The integrity of the upright guides them,
but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.
Summary: Knowing the right thing to do simplifies life immensely. Choosing to be unfaithful seems to open up more choices, but all of them lead to the same place; destruction.
One of the disadvantages of having integrity and being upright is that it can be boring. When you have integrity, the choices before you are often “Yes” or “No.”
Do you know what the right thing to do is? Yes or no?
Are you willing to do what is right? Yes or no?
Are you doing the right thing this moment? Yes or no?
Do you see what I mean? This proverb is absolutely spot on. If you have integrity before God, you generally know exactly what you need to be doing.
On the other hand, if you are unfaithful, there are a million choices before you. If you are going to cheat there are a million people to cheat and thousands of ways to cheat them. If you are unfaithful to your employer there are a million ways to steal from them. If you are a public servant, and you want a little kickback on the side, there will be no shortage of people willing to pay or opportunities for taking advantage of the public.
The Bible goes on to say that the unfaithful are “destroyed by their duplicity.” How does this work?
I can think of three ways.
The first way they are destroyed is the most permanent. After the body passes away, there is nothing left between us and our God. We are face to face with judgment and without our Savior, Jesus, we are on our own. The destruction that goes with the second death is permanent.
The second way they are destroyed is psychological. Inside each of us is a moral compass placed there by God (Romans 1:20). If we ignore it and do what is wrong, it damages the compass. If we continue to do wrong, our compass becomes inoperable, covered by calluses (Matthew 13:15). This kind of destruction leads to more of the same and eventually to permanent destruction.
The third way is that people who lie, who fabricate claims of truth, tend to be confronted with the consequences of those claims. This does not always happen in this life, but it often does. It is certainly important to be able to discern the tendency towards duplicity in others. It often falls to the people of integrity to point out the duplicity in others. When the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity, it is not the people of integrity who bring them down. It is their own duplicity that bites them. They are caught in their own lies.
Application: As faithful followers of Jesus Christ, it is our job to make sure we remain faithful.
Food for Thought: What happens when a person allows thoughts of unfaithfulness into their minds?
Our thought patterns are important as they can guide our choices. If we dwell on something that we should not, we are inviting temptation to take up permanent residence. We should guard out hearts by guiding our thought process to healthy and godly choices. Proverbs 4: 23; Colossians 2: 8; 2 Corinthians 10: 5.
Rich,
Nicely said. This is kind of a tough one to explain to people, but once we see it, it makes all kinds of sense.
Good points and verses from R. Such thoughts could take up residence and control. We see the degradation of society and man does not seem to learn from mistakes and sins of the past. Genesis 6:5.
JEC,
Thank you for sharing! You are so right – we are very slow to learn. Sadly the cycle of mistakes is not easier to correct for having gone through it time and again.
I would hope that the person seeks and asks for forgiveness.
Faith without work is dead,..the only way I can keep my faith alive is by putting in to work everyday. If I have been told to have faith in the things that I have asked for in prayer and not doubt that they are already here and I start doubting that God will ever make good on His promise or principle then it is I that has become unfaithful and therefore what ever I say would be negative toward anything He said is true. That’s my take on it,..
Being faithful to His word would be to actually walk the walk and talk the talk, letting my yes be yes and my no be no. Living by faith is no easy task in this world of evil, but I believe if it weren’t for Jesus in my life I would be worse off, a whole lot worse off than where I am now with Him in my life.
Thank you, John!
You make a great point: Unfaithfulness is the anti-faith. If we let a little in it is like an acid that eats away at what remains of our faith.
05-15-2022, Proverbs 11:3, What happens when a person allows thoughts of unfaithfulness into their minds?
Adam and Eve were created in the image of God. They were without sin and had a relationship with our perfect, holy God. In the beginning, God warned them of the consequences of sin, spiritual death, spiritual separation from God. For one moment, in an act of disobedience, they chose to ignore God’s warning and they were driven from the presence of God.
Genesis 1:27, 2:17, 3:24
God provided a way for mankind to be reunited with Him, and many men and women of the Old Testament received life as they believed God in faith.
Isaiah 53, Psalm 32:1-2, Romans 4:3, 4:6-8
God sent His Son Jesus Christ to minister and pay the price for the sins of all mankind and all who accept His gift receive His righteousness and eternal life.
John 3:16, Romans 4:7, 8:1,1 John 1:9
We remain imperfect beings as we attempt to serve our perfect God. All sins are forgiven yet we have habits established over years, sins in our daily lives that must be given to God who will reveal these to us over time, through His word. This is our path to growth in the Lord, the change in our lives which those around us will notice and wonder about. Our growth in Christ is our living ministry on earth and will bring us closer to God each step we take.
Isaiah 59:2, Hosea 7:2
To disregard the voice of ongoing conviction by the Holy Spirit, to ignore the teachings of God’s Word, is to give priority to thoughts of unfaithfulness remaining in our hearts, and will separate us from the joy of our relationship with God. He will not allow unrepentant sin to be in His presence.
Hebrews 10:26, 1 John 2:15-17
Ron,
I appreciate you taking us all the way back to Genesis 3 and the first sin. It is a powerful example of how the devil works and leads us into unfaithful thinking.