Posted on 02/20/2020 5:55:47 AM PST by Pilgrim's Progress
“Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right” (Proverbs 20:11).
If a full-grown adult is known, then even a little child is known. In other words, God is going to judge us according to our actions and attitudes. “By their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7:20).
What do we know about a man? We know that he is a sinner. A man will eventually lie to you and cut corners. At some point he will not be true even to his own convictions, let alone Bible convictions. “Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right,” and it seems that this verse is talking about is whether that child is still under innocency or not. That is, whether that child’s doing is still under the protection of God. A baby is not “saved,” no matter how many times it is sprinkled in some church. A baby, up to a certain age, is considered “safe.”
Paul wrote: “For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died” (Romans 7:9). The instant a child knows the difference between right and wrong and chooses to do wrong—he becomes a sinner in need of a Saviour. That age is different from one child to another. A child brought up in a Christian home where the Bible is honored and taught from their earliest days, that age could be as young as three-years-old. In a godless home, the age could be as high as seven. Only God and the child know when the knowledge of sin begins.
A child of God is known by his doings also: “But if any man love God, the same is known of him” (I Corinthians 8:3). He is known by his doings if he is praying, if he is witnessing, if he spends time in the Word of God, if he loves preaching, those are all pretty good evidences that he is, in truth, a child of God. He is known by his doings. If you want to judge whether his work is “pure and right,” you watch what they are doing, and judge them by the Word of God—certainly not by your own Christianity. That would likely be “divers weights, and divers measures.”
Daily Bible study is necessary if we are going to begin our day with the right attitude and the right spiritual diet. Proverbs has 31 chapters, and most months have 31 days, so let’s read a chapter of Proverbs a day and see what God might have for us. As the Lord leads, share with us what God has shown you in a special way and by His grace let us build up a devotional repository. Let’s keep our knives and forks handy for some daily bread! Ideally, a chapter or two of Proverbs will fit in nicely with a good plan of reading our Bibles through each year.
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