they’re God. Those kinds of weak people, even in positions of power and authority, are susceptible to the damaging flattery of someone, particularly those who seek to entrap them.

Young women are notoriously susceptible to the kind of flattery from men designed to overthrow them and bring them to ruin. Fawning words and unnecessary attention to your appearance or even your character can and often are a thinly disguised attempt to put you in a vulnerable place where you can be taken advantage of. I know you crave to hear someone remark that you’re pretty, or smart, or really nice but beware of men, young or old, who do that. Rather than receiving a compliment you may be victim of someone who wants to steal your pride from you. Of course, if you know what the human heart‘s condition is and what is in man you will not be so easily manipulated.

Beware of flattery and flatterers.

 

Proverbs 29:6 ¶ In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare: but the righteous doth sing and rejoice.

Examining this verse by contrast, with the clause after the colon helping to define the intention of the clause preceding it is clear that the Proverbs says that the sin of the evil man does not produce joy or happiness, but that it is the righteous that sings and rejoices.

This applies in life and after life as for eternity those who belong to Christ will be praising God and rejoicing in His presence while those who reject the free gift of salvation through Christ will spend eternity in a lake of unquenchable fire. This isn’t a political statement nor is it an exercise in exclusivity as God has offered the free gift of eternal life to all men regardless of race or ethnicity or national origin. It’s there for the taking. Salvation is predicated only upon belief in and trust in Christ alone; no church, creed, dogma, doctrine, or works can save you. Salvation is predicated upon a belief and trust in a risen Saviour. Don’t add to it based on your favorite preacher’s agenda or your own desire to control others.

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.

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

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.

Certainly in this life, the error of sin will catch a person on fire all by itself. People who reject common sense and God’s standards laid out in the Bible often find themselves in dire situations with sexually transmitted diseases, unplanned children, poverty, alienation, prison, and the misery that comes from having no options left. When we follow our heart as our right to do we find that the wicked human heart will lead us down a path of self-destruction. I’ve known many people who started out in life bent on a course of self-satisfaction only to find that within a few years they had been left with little to show but a broken body, a fractured mind, and the fallout from sin that leaves behind wounded and innocent children destined to grow up to repeat the sins of their parents, without the Holy Spirit’s intervention.

 

If the Christian is miserable, and some are, it is because he or she has chosen a carnal lifestyle, focused on themselves and on self-worship, and has no Fruit of the Spirit of God shining through them.

Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

If the Christian is miserable it is because they don’t have any love for their fellow Christians, which is what the word charity means in the Bible. You can’t have a love for people you don’t know. If you don’t join with other believers in worship you can’t love them and if you attend a church where people discharge their “duty” on Sunday morning but have no fellowship with the other believers you can hardly feel love for your brothers and sisters in Christ. Now, with the internet there is even less of an excuse not to fellowship with at least a couple of other believers online worshipping God and searching the Scriptures for what God has to say to you.

1Peter 4:8 And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.

Loving and caring for your brothers and sisters in Christ is a command straight from Jesus Christ.

John 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

If Christians, particularly Fundamentalist Christians, spent more time doing what God has told them to do; displaying the fruit of the Spirit and loving the brethren, and less time worrying about what other people do and whether or not others live in a way that mirrors their own or have the same personal convictions that they do they would certainly be happier and able to sing and rejoice and more likely to draw the unsaved to Christ.

The transgression of the evil man is a snare. It binds and enslaves him to his own flesh, the world’s preferences for him, and to Satan himself. It ends in physical and spiritual destruction. There is no joy in the natural outcome of living for your flesh, whether you be bound for Hell or for Heaven in the end. Don’t worry about me being a hypocrite. I’m speaking as much to myself as to all of you when I write these comments. When I work on them I pray for light from God. If the light God gives me condemns my behavior or calls into question my walk with Christ, then so be it. Truth is truth, whether or not it pleases my flesh.

The righteous doth sing and rejoice regardless of his or her circumstances. If you can’t do that then,

2Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?