For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
If parents want their children to grow in wisdom, they must discipline them. Children who have been disciplined will behave in a manner which gives their parents joy and peace of mind. The mother who refuses to discipline her child will be disgraced by their behavior time and time again. I have seen the truth of these proverbs repeatedly.
There is no point in working hard if you are not working on a project that God favors. And, if you are working yourself to exhaustion you are not following God’s plan for the project because God gives His workers rest so that they may do His work efficiently (and because He loves them).
The purpose of this letter is to warn us against those who claim to be believers yet teach that God’s grace allows us to live immoral lives. The writer warns us against those who scoff at ideas which they, and perhaps we, have trouble understanding (for example, the Trinity). He tells us that such people live only to satisfy their own desires. They brag about themselves, flatter those they are with, while grumbling and complaining about those who are not present. Instead of grumbling and complaining about those who are failing to live according to God’s will, let us show them love. However, we need to be cautious not to become contaminated by the sin which fills their lives. It is from this passage that we get the phrase, “Love the sinner, but hate the sin.”
The prophet reminds of a common human failing. The richer we get, the more God blesses us with material goods, the more we put our trust in things other than God. Now is the time to seek the Lord. Let us break up the hard ground of our hearts and plant seeds of righteousness. Otherwise God will break it up for us. If we plant those seeds of righteousness we will harvest a crop of God’s love. If we choose not to do so, instead choosing to cultivate wickedness, we will harvest a crop of sin, and sin, when it fully ripens brings death.