Posted on 11/28/2022 12:30:44 AM PST by Pilgrim's Progress
“To have respect of persons is not good: for for a piece of bread that man will transgress. He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye, and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him. He that rebuketh a man afterwards shall find more favour than he that flattereth with the tongue. Whoso robbeth his father or his mother, and saith, It is no transgression; the same is the companion of a destroyer” (Proverbs 28:21-24).
“To have respect of persons is not good,” James says a lot about that (James 2:1-6). Now, the motive of the prejudiced individual is self-preservation. The real prejudiced person, who is biased against another person’s race, or whatever; to where they look down their nose at them, “to have respect of persons is not good, for for a piece of bread that man will transgress.” In other words, the root or motive of prejudice is greed and plain old self-preservation. It takes nothing more than a piece of bread for that person to sin. He will sin at the drop of a hat just to preserve himself.
A man that has no respect of persons, who treats every man as equally as he can, is good. There are times that I wish that I had the mind of a Shemite. A Shemite can think things out and come to clear conclusions. Brother, our Bible is a Shemite book! It was written by Jews. I wish I had their mind. If you really want to understand your Bible, realize that all these illustrations in the Bible are oriental. You almost need that culture just to understand what the book is saying.
“He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye,” just like starting to look at things differently trying to get money quick, “and considereth not the poverty shall come upon him.” He is not prudent, he doesn't think about the future.
Now, the Antichrist has an evil eye. In fact, he has one eye (Zechariah 11:17).
After a man has sinned, if you rebuke, afterward you will find favor. If a man receives and accepts that rebuke, you'll find favor with that man, and that man will appreciate you more than someone that flatters him, when he knows he deserves. That goes back to verse 4, where “they that forsake the law praise the wicked,” You know when those salesmen are just patting you on the back to make a kill, that's all they are doing, and you know that. You don't appreciate that. What you really appreciate is somebody telling you the truth, to help you out.
There is a New Testament example of this, where they Pharisees had the thing rigged where a boy could bring a gift to the temple; and where he should have been taking care of his mother and father, he could bring money to the priest and he would absolve him of the responsibility.
“For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition” (Matthew 15:4-6).
Of course, the priest would also get a cut, and the kid would get some; and that way the kid didn't have to take care of the parents, like he was supposed to do. and he would get out of that responsibility; so, he would rob his father and mother was doing.
The Bible says to honor your parents. To honor them means to take care of them when they are old and they can’t take care of themselves, but the Pharisees had come up with a deal where they didn't have to do it.
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My interpretation: "Trust no one except the Lord. He and only He will not betray you if push comes to shove."
I have seen evidence of this up close. Men will betray their best friends, their brothers and sisters, their own mothers and fathers, their wives and children if they are so motivated or are desperate enough.
There are rare exceptions of course. But it is better to be pleasantly surprised by those exceptions than to overestimate (i.e., respect) human nature in general.
Bump.
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