Jesus uses one of the proverbs in this chapter a number of times in His earthly ministry. St. Paul also quotes another in Romans. The fact that both Jesus and St. Paul revered these words as God's unchanging truth, gives us great confidence as we seek and follow the Lord in faith.

Paul's spiritual children in the faith were being attacked by a group who were teaching that the work of salvation wasn't completed by Jesus. Paul takes to task those who were teaching that Christians had to accept portions of the Old Testament law to be "true" Christians. He begins his epistle on the offensive by correcting the false assertions of these false teachers.

We live in a world full of people intent on blaming everyone else for what's wrong in the world, and even what they don't like about themselves. As God's chosen and redeemed people, we pay attention first and foremost to ourselves. We will seek the Lord and His way, even when our way is dark and dreary.

We live in a world without discipline. Everyone is engouraged to indulge every desire and seek happiness as the goal of life. Proverbs teaches that a little discipline goes a long way if we want to live a truly successful life.

We dare not judge others, knowing that there is only one Judge Who will matter in the end. How does the coming judgment affect our understanding of and relationships with others?

We are warned about the dangers of poverty, both financial and spiritual, in this chapter. It is the spiritual poverty of greed that leads many to financial ruin, as our financial system is designed to reward the rich and further impoverish the poor. But worse than suffering the effects of financial poverty is the corrosive effect of spiritual poverty, which allows one to justify impoverishing another for greedy personal gain.

When we walk in the Lord's way, there is confidence that comes from following a true path. Even if we get distracted, or sidetracked, or stumble along the way, so long as we seek the Lord's way, we are heading in the right direction.

Paul was very concerned about the Corinthians who seemed to be prepared to accept any false teacher, but were reluctant to embrace his tried and true words. We do well today to test the spirits, to see if we are listening to those whose words are in accord with scripture or contrary to it.