Posted on 02/11/2022 10:33:30 PM PST by Pilgrim's Progress
“A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband: but she that maketh ashamed is as rottenness in his bones. The thoughts of the righteous are right: but the counsels of the wicked are deceit” (Proverbs 12:4-5 KJV).
Proverbs 31 is where the characteristics of a virtuous woman are fully described. A virtuous woman is a good woman. She is not only good internally but also does good externally. That she is a “crown to her husband” means that she brings honor and respect to her husband. We find later that he is known in the gates. It is better to have a good woman than to have great riches. If a man has riches with a bad woman, his riches may not stand for long. It also speaks to the fact that her husband deserves that place of authority. She is a good woman and she chose well. She is his crown, and that makes him a king.
When a husband treats his woman right, and dwells with her according to knowledge, and loves her the way he is supposed to love her; then, when she does him good it is a crown for him. It speaks of his righteousness and his proper treatment of her.
“. . . but she that maketh ashamed is as rottenness in his bones,” it doesn’t matter how much money a man has, if he doesn’t have a good woman, it is rotten. “Rottenness in his bones,” did you ever get a deep pain? Those fleshly wounds are something you can pretty much deal with. They hurt for a little while, but they ease up and heal eventually. Those pains and aches down in the bones are a totally different thing, and you are reminded of them every time the weather changes a little. They are the ones that get you. They are just there to stay, and they are continual. I doubt there is anything worse that a severe case of arthritis. When your pains get down in your bones, you have a problem.
And when a man has a wife that constantly makes him ashamed by her actions and her attitudes, he has a real problem.
“The thoughts of the righteous are right,” why? Well, because the heart is right, the thoughts are right.
“(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (II Corinthians 10:4-5 KJV).
What kind of weapons do we have? We have the sword of the Spirit, a shield of faith, a helmet of salvation, a breastplate of righteousness, and a garment of truth. What do those things do for us? They cast down imaginations and control every thought to the obedience of Christ. You get a Christian that has that armor on and is practiced in its use (it doesn’t do any good to put armor on and never use it—it’ll be of no value to you), and gets in the battle you have a warrior for Christ. If he uses that shield of faith to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked and uses his sword when he is supposed to, and he’ll make his stand for God.
Some people are hitting the Devil with their shield and defending themselves with the sword, but that is all backwards. You are to defend with the shield and attack with the sword. One of those things is defensive, and the other is offensive. Learn to use them properly. A person that knows how to use his Bible properly—that’s the kind of person that the Devil hates, and fears. That is the kind of individual that has learned how to control his thought life.
A lot of people truly have trouble with their thought life, and they are captured and bound by the wiles of the Devil. Now, I’m not saying a Christian will ever get total victory over the world, the flesh, and the Devil. There isn’t no one that is going to get total victory, especially those that came out of a murky past. But what victory you can get, you’ll get because you learned how to use that armor.
“. . . but the counsels of the wicked are deceit,” they can’t even tell themselves what is right. They know in their evil hearts that the judgment of God is going to fall hard upon them at the end, but they lie to themselves that all is going to work itself out and they will make it in the end. They have themselves tricked into believing that all their good deeds will somehow outweigh all their wicked deeds and they squeak on through the pearly gates. Why? Because they counsel out of their own heart.
“But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward” (Jeremiah 7:24 KJV).
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