Posted on 06/15/2021 2:18:58 AM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress
“He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house; but he that hateth gifts shall live” (Proverbs 15:27).
“He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house,” if greed is a major trait in your life you can be sure that you will pass it on to your kids, and they will be chips off the old block. It isn’t easy for children to learn hearty, wholesome traits from their parents—but you can be sure they will easily pick up the bad ones.
Ahab was greedy of Naboth’s vineyard, we don’t read of any of Ahab’s kids turning out right. If we are not careful in our own lives, we will sow the seed of rebellion and sowing the seed of judgment upon your house.
A good example is Achan. Achan was greedy of gain and what happened? God killed him and his house. You trouble your own house when you are greedy of gain, and the majority in America, that’s their motive for living—greed—they are just after everything that they can get. And while they are doing it they are destroying their own house, and troubling it.
“. . . but he that hateth gifts shall live,” here is a man that is offered a bribe, or a gift, to do wrong. He says, “I’m not going to sell out to do wrong.” Judges and policemen have been convicted and imprisoned for taking bribes, for selling their office for some political or personal favor. Federal judges and local judges have been caught doing this, and it truly hurts the honest ones. One rotten apple does not mean that they are all crooked.
To confess one’s sins freely to God is one of the supreme virtues of man. To confess to others against whom one has sinned is no less imperative. And to withhold such confession is certainly one of the world’s most devastating sins.
Under its blight, the prayer life withers, the favor of God departs, and the personality reflects the fact that something precious has been lost. Beyond all this, these actually develops a hatred toward the person whom one has wronged. This unwillingness to confess may involve one in the further sin of unwillingness to forgive.
A certain householder was in trouble. The pastor had exhausted every means of reconciling the husband and wife and keeping the home intact. All was in vain.
The husband insisted that the wife apologize to him and to his family; she insisted that she never would. Both were grievously at fault.
But three words would have saved the home— “I am sorry.”
That particular home had withstood the ravages of other sins far more grave in outward appearance, but it went down under the sin of unwillingness to confess.
“Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule” (Psalm 32:9) which will not be led except by force. Let not stubborn eyes remain unseeing till washed by tears of remorse, when it will be too late to say, “I am sorry.”
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