The Path of One Who Commits a Great Sin

[Proverbs 21:5-8]

These days, among the books I’m reading is one called The Philosophy of Sin by Oswald Chambers. The reason I bought this book, of course, was partly because the title caught my attention, but more importantly because the author was Oswald Chambers himself. He is none other than the author of the globally beloved Christian classic My Utmost for His Highest.

He spoke about the common nature of all sins like this:
“The common nature of all sin is to turn away from God’s love. The desire to fulfill a selfish goal set by oneself instead of the goal God has determined is the prevailing mindset of the world and the common nature of humanity’s fundamental sin” (Chambers).

What do you think about this? Do you believe that the general current of thought in this age and the fundamental nature of humanity’s sin is the desire to achieve selfish goals rather than God’s purpose? One of Satan’s clear and certain strategies is exchange. What does Satan exchange? He exchanges God’s purpose for our selfish goals.

Therefore, Satan causes us to sin against God.

How can we recognize Satan’s work? We see it in the Bible, Romans 1:23, 25, and 26:
“They exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles” (v.23). Satan exchanges God’s glory for idols.
“They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen” (v.25). Satan exchanges God’s truth for lies.
“For this reason God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones” (v.26). Satan causes men and women to exchange natural use for unnatural use.

Therefore, Satan causes us to sin against God.

Today, I want to meditate on four sins based on Proverbs 21:5-8 and receive the lessons God gives us.

First, we must not be impatient.

Look at Proverbs 21:5:
“The plans of the diligent lead to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.”

Are you an impatient person? Have you ever thought that impatience could be a sin? Once, through Facebook, I had a conversation with a brother about “impatience,” and I shared with him 2 Timothy 3:4:
“Traitors, reckless, swollen with pride, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.”
He said he never knew impatience was a sin. What do you think? Do you think impatience is a sin?

In Proverbs 21:5, King Solomon says that the impatient person will come to poverty. What does that mean? If a person is impatient, they cannot continue consistently in one task, so they cannot prosper at work or in business (Park Yoon Sun). The Bible says not only will they not prosper, but they will also come to poverty. One reason might be that impatient people rely on their own cleverness rather than diligent work and try to get a lot of income in a short time, often ruining their work.

That’s why Proverbs 19:2 says:
“Desire without knowledge is not good—how much more will hasty feet miss the way!”

Why does the Bible say that hasty feet miss the way? What do you think is the reason? I think it’s because impatient people act hastily with enthusiasm but without knowledge. Especially in business, impatient people acting with ignorant enthusiasm may ruin their business and become poor instead of wealthy.

So Proverbs 28:20 says:
“A faithful person will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished.”

What does this mean? That those who want to get rich quickly will be punished.

Also, Proverbs 28:22 says:
“The stingy are eager to get rich and are unaware that poverty awaits them.”

Those eager only to get rich will become poor.

We must guard against impatience in our hearts. One reason is that when we become impatient, we risk “speeding” spiritually—trying to push God’s work forward at our own pace rather than God’s pace, thus jeopardizing God’s work.

For example, a Christian businessman who is impatient and eager to get rich will likely try to find shortcuts or tricks to make more money in less time rather than diligently and faithfully planning and working. The real problem is that even though his business might initially seem successful, if it fails, he might realize and reflect, “Ah, I failed because I took shortcuts and tricks.” But if it succeeds, he might become arrogant and justify his behavior, saying, “This is how business must be done.”

Therefore, we must be cautious about becoming impatient and instead pursue diligence (Proverbs 21:5) and faithfulness or integrity (28:20).

Why? Because diligence leads to abundance (21:5) and “the faithful person will be richly blessed” (28:20).

Secondly, we must not accumulate wealth through deceitful words.

Look at today’s passage, Proverbs 21:6:
“Getting treasures by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor and a deadly snare.”

Do you believe that if you conduct business honestly without lying, you can gain wealth? Clearly, Proverbs 21:6 says that “getting wealth by deceitful words is seeking death” and that it is “like a fleeting vapor.”

What does this mean? It means that trying to accumulate wealth through lies will vanish quickly like a drifting mist and is also a trap that leads us to death. Although at first, it might seem that making a lot of money through lies in business is successful, eventually that money will disappear in an instant.

Therefore, Proverbs 23:4-5 says:
“Do not wear yourself out to get rich; do not trust your own cleverness. Why should you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly off like an eagle toward the heavens.”

Can you imagine that? Can you imagine riches growing wings by themselves and flying away like an eagle in the sky? Recently, I saw an article on the internet from Chosun Ilbo titled “Kim Min-jong seized: ‘Signed an investment-fraud contract, lost 25 years of savings…’ confession.” I read a bit, and he said: “Money comes and goes. I had savings, but somehow it all disappeared” (Internet).

Proverbs 27:24 says:
“For riches do not endure forever, and a crown is not secure for all generations.”

Wealth cannot last forever. Especially when it is obtained by lies, not only can it not last forever, but it will vanish in an instant. Also, wealth gained through lies ultimately leads the person to death (21:6).

This must be so because lying is the devil’s method (John 8:44) (Park Yoon Sun). In other words, John 8:44 says that those born of the devil do the devil’s desires, because the devil is “a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his own, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

Therefore, a person in business who, driven by greed to accumulate wealth, uses lies to deceive others in order to make money is certainly not following the way of our God the Father. That is the devil’s way, and it will eventually bring disaster upon himself. This is because the devil exists solely to bring harm to humans (Park Yoon Sun).

Friends, the Bible clearly says:
“Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it” (Proverbs 13:11).

Also, it says:
“Wealth obtained by dishonesty will be diminished” (13:11).

What does this mean? It means that wealth gathered dishonestly or by unjust methods is useless and will diminish. Therefore, we Christians must work honestly and conduct business righteously. When we do God’s work according to His will for His glory, God will give us the ability to gain wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18).

Third, we must not imitate the violence of the wicked.

Look at today’s verse, Proverbs 21:7: “The violence of the wicked will destroy them, because they refuse to do what is right.” Who, as a Christian, would want to imitate the violence of the wicked? However, what we need to carefully consider is that in Psalm 73, the psalmist Asaph admits he envied the prosperity of the wicked. This means that although we do not initially intend to imitate the violence of the wicked, when our financial situation becomes very difficult, we can easily envy and resent the prosperity of the wicked. Especially for Christian businesspeople, when their finances grow worse and worse while they see unbelieving businessmen around them gaining more and more money through dishonest and unjust means, this envy and resentment can grow to the point that they might even resort to robbing others through unrighteous methods.

If we translate Proverbs 21:7 from the original Hebrew, it reads: “The violence of the wicked destroys themselves, because they refuse to do justice” (Park Yoon-sun). Reflecting on this verse, a related scripture comes to mind — Matthew 21:13: “He said to them, ‘It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers.’” Who turned God’s house, the temple, into a den of robbers? It was “all those who bought and sold within the temple, the money changers, and those selling doves” (21:12). They turned God’s holy temple into a den of merchants — a den of swindlers who exploit people. These were none other than the religious leaders of that time. They monopolized the financial income centered around the temple. For example, the Sadducees, who operated the temple, granted the license for the livestock market to their own people (the Sadducees), and through them, they gathered enormous wealth centered around the temple (source: internet). Seeing this, Jesus entered the temple and “drove out all those who were buying and selling there, overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves” (verse 12). Then Jesus said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers” (verse 13).

Everyone, even though God’s temple is supposed to be a house of prayer, isn’t it possible that it has become, like the temple in Jesus’ time, a den of robbers? Are our church leaders now gathering enormous wealth through the church? Everyone, we must be cautious not to become those who desire to be rich. Why? Look at 1 Timothy 6:9: “Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, a snare, and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.” The reason we must be careful about becoming those who desire wealth is that such people fall into temptation, snares, and many foolish and harmful desires. And the result is that “lust, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death” (James 1:15). Rather, we should delight in doing what is right. In other words, we should enjoy doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord (Proverbs 21:8). As righteous people justified by faith in Jesus, doing justice should be a joy to us (verse 15). However, just as in the time of the prophet Habakkuk, the wicked surround the righteous, causing justice to be twisted (Habakkuk 1:4). Therefore, now the law is neglected, and justice is not practiced at all (verse 4). So, we Christians must strive even more to practice justice. We should walk in the path of righteousness and live in the ways of justice (Proverbs 8:20).

Fourth, we must not walk on crooked paths.

Look at today’s verse, Proverbs 21:8: “The way of the guilty is crooked, but the conduct of the innocent is upright.” Personally, when I think of a crooked road, I think of Lombard Street in San Francisco — the most winding street in the world. It is about 400 meters long, with eight hairpin turns spaced about 5 meters apart. I remember driving slowly down that street once because the road was so twisty that you couldn’t speed. Besides this winding street, I recall that San Francisco also has steep straight downhill streets that require careful driving. I think life has two kinds of paths like this: a straight path and a winding crooked path. Applying these two types of paths to our spiritual lives, we can think of the right path (the straight way) and the crooked path. We Christians all know that we must walk the path Jesus walked — the right, straight path. But the problem is that Satan does not want us to walk the right path. So, Satan tempts us to keep walking the crooked path. First, he twists our hearts. As a result, even those who call themselves Christians walk the crooked path with crooked hearts. The world we live in is a “twisted world” (Philippians 2:15). We are not walking the straight and righteous path God commanded but are going the crooked way, yet we think the crooked path is the right one. This world denies God’s absolute truth and accepts lies as truth. Our hearts are twisted, and because of this, our words and actions are also twisted.

Looking at Proverbs 21:8, King Solomon, the author, says, “The way of the guilty is very crooked, but the conduct of the innocent is upright.” In the original Hebrew, it is translated as: “The deeds of a man laden with sin are crooked and strange, but the deeds of the innocent are straightforward” (Park Yoon-sun). Here, “a man laden with sin” refers to the unregenerate natural man. The unregenerate man belongs to darkness and is deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9). Therefore, he tries to hide his deeds. This is what is meant by “crooked” behavior (Park Yoon-sun). In the Bible’s Proverbs, there is a person who walks the crooked path and behaves crookedly — that person is the “adulteress.” Proverbs 5:6 says, “She does not consider the path of life; her ways are unstable, and she does not know it” (Contemporary Bible). Solomon says the adulteress does not realize that her path is crooked. Her feet go down to death, and her steps lead to the grave (verse 5). Isaiah 59:8 says, “The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have turned them into crooked roads; whoever walks on them does not know peace.” What does this mean? The Bible says if we walk on crooked paths without justice, we will not know peace. In other words, crooked paths are not the path of peace. Proverbs 10:9 says, “Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out.” Walking the right path brings peace, but walking crooked paths means peace cannot be found.

Friends, we must walk the right path (Proverbs 10:9). We must walk the straight path (21:8). We must walk the path of the innocent. Walking the path of the innocent means we must be honest. Instead of trying to hide our sinful deeds like great sinners, we must confess our faults honestly and walk on the right path as pure people (Park Yoon-sun). When we do this, our hearts will have peace.

In closing this meditation, friends, the common attribute of all sin we have thought about is that when we leave God’s love and pursue selfish goals instead of God’s ordained purpose, we inevitably become impatient. We will gather wealth through deceitful words and imitate the violence of the wicked. Moreover, we will walk the crooked path. What must we do? We must abide in God’s love. We must move toward the goals God has set. We must obey God’s commandments. The command God gives us in Proverbs 21:5-8 is: Do not be impatient, do not gather wealth by deceitful means, do not imitate the violence of the wicked, and do not walk on crooked paths. Rather, God commands us to work diligently and gather wealth honestly. God commands us to do what is right in His sight. God commands us to walk the right, straight path and be honest. May you and I obey these words of the Lord.