All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but Yahweh weighs the motives.
Parallel Translations
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All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but Yahweh weighs the motives.
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All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits.
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All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits.
Cross-references (17)
Passages linked to Proverbs 16:2 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Proverbs 21:2 Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but Yahweh weighs the hearts.
- 1 Samuel 16:7 But Yahweh said to Samuel, “Don’t look on his face, or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for I don’t see as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance, but Yahweh looks at the heart.”
- Luke 16:15 He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts. For that which is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
- Proverbs 30:12 There is a generation that is pure in their own eyes, yet are not washed from their filthiness.
- Jeremiah 17:10 “I, Yahweh, search the mind. I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”
- Proverbs 24:12 If you say, “Behold, we didn’t know this,” doesn’t he who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, doesn’t he know it? Shall he not render to every man according to his work?
- Psalms 36:2 For he flatters himself in his own eyes, too much to detect and hate his sin.
- Proverbs 5:21 For the ways of man are before Yahweh’s eyes. He examines all his paths.
- Proverbs 16:25 There is a way which seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.
- Jeremiah 2:22-23 For though you wash yourself with lye, and use much soap, yet your iniquity is marked before me,” says the Lord Yahweh. “How can you say, ‘I am not defiled. I have not gone after the Baals’? See your way in the valley. Know what you have done. You are a swift dromedary traversing her ways,
- Luke 18:9-11 He spoke also this parable to certain people who were convinced of their own righteousness, and who despised all others. “Two men went up into the temple to pray; one was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed to himself like this: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of men, extortionists, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
- Daniel 5:27 TEKEL: you are weighed in the balances, and are found wanting.
- Revelation 2:23 I will kill her children with Death, and all the assemblies will know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts. I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.
- 1 Samuel 15:13-14 Samuel came to Saul; and Saul said to him, “You are blessed by Yahweh! I have performed the commandment of Yahweh.” Samuel said, “Then what does this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the cattle which I hear mean?”
- Isaiah 26:7 The way of the just is uprightness. You who are upright make the path of the righteous level.
- Romans 7:7-9 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be! However, I wouldn’t have known sin, except through the law. For I wouldn’t have known coveting, unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law, sin is dead. I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
- Revelation 2:18 “To the angel of the assembly in Thyatira write: “The Son of God, who has his eyes like a flame of fire, and his feet are like burnished brass, says these things:
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (20 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain He showeth hereby that man flattereth himself in his…
He showeth hereby that man flattereth himself in his doings, calling that virtue, which God termeth vice.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Pro 16:2 All the ways of a man [are]…
Pro 16:2 All the ways of a man [are] clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits.
Ver. 2. All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes.] Every man is apt to think well of his own doings, and would be sorry but his penny should be good silver. They that were born in hell know no other heaven; neither goes any man to hell but he hath some excuse for it. Quintilian could say, Sceleri nunquam defuisse rationem. As covetousness, so most other sins go cloaked and coloured. Sed sordet in conspectu iudiciis quod fulget in conspectu aestimantis. {a} All is not gold that gliters. A thing that I see in the night may shine, and that shining proceed from nothing but rottenness. Melius est pallens aurum, quam fulgens aurichalcum. {b} "That which is highly esteemed amongst men, is abomination in the sight of God." {Luk 16:15}
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But the Lord weigheth the spirits.] Not speeches and actions only, as Pro 5:21, but men’s aims and insides. Men see but the surface of things, and so are many times mistaken, but God’s fiery eyes pierce into the inward parts, and there discover a newly found world of wickedness. He turns up the bottom of the bag, as Joseph’s steward did, and then out come all our thefts and misdoings that had so long lain latent.
{a} Augustine.
{b} Bernard.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain All the ways of a man are clean in…
All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; many men can easily flatter and deceive themselves into a good opinion of themselves, and of their own actions, though they be sinful. See below, Pro 16:25, and compare 1Co 4:4.
The Lord weigheth, i.e. exactly knoweth, as men do the things which they weigh and examine, the spirits; the hearts of men, from which both men’s actions, and the goodness and badness of them, in a great measure, proceed; their ends and intentions, their dispositions and affections, which are hid not only from others, but ofttimes from a man’s self; whereby he is unfit to judge in his own cause, and easily mistaken, if he do not use great diligence and fidelity. In this last clause he intimates the reason why men deceive themselves in judging of their state and actions, because they do not search their own hearts.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Note, 1. We are all apt to be partial…
Note, 1. We are all apt to be partial in judging of ourselves: All the ways of a man, all his designs, all his doings, are clean in his own eyes, and he sees nothing amiss in them, nothing for which to condemn himself, or which should make his projects prove otherwise than well; and therefore he is confident of success, and that the answer of the tongue shall be according to the expectations of the heart; but there is a great deal of pollution cleaving to our ways, which we are not aware of, or do not think so ill of as we ought. 2. The judgment of God concerning us, we are sure, is according to truth: He weighs the spirits in a just and unerring balance, knows what is in us, and passes a judgment upon us accordingly, writing Tekel upon that which passed our scale with approbation - weighed in the balance and found wanting; and by his judgment we must stand or fall. He not only sees men's ways but tries their spirits, and we are as our spirits are.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain All the ways of a man are clean in…
All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes,.... All right and well, not only some, but all, having a high opinion of himself; for this is to be understood of a self-righteous man, who is pure in his own eyes, though not cleansed from his filthiness, and so fancies every way he walks in, and everything he does, is pure; this is owing to want of knowledge of the impurity of his nature; was he sensible of this, he would see that his best righteousness is as filthy rags and to his ignorance of the spirituality of the law, which, was he acquainted with, he would find, on comparing himself with it, that he and all he did was polluted and unclean: some read the words, "all the ways of a pure man are before his eyes": the eyes of the Lord, he sees them, and approves of them; so Aben Ezra; and to this agrees the Septuagint version, "all the works of an humble man are manifest with God"; and the Arabic version, "all the works of an humble man are clean before God"; but the former reading and sense seem best;
but the Lord weigheth the spirits; searches and tries the hearts; he sees, knows, and observes the principles of all actions, and can as exactly adjust the nature and quality of them, as a man, with a pair of scales in his hands, can tell precisely the weight of anything put into them; the Lord weighs the spirits, or hearts, from whence all actions flow, by his omniscience, and accordingly judges of them by that, and not by the outward appearance; and he weighs all actions by his law, in the balance of the sanctuary, where they are found wanting, and come greatly short of that purity and perfection pharisaical persons imagine there is in them.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Weigheth - Exactly knows as men do the things…
Weigheth - Exactly knows as men do the things which they weigh. Spirits - The hearts of men.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Pro 16:2. All the ways of man are clean…
Pro 16:2. All the ways of man are clean in his own eyes — Men can easily flatter and deceive themselves into a good opinion of themselves, and of their own actions, though they be sinful; but the Lord weigheth the spirits — He as exactly knows, as men do the things which they weigh and examine, the hearts of men, from which both their actions and the quality of them, in a great measure, proceed. Their ends and intentions, their dispositions and affections, which are hid, not only from others, but oftentimes in a great degree from themselves, are fully manifest to him. Thus he here intimates the reason why men deceive themselves, in judging of their state and actions; they do not search their own hearts.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain We are blind to our own faults, do not…
We are blind to our own faults, do not see ourselves as others see us. There is One who tries not the “ways” only, but the “spirits” Heb 4:12 : this is the true remedy against self-deceit.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Charles Bridges 1846 · Public Domain If man were his own judge, who would be…
If man were his own judge, who would be condemned? But man judges by acts; God by principles. His eye therefore beholds a mass of corruption; while all the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes. (Gen 6:5 . Psa 14:3 .) In fact - man will never believe his real character, until the looking-glass is held to his face with convincing light (Rom 7:9 ), or some subtle temptation unfolds the hateful discovery. He confesses himself indeed to be a sinner. But what his sins are, he knows not; probably only venial, and abundantly compensated by his fancied virtues. "Ye are they" - said our Lord to men of this stamp - "which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God." (Luk 16:15 .)
Sometimes we see this delusion under the most shadowy cover: Pilate washed his hands, and was clean in his own eyes, from the blood of his condemned victim. (Mat 27:24 .) The murderers of Christ were clean, by refraining from the defilement of the judgment-hall, and by eating the passover. (Joh 18:28 .)
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The persecutors of the Church blinded their consciences in the sincerity of unbelief. (Act 26:9 .) Often has the self-deceiver passed into eternity under a creditable profession. But how does he stand before God? He never acted from principle. He had the form and the shape of a Christian, so drawn to life as to pass for a living man. But the eyes that are as a flame of fire, bare witness - "Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead." (Rev 3:1 .)
External form without a sanctified heart is a baseless religion. Our real worth is, what we are in the sight of God. He weighs , not "the actions"†1 only, but the spirits. His eye discerns, if but one grain too light, and pronounces the sentence. Saul was thus "weighed in the balances, and found wanting."†2 And "if thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities" - the short-comings of thy full and righteous demands - "O LORD, who shall stand?"†3 Must we not fly from Omniscience to satisfied justice, and there find, that "there is forgiveness with God"?†4 Joyous, indeed, is it to mark the even balances of our Judge; in one scale, his own perfect law; in the other, his Son’s perfect obedience. Here, O my God, is my peace, my security. "Thou, most upright, dost weigh the path of the just." (Isa 26:7 .) But oh! place the blood of thy beloved Son even in the scale of thy justice; and we will render to thee the glory of thy wondrous work of grace.
Footnotes:
†1 1Sa 2:3 ; 1Sa 16:7 .
†2 1Sa 15:11 . Dan 5:27 .
†3 Psa 130:3; Psa 143:2 .
†4 Gal 3:10, Gal 3:13, with Psa 130:4 .
Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs (1846) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Open. Or approved. (Menochius) --- Hebrew, "pure in his…
Open. Or approved. (Menochius) --- Hebrew, "pure in his own eyes." He sees not his own defects, chap. xxi. 2., and Job xxviii. 23. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain clean--or, "faultless."
clean--or, "faultless."
weigheth--or, "tries," "judges," implying that they are faulty (Pro 21:2; Pro 24:12).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 2. Are clean in his own eyes — He…
2. Are clean in his own eyes — He may be so blind to his own faults. Comp. 12. 15. Weigheth the spirits — That is, he proves or tests the purposes and intentions of the heart. The moral quality of an action resides in the intention and motive. Compare 1Sa_16:9; Pro_21:2.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 2. See Pro_21:2, where this proverb recurs almost in…
2. See Pro_21:2, where this proverb recurs almost in the same words. Comp. 1Co_4:4.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (2) All the ways of a man are clean…
(2) All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes.—Yet that does not excuse his faults in God’s sight. (Comp. 1Co_4:4.) So much the more reason is there for anxious self-examination and testing the conduct by God’s word, and, when this has been done to the best of our power, still to pray for cleansing from faults which have escaped our notice. (Psa_19:12.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain All the ways of a man are clean in…
All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes. (Pro_21:2) He may deceive himself, and be blind to his own faults, or be following an ill-informed and ill-regulated conscience, (Pro_12:15 Pro_14:12) yet this is no excuse in God"s eyes. The Lord weigheth the spirits. Not the "ways," the outward life and actions only, but motives, intentions, dispositions. (Heb_4:12) He too knows our secret faults, unsuspected by others, and perhaps by ourselves. (Psa_19:12) The Septuagint has here, "All the works of the humble are manifest before God, but the impious shall perish in an evil day." The next verse is omitted in the Greek; and the other clauses up to ver. 8 are dislocated.
See homily on ver. 25. C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain All the ways of a man are clean in…
Pro_16:2
All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes.
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False judgments
The best causuits have decided the point that a good intention cannot sanctify an immoral act; but it is certain that an indirect or evil intention will sully the best performances. Here is indicated the false judgment of man. All his ways are censured by intimation: the best of them are not truly right and genuine, if we should refer them to the judgment of God. One would think he were secure, if his heart stand but right; but alas! by degrees it will be corrupted and brought into the deception. It often deceives the owner himself in the estimate of his ways. To walk wisely, which means, to walk virtuously and religiously, we must have a truer measure than the partial complacence of our own hearts. Let us examine our ways--
1. In respect to our sins. Sin hath been so great a familiar in our conversations, that in some degree it hath got our approbation, or at least our favourable connivance. We can, by habit, appease and quiet conscience. What we tremble at in our youth, by custom and usage we are more hardy in. Some sins committed long ago are forgotten by us, or have lessened in our sentiments of their guilt. Difference in quality, and the several ways of mens living, varies their sentiments of some sins. We often bear a civility and preference to some sins above others, and think ourselves all the while very clean. Our tempers and constitutions sometimes are of that happy frame as to have a natural aversion to some sins; but that cleanliness is not thankworthy if we can more glibly swallow down those that are more palatable. Partiality towards our sins is a most notorious deceitfulness. To retain some as favourites is a certain corruption in the government of ourselves. A sin that lies brooding in the thoughts and cannot come out into act for want of opportunity, or dare not venture out for fear of shame or present punishment, is notwithstanding a great uncleanness. A habit or course of lesser evils, or neglects, amounts to greater guilt than one single lapse or fall, though into some great transgression. Yet we are apt to pass over the habitual nncleanness.
2. A more refined degree of purity and cleanliness we assume to ourselves, from that little practice of religion we carry on, and much depend upon. Bare believing and professing goes a long way. In our devotions we may confide in our addresses to God in prayer. We had best be careful in this matter, lest our very prayers rise up in judgment against us. Searchingly estimate our charity. Take the duty of repentance. We deceive ourselves when we have only cast ourselves into the figure of a penitent, and appeared so in our face, our speech, our gesture. Or we may lay great stress on our frequent confessions. Or may put a greater weight of humiliation upon some sins that have galled us than upon others that, though more heinous, have sat more easy upon us. The dilatory ways we have of putting off this duty of repentance is a slighting negligence. (J. Cooke, M.A.)
What I think of myself and what God thinks of me
All the ways of a man--then is there no such thing as being conscious of having gone wrong? of course there is, and equally of course a broad statement such as this of my text is not to be pressed into literal accuracy, but is a simple general assertion of what we all know to be true, that we have a strange power of blinding ourselves as to what is wrong in ourselves and in our actions. But what is it that God weighs? The spirits. We too often content ourselves with looking at our ways; God looks at ourselves. He takes the inner man into account, estimates actions by motives, and so very often differs from our judgment of ourselves, and of one another.
I. Our strange power of blinding ourselves. All the ways of a man are right in his own eyes,
1. For, to begin with, we all know that there is nothing that we so habitually neglect as the bringing of conscience to bear right through all our lives. Sometimes it is because there is a temptation that appeals very strongly to some strong inclination which has been strengthened by indulgence. And when the craving arises, that is no time to begin asking, Is it right or is it wrong to yield? That question stands small chance of being wisely considered at a moment when, under the goading of roused desire, a man is like a mad bull when it charges. It drops its head and shuts its eyes, and goes right forward, and no matter whether it smashes its horns against an iron gate, and damages them and itself, or not, on it will go But in regard to the smaller commonplace matters of daily life, too, we all know that there are whole regions of our lives which seem to us to be so small that it is hardly worth while summoning the august thought of right or wrong? to decide them. It is the trifles of life that shape life, and it is to them that we so frequently fail in applying, honestly and rigidly, the test, Is this right or wrong? Get the habit of bringing conscience to bear on little things, or you will never be able to bring it to bear when great temptations come and the crises emerge in your lives. Thus, by reason of that deficiency in the habitual application of conscience to our lives, we slide through, and take for granted that all our ways are right in our eyes.
2. Then there is another thing: we not only neglect the rigid application of conscience to all our lives, but we have a double standard, send the notion of right and wrong which we apply to our neighbours is very different from that which we apply to ourselves. All the ways of a man are right in his own eyes, but the very same ways that you allow to pass muster and condone in yourselves, you visit with sharp and unfailing censure in others.
3. Then there is another thing to be remembered, and that is--the enormous and the tragical influence of habit in dulling the mirror of our souls, on which our deeds are reflected in their true image. What we are accustomed to do we scarcely ever recognise to be wrong, and it is these things which pass because they are habitual that do more to wreck lives than occasional outbursts of far worse evils, according to the worlds estimate of them. Habit dulls the eye.
4. Yes; and more than that, the conscience needs educating just as much as any other faculty. A man says, My conscience acquits me; then the question is, And what sort of a conscience have you got, if it acquits you? I thought within myself that I verily ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. They think that they do God service. Many things that seem to us virtues are vices. And as for the individual so for the community. The perception of what is right and what is wrong needs long educating. When I was a boy the whole Christian Church of America, with one voice, declared that slavery was a patriarchal institution appointed by God.
II. The Divine estimate. I have already pointed out the two emphatic thoughts that lie in that clause, God weigheth, and weigheth the spirits. God weighs the spirits. He reads what we do by His knowledge of what we are. We reveal to one another what we are by what we do, and, as is a commonplace, none of us can penetrate, except very superficially and often inaccurately, to the motives that actuate.
III. The practical issues of these thoughts. Commit thy works unto the Lord--that is to say, do not be too sure that you are right because you do not think you are wrong. We should be very distrustful of our own judgment of ourselves, especially when that judgment permits us to do certain things. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in the things which he alloweth. You may have made the glove too easy by stretching. Then, again, let us seek the Divine strengthening and illumination. Seek it by prayer. There is nothing so powerful in stripping off from our besetting sins their disguises and masks as to go to God with the honest petition: Search me . . . and try me, etc. We ought to keep ourselves in very close union with Jesus Christ, because if we cling to Him in simple faith, he will come into our hearts, and we shall be saved from walking in darkness, and have the light of life shining down upon our deeds. Christ is the conscience of the Christian mans conscience. We must punctiliously obey every dictate that speaks in our own consciences, especially when it urges us to unwelcome duties, or restrains us from too welcome sins. To him that hath shall be given. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)
Unsound spiritual trading
Unrecorded in the journals, and unmourned by unregenerate men, there are failures, and frauds, and bankruptcies of soul. Speculation is a spiritual vice as well as a commercial one--trading without capital is common in the religious world, and puffery and deception are every-day practices. The outer world is always the representative of the inner.
I. The ways of the openly wicked. Can it be that these people are right in their own eyes? They who are best acquainted with mankind will tell you that self-righteousness is not the peculiar sin of the virtuous, but that it flourishes best where there appears to be the least soil for it. The worst of men conceive that they have some excellences and virtues which, if they do not quite atone for their faults, yet at any rate greatly diminish the measure of blame which should be awarded them.
II. The ways of the godless man. This man is often exceedingly upright and moral in his outward behaviour to his fellow-men. He has no religion, but he glories in a multitude of virtues of another kind. Many who have much that is amiable about them are nevertheless unamiable and unjust towards the one Being who ought to have the most of their love.
III. The ways of the outwardly religious.
IV. The ways of the covetous professor.
V. The ways of the worldly professor.
V. The ways of secure backsliders.
VII. The ways of the deceived man. There are many who will never find out that their ways, which they thought to be so clean, are all foul, until they enter upon another world. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
But the Lord weigheth the spirits.--
Gods omniscience
Weighing and pondering denote the nicest exactness we can express. Argue the text--
I. From the light of natural reason. We cannot have any rational idea of a God unless we attribute to Him the perfection of infinite knowledge. His power cannot be almighty if none be allowed Him to descend into our minds, and inspect our thoughts and imaginations. Gods immensity and omnipresence must admit Him into the hidden corners of our souls. The infinity of His justice and goodness will be brought into question, unless He be acknowledged to search the hearts of men. He must be able to judge the aggravations and extenuations of all that is evil.
II. From the light of revelation. The tenor of all the laws of God through the Scriptures doth sufficiently confirm the truth of this doctrine, because no manner of obedience can be accepted with Him, but what must proceed from the integrity and sincerity of the heart, of which He alone can make the discovery. And there are likewise many express declarations of this high prerogative to rouse our consideration, and strike terror into our souls. The wisest heathen and philosophers have maintained that the prime and chiefest intimation and communication the Deity hath with men is with their hearts, and that the most acceptable service and devotion must therefore come from thence. (J. Cooke, M.A.)
Self-comp1acency and omniscience
I. The self-complacency of sinners. All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes. Saul of Tarsus is a striking example of this. He once rejoiced in virtues which he never had. Indeed all sinners think well of their own conduct. Why is this?
1. He views himself in the light of society. He judges himself by the character of others.
2. He is ignorant of the spirituality of Gods law.
3. His conscience is in a state of dormancy. The eye of his conscience is not open to see the enormity of his sin.
II. The searching omniscience of God. The Lord weigheth the spirits. This implies--
1. The essence of the character is in the spirit. The sin of an action is not in the outward performance, but in the motive.
2. This urges the duty of self-examination. If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? (D. Thomas, D.D.)
Misled by false principles of conscience
We never do evil so thoroughly and cordially as when we are led to it by a false principle of conscience. (J. Pascal.)
Exact balances
In the reign of King Charles I the goldsmiths of London had a custom of weighing several sorts of their precious metals before the Privy Council. On this occasion they made use of scales poised with such exquisite nicety that the beam would turn, the master of the Company affirmed, at the two hundredth part of a grain. Nay, the famous Attorney-General replied, I shall be loth, then, to have all my actions weighed in these scales. With whom I heartily concur, says the pious Hervey, in relation to myself; and since the balances of the sanctuary, the balances in Gods hand, are infinitely exact, oh! what need have we of the merit and righteousness of Christ, to make us acceptable in His sight, and passable in His esteem!
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Pro_16:2. Miller translates this verse very differently. See comments…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Pro_16:2. Miller translates this verse very differently. See comments on the verse.
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Pro_16:3. Commit, rather roll. Thoughts, or “plans.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_16:2
THE WEIGHER OF SPIRITS
I. One man has many ways. The text speaks of “all the ways of a man,” implying they are numerous and varied. Man is a compound creature—the animal and the spiritual—mind and matter—both go to make up a man, and from this union of different elements come many different wants and wishes, hopes and desires, and from these many wants come many ways—many and diversified efforts to satisfy his cravings. He finds himself having many bodily wants, and he seeks many different ways of supplying them. He is generally conscious of intellectual desires, and he seeks ways of satisfaction for them. If he listens to the voice within him, he feels that he has moral needs, and he tries to satisfy them also.
II. As a rule men generally look with approbation upon their own ways or methods of life. A man does this because they are his ways. What is our own generally looks well to us because it is ours. This is especially the case if it is ours by choice—if we have been the main instrument in its becoming ours. The builder looks with partial eyes upon the house that he has planned, the poet upon the poem that he has composed, the painter upon the picture that he has painted, the statesman upon the law that he has introduced. Most men are disposed to judge partially of their own deeds; ungodly men always regard their “own ways” as “clean.” The sinner has a way of life which he has chosen for himself, and because it is his way he thinks it is a good way to walk in.
III. There is therefore need of an impartial Judge to pass sentence upon men’s ways. Those who look upon us and our ways are generally better judges of us and of them than we are ourselves. They are good judges in proportion as they are wise and disinterested, and have a sincere desire to do us good. From them, if we are not given over to our own conceit and self-will, we may gain much very important truth about our ways. God is a judge who must be perfectly unbiassed, and He can have no object in view except our good, therefore when He passes judgment upon our ways, we must accept it as truth. He declares that a man’s ways, though clean in his own eyes, are not clean in His; we must not question the decision of absolute goodness and wisdom, and by refusing to have our ways condemned and to accept “His ways” (Isa_55:6-8), shut out from ourselves all hope of bettering our lives.
IV. However one man’s ways may deceive another, there is no danger of mistake on the part of God. “The Lord weigheth the spirits.” A man may deceive himself as to the goodness of his ways. Saul of Tarsus certainly did. When he “persecuted unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women” (Act_22:4), his ways were “clean in his own eyes.” But God weighed his spirit and found him wanting. And a man may deceive others. His outer garment may be so spotless that his fellows may not suspect what is hidden beneath. But there is an eye that can go beneath the surface—“discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart;” there is One whose glory it is that “He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears,” and whose judgment, therefore, is “righteousness” and “equity” (Isa_11:3-4).
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
“As to all the ways of a man, pure in His own eyes, while yet he weighs out spirits, is Jehovah.” This change is very bold, and yet, really, not so bold as the old readings. It explains why “pure” if found to be in the singular. The common version, besides that disagreement of number, is strained, is sense, materially. There are instances of like thought (Pro_30:12), and, in one case, great similarity of language (chap. Pro_12:15); but the emphasis, in the present instance, seems stronger than in any of the rest, and would make us pause. It is not altogether true, the “all the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes.” Moreover, the case most like it (chap. Pro_21:2), and which might seem irrefragably to establish it in its sense, we shall find habited in the same way.… And while our common version would jump needlessly into another subject, the one I give fits most perfectly. God moves man as He lists (Pro_16:1), and yet, as to the ways of a man, He is right in His own eyes while “He weighs out spirits.” He weighs out to all that which determines them, and that is, gifts according to the measure that He ordained in the Redeemer. He “weighs out” in the sense of taking strict account.—Miller.
Weighing them, as goldsmiths do their plate and coins, finding them light and counterfeit oftentimes.—Muffet.
His “weighing the spirits” implies that here the moral good or the moral evil really lies. The mere action is in itself incapable of either, independently of what it indicates in the agent. When we speak of a moral action, we mean the action of a moral agent. A dog and a man may do the same action—may carry off, for instance, for their own use respectively, what is the property of another. We never think of calling it a moral action in a dog, but we condemn the man for the commission of a crime against his neighbour, and a sin against his God. An action may even in its effects be beneficial, which in regard to the doer of it is inexcusably bad: it may be good in its results, but bad in its principles.—Wardlaw.
They that were born in hell know no other heaven; neither goes any man to hell but he has some excuse for it. As covetousness, so most other sins go cloaked and coloured. All is not gold that glitters. A thing that I see in the night may shine, and that shining proceed from nothing but rottenness.… But God turns up the bottom of the bag as Joseph’s stewards did, and then come out all our thefts and misdoings that had so long lain latent.—Trapp.
The important doctrine deducible from this text is that conscience (simply as conscience) is no safe guide, but requires to be informed and regulated by God’s will and word, and that a right intention is not sufficient to make a good action.—Wordsworth.
How unclean are man’s eyes, in whose eyes all his ways are clean. Certainly whatever a man’s sentence may be of himself, there is something in him that gives another judgment. There is a spirit in man whose eyes, though dazzled much, cannot be put out. That seeth and coudemneth much uncleanness, which man’s wilful blindness and seeing darkness will needs have to be purity. There is a conscience in man which, though enslaved much, yet in many ways goeth contrary to man’s perverseness, and condemneth those ways which man approveth. But God is greater than man’s heart, and by the exact weights of His omniscience discerning the errors of the conscience He pronounceth all a man’s ways to be unclean.—Jermin.
ILLUSTRATION OF Pro_16:3
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THOUGHTS
I. There is an intimate connection between a man’s works and a man’s thoughts. Where there is no thinking there can certainly be no profitable work. The skilful workman has the plan of his work in his mind before he begins to use his fingers to execute it, and throughout its progress his thought is as busy as his hand. A work undertaken and carried through without thought is generally a useless work; indeed, it, is impossible for working to be entirely independent of thinking.
II. For the establishment of work there must first be the establishment of the thoughts. When a ship is under the guidance of one master-mind, and this mind is self-possessed and thoughtful, all the crew under his rule move with the regularity of clock-work. Order reigns in the leader, and therefore order rules the subordinates. He is the head and they are the hands, and because the one moves in obedience to a fixed purpose, the others do also. His thoughts are established, and therefore the work is done. Every man’s thoughts ought to be the guide of his work, and if his thoughts and his intentions are fixed, or established, by being in harmony with the righteous law of God, his works will partake of the same character. The orderliness of his outward life will be the effect of an order which reigns within.
III. If the thoughts are to be established, our undertakings must be committed to God. The learner tells the master what work he intends to undertake—he unfolds to him the plan of the machine he is going to construct, or shows him the design of the house he hopes to build, or the picture which he intends to paint, that he may be strengthened and encouraged in his undertaking, and that he may find out whether he has the approval of one who is much wiser than himself. If his master approves of his plan his mind is more fully made up, he is strengthened in his determination, his thoughts are established. Before he might have wavered, but now that he has submitted all his plans to one in whom he has full confidence and has obtained his approval, he sets to work with a goodwill which is an earnest of success. If in all our undertakings in life we lay our plans before the Lord, and if we find, upon consulting His word, that they are not in any way contrary to His will, but appear to be in conformity with it, our minds have rest, our hopes of success grow stronger, and our energy is quickened to go forward. The establishment of our thought tends to the establishment of our work.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
I consider that work as good as done, that trial as good as borne, which I have solemnly committed to God in prayer.—Flavel.
This counsel implies—
1. That all our purposes and doings should be in accordance with God’s will. How is it possible to commit them to God otherwise?… We ought not to form or pursue any purpose unless we can, with confidence, acknowledge God in it. The maxim by which, as Christians, we should be regulated, is to be found in the words—“Whatsoever is not of faith”—whatsoever does not proceed from a full conviction of right—“is sin” (Rom_14:23).
2. That none of our works can prosper without God. This is a lesson of which the Divine word is full (Psa_127:1; Dan_5:23; Jas_4:13-16), etc.
3. That it is, therefore, the obvious and imperative duty of intelligent creatures to own their dependence.… This is a counsel to which, despite all the theories and speculations of infidelity, natural conscience gives its sanction.
4. That what is our duty is at the same time our interest. The act of committing all things into the hands of God to be regulated as He may see fit, preserves the spirit from corroding anxiety.
5. God will graciously smile on the efforts, and accomplish the purposes and wishes of him who seeks His blessing. God will second and prosper, and fulfil the purposes he forms, and the desires he cherishes, crowning his endeavours with success.—Wardlaw.
Roll thy doings in the direction of Jehovah; and they shall have success according to thy plans. “Roll,” not exactly commit. “In the direction of” the preposition towards. Trust, therefore, is less implied than an attitude of service. Roll forward thy work in the direction of Jehovah; that is, with an eye to Him; in a harmony with Him, recognising His plans (Pro_16:4): and what will be the result? Why, God means to have His way at any rate. Our works will “have success,” one or the other fashion, in His scheme of Providence. He works in the work even of Beelzebub. But if we act “in the direction of” His will, they will have success as we planned them. That seems to be the meaning. We might read, “thy plans shall have success.” … The whole would then mean, “thy doings” shall “have success” (literally, be made to stand), as thy plans, or in the shape thy plans gave them. Or, in other words, God, having an express purpose for all you do (Pro_16:4), will give success to your work at any rate. He has the exact niche for all you work at. But, if you turn it in His direction, and aim with it at His will, He will aim at yours; that is, He will give a success after your plan; if not in its actual letter, still, in what is far the best, in the way best suited to your peculiar interest.—Miller.
Never is the heart at rest till it repose in God; till then it flickers up and down, as Noah’s dove did upon the face of the flood, and found no footing till she returned to the ark. Perfect trust is blessed with a perfect peace. A famous instance of this we have in our Saviour, “Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour, but for this cause came I to this hour. Father, glorify Thy name” (Joh_12:27). All the while the eye of His humanity was fixed upon deliverance from the hour of His temptation; there was no peace nor rest in His soul, because there He found not only uncertainty, but impossibility. But when he could wait on, acquiesce in, and resign to the will of His Father, we never hear of any more objection, fear, or trouble.—Trapp.
The word commit most properly signifieth cast, or tumble thy works unto the Lord. Now, in casting or tumbling, there are three things. First, a regardlessness of any merit in them, for such things are usually tumbled as are little cared for. Secondly, a speediness, for commonly things are tumbled to make the greater haste. Thirdly, there is a weakness and lightness in the things tumbled, for things of weight and strength are not so easily removed. Now, plainly, such are the works of man: there is little solidity or stability in them; tumble them, therefore, upon the Lord—commit them into His hands. And do it speedily; do not defer it until thou seest no farther help in man, but at first betake thyself unto Him, for that will best show the confidence thou hast in Him. And do not fret and vex thyself with care, but tumble and cast thy care upon God. The less thou carest in that manner the more He will care for thee. So that by Him thy works shall be established which of themselves are frail and uncertain; by Him no time shall be lost for the well ordering of them, if thou lose no time in the committing of them to Him. Or else we may take the meaning of the words thus, Put over thy works unto the Lord, and whatsoever thou doest well let Him have the praise of it—let Him have thanks for it.… To this purpose Chrysostom borroweth a similitude from the play at ball, saying, “We must cast back and return our works unto God, even as in the play of tennis, the one tosseth, the other tosseth back the ball, and so long the sport handsomely continueth, as the ball tossed and tossed back again between the hands of both doth not fall down.” The comfort of that which we have received from God is so long happily continued to us as we return God thanks for it.—Jermin.
Pro_16:2-3. The first of these verses tells us how a man goes wrong, and the second how he may be set right again. He is led into error by doing what pleases himself; the rule for recovery is to commit the works to the Lord, and see that they are such as will please Him. When we weigh our thoughts and actions in the balances of our own desires we shall inevitably go astray. When we lay them before God, and submit to His pleasure, we shall be guided into truth and righteousnesss … It is a common and sound advice to ask counsel of the Lord before undertaking any work. Here we have the counterpart equally precious—commit the work to the Lord after it is done. The Hebrew idiom gives peculiar emphasis to the precept—roll it over on Jehovah. Mark the beautiful reciprocity of the two, and how they constitute a circle between them. While the act is yet in embryo as a purpose in your mind, ask counsel of the Lord, that it may be crushed in the birth, or embodied in righteousness. When it is embodied bring the work back to the Lord, and give it over into His hand as the fruit of the thought you besought Him to inspire.… These two rules following each other in a circle, would make the outspread field of a Christian’s life sunny, and green, and fruitful, as the circling of the solar system brightens and fertilises the earth.… Perhaps most professing Christians find it easier to go to God beforehand, asking what they should do, than to return to Him afterwards, to place their work in His hands. This may, in part, account for the want of answer to prayer—at least the want of a knowledge that prayer has been answered. If you do not complete the circle your message by telegraph will never reach its destination, and no answer will return. We send in earnest prayer for direction. Thereafter we go into the world of action. But if we do not bring the action back to God the circle of supplication is not completed.—Arnot.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain
Proverbs
WHAT I THINK OF MYSELF AND WHAT GOD THINKS OF ME
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Pro 16:2.
‘All the ways of a man’-then there is no such thing as being conscious of having gone wrong, and having got into miry and foul ways? Of course there is; and equally of course a broad statement such as this of my text is not to be pressed into literal accuracy, but is a simple, general assertion of what we all know to be true, that we have a strange power of blinding ourselves as to what is wrong in ourselves and in our actions. Part of the cure for that lies in the thought in the second clause of the text-’But the Lord weigheth the spirits.’ He weighs them in a balance, or as a man might take up something and poise it on his palm, moving his hand up and down till his muscles by their resistance gave him some inkling of its weight. But what is it that God weighs? ‘The spirits.’ We too often content ourselves with looking at our ways; God looks at ourselves. He takes the inner man into account, estimates actions by motives, and so very often differs from our judgment of ourselves and of one another.
Now so far the verse of my text carries me, and as a rule we have to keep ourselves within the limits of each verse in reading this Book of Proverbs, for two adjoining verses have very seldom anything to do with each other. But in the present case they have, for here is what follows: ‘Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts’ {about thyself and everything else} ‘shall be established.’ That is to say, since we make such terrible blunders about the moral character of our own works, and since side by side with these erroneous estimates there is God’s absolutely correct and all-penetrating one, common sense says: ‘Put yourself into His hands, and then it will be all right.’ So we consider now these very well-worn and familiar thoughts as to our strange blunders about ourselves, as to the contemporaneous divine estimate, which is absolutely correct, and as to the practical issues that come from two facts.
I. Our strange power of blinding ourselves.
It is difficult to make so threadbare a commonplace at all impressive. But yet if we would only take this thought, ‘All the ways of a man’-that is me-’are right in his own eyes’-that is, my eyes-and apply it directly to our own personal experience and thoughts of ourselves, we should find that, like every other commonplace of morality and religion, the apparently toothless generality has sharp enough teeth, and that the trite truth flashes up into strange beauty, and has power to purify and guide our lives. Some one says that ‘recognised truths lie bedridden in the dormitory of the soul, side by side with exploded errors.’ And I am afraid that that is true of this thought, that we cannot truly estimate ourselves.
‘All the ways of a man are right in his own eyes.’ For to begin with, we all know that there is nothing that we so habitually neglect as the bringing of conscience to bear right through all our lives. Sometimes it is because there is a temptation that appeals very strongly, perhaps to sense, perhaps to some strong inclination which has been strengthened by indulgence. And when the craving arises, that is no time to begin asking, ‘Is it right, or is it wrong to yield?’ That question stands small chance of being wisely considered at a moment when, under the goading of roused desire, a man is like a mad bull when it charges. It drops its head and shuts its eyes, and goes right forward, and no matter whether it smashes its horns against an iron gate, and damages them and itself, or not, on it will go. So when great temptations rise-and we all know such times in our lives-we are in no condition to discuss that question with ourselves. Sometimes the craving is so vehement that if we could not get this thing that we want without putting our hands through the sulphurous smoke of the bottomless pit, we should thrust them out to grasp it. But in regard to the smaller commonplace matters of daily life, too, we all know that there are whole regions of our lives which seem to us to be so small that it is hardly worth while summoning the august thought of ‘right or wrong?’ to decide them. Yes, and a thousand smugglers that go across a frontier, each with a little package of contraband goods that does not pay any duty, make a large aggregate at the year’s end. It is the trifles of life that shape life, and it is to them that we so frequently fail in applying, honestly and rigidly, the test, ‘Is this right or wrong?’ ‘He that is faithful in that which is least,’ and conscientious down to the smallest things, ‘is faithful also in much.’ The legal maxim has it, ‘The law does not care about the very smallest matters.’ What that precisely means, as a legal maxim, I do not profess to know, but it is rank heresy in regard to conduct and morality. Look after the pennies, and the pounds will look after themselves. Get the habit of bringing conscience to bear on little things, or you will never be able to bring it to bear when great temptations come and the crises emerge in your lives. Thus, by reason of that deficiency in the habitual application of conscience to bur lives, we slide through, and take for granted that all our ways are right in our eyes.
Then there is another thing: we not only neglect the rigid application of conscience to all our lives, but we have a double standard, and the notion of right and wrong which we apply to our neighbours is very different from that which we apply to ourselves. No wonder that the criminal is acquitted, and goes away from the tribunal ‘without a stain on his character,’ when he is his own judge and jury. ‘All the ways of a man are right in his own eyes,’ but the very same ‘way’s that you allow to pass muster and condone in yourselves, you visit with sharp and unfailing censure in others. That strange self-complacency which we have, which is perfectly undisturbed by the most general confessions of sinfulness, and only shies when it is brought up to particular details of faults, we all know is very deep in ourselves.
Then there is another thing to be remembered, and that is-the enormous and the tragical influence of habit in dulling the mirror of our souls, on which our deeds are reflected in their true image. There are places in Europe where the peasantry have become so accustomed to minute and constantly repeated doses of arsenic that it is actually a minister of health to them, and what would poison you is food for them. We all know that we may sit in a hall like this, packed full and steaming, while the condensed breath is running down the windows, and never be aware of the foulness of the odours and the air. But when we go out and feel the sweet, pure breath of the unpolluted atmosphere, then we know how habit has dulled the lungs. And so habit dulls the conscience. According to the old saying, the man that began by carrying a calf can carry an ox at the end, and feel no burden. What we are accustomed to do we scarcely ever recognise to be wrong, and it is these things which pass because they are habitual that do more to wreck lives than occasional outbursts of far worse evils, according to the world’s estimate of them. Habit dulls the eye.
Yes; and more than that, the conscience needs educating just as much as any other faculty. A man says, ‘My conscience acquits me’; then the question is, ‘And what sort of a conscience have you got, if it acquits you?’ All that your conscience says is, ‘It is right to do what is right, it is wrong to do what is wrong.’ But for the explanation of what is wrong and what is right you have to go somewhere else than to your consciences. You have to go to your reason, and your judgment, and your common sense, and a hundred other sources. And then, when you have found out what is right and what is wrong, you will hear the voice saying, ‘Do that, and do not do this.’ Every one of us has faults that we know nothing about, and that we bring up to the tribunal of our consciences, and wipe our mouths and say, ‘We have done no harm.’ ‘I thought within myself that I verily ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.’ ‘They think that they do God service.’ Many things that seem to us virtues are vices.
And as for the individual so for the community. The perception of what is right and what is wrong needs long educating. When I was a boy the whole Christian Church of America, with one voice, declared that ‘slavery was a patriarchal institution appointed by God.’ The Christian Church of to-day has not awakened either to the sin of war or of drink. And I have not the smallest doubt that there are hosts of things which public opinion, and Christian public opinion, regards to-day as perfectly allowable and innocent, and, perhaps, even praiseworthy, and over which it will ask God’s blessing, at which, in a hundred years our descendants will hold up their hands in wonder, and say, ‘How did good people-and good people they no doubt were-tolerate such a condition of things for a moment?’ ‘All a man’s ways are right in his own eyes,’ and he needs a great deal of teaching before he comes to understand what, according to God’s will, really, is right and what is wrong.
Now let me turn for a moment to the contrasted picture, with which I can only deal in a sentence or two.
II. The divine estimate.
I have already pointed out the two emphatic thoughts that lie in that clause, ‘God weigheth,’ and ‘weigheth the spirits.’ I need not repeat what I said, in the introduction to these remarks, upon this subject. Just let us take with us these two thoughts, that the same actions which we sometimes test, in our very defective and loaded balances, have also to go into the infallible scales, and that the actions go with their interpretation in their motive. ‘God weighs the spirits.’ He reads what we do by His knowledge of what we are. We reveal to one another what we are by what we do, and, as is a commonplace, none of us can penetrate, except very superficially and often inaccurately, to the motives that actuate. But the motive is three-fourths of the action. God does not go from without, as it were, inwards; from our actions to estimate our characters; but He starts with the character and the motive-the habitual character and the occasional motive-and by these He reads the deed. He weighs, ponders, penetrates to the heart of the thing, and He weighs the spirits.
So on the one hand, ‘I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief,’ and many a deed which the world would condemn, and in which we onlookers would see evil, God does not wholly condemn, because He, being the Inlooker as well as the Onlooker, sees the albeit mistaken yet pure motives that underlay it. So it is conceivable that the inquisitor, and the heretic that he sent to the stake, may stand side by side in God’s estimate; the one if he were actuated by pure zeal for the truth, the other because he was actuated by self-sacrifice in loyalty to his Lord. And, on the other hand, many a deed that goes flaunting through the world in ‘purple and fine linen’ will be stripped of its gauds, and stand naked and ugly before the eyes of ‘Him with whom we have to do.’ He ‘weighs the spirits.’
Lastly, a word about-
III. The practical issues of these thoughts.
‘Commit thy works unto the Lord’-that is to say, do not be too sure that you are right because you do not think you are wrong. We should be very distrustful of our own judgments of ourselves, especially when that judgment permits us to do certain things. ‘I know nothing against myself,’ said the Apostle, ‘yet am I not hereby justified.’ And again, still more emphatically, he lays down the principle that I would have liked to have enlarged upon if I had had time. ‘Happy is he that condemneth not himself in the things which he alloweth.’ You may have made the glove too easy by stretching. It is possible that you may think that something is permissible and right which a wiser and more rigid and Christlike judgment of yourself would have taught you was wrong. Look under the stones for the reptiles, and remember the prayer, ‘Cleanse thou me from secret faults,’ and distrust a permitting and easy conscience.
Then, again, let us seek the divine strengthening and illumination. We have to seek that in some very plain ways. Seek it by prayer. There is nothing so powerful in stripping off from our besetting sins their disguises and masks as to go to God with the honest petition: ‘Search me . . . and try me . . . and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.’ Brethren! if we will do that, we shall get answers that will startle us, that will humble us, but that will be blessed beyond all other blessedness, and will bring to light the ‘hidden things of darkness.’ Then, after they are brought to light and cast out, ‘then shall every man have praise of God.’
We ought to keep ourselves in very close union with Jesus Christ, because if we cling to Him in simple faith, He will come into our hearts, and we shall be saved from walking in darkness, and have the light of life shining down upon our deeds. Christ is the conscience of the Christian man’s conscience, who, by His voice in the hearts that wait upon Him, says, ‘Do this,’ and they do it. It is when He is in our spirits that our estimate of ourselves is set right, and that we hear the voice saying, ‘This is the way, walk ye in it’; and not merely do we hear the voice, but we get help to our feet in running in the way of His commandments, with enlarged and confirmed hearts. Brethren! for the discovery of our faults, which we ought all to long for, and for the conquest of these discovered faults, which, if we are Christians, we do long for, our confidence is in Him. And if you trust Him, ‘the blood of Christ will cleanse’-because it comes into our life’s blood-’from all sin.’
And the last thing that I would say is this. We must punctiliously obey every dictate that speaks in our own consciences, especially when it urges us to unwelcome duties or restrains us from too welcome sins. ‘To him that hath shall be given’-and the sure way to condemn ourselves to utter blindness as to our true selves is to pay no attention to the glimmers of light that we have, whilst, on the other hand, the sure way to be led into fuller illumination is to follow faithfully whatsoever sparkles of light may shine upon our hearts. ‘Do the duty that lies nearest thee.’ Put thy trust in Jesus Christ. Distrust thine own approbation or condonation of thine actions, and ever turn to Him and say, ‘Show me what to do, and make me willing and fit to do it.’ Then there will be little contrariety between your estimate of your ways and God’s judgments of your spirits.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain v. 2. All the ways of a man are…
v. 2. All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes, in his own judgment; but the Lord weigheth the spirits, He has ways and means to try all men according to their real moral worth, and His judgment is not fallible like that of men.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 16:2 God’s moral evaluation is what counts (see Gen…
16:2 God’s moral evaluation is what counts (see Gen 8:21; 1 Sam 13:14; 16:6-7; Luke 16:15). This proverb is repeated almost verbatim in Prov 21:2.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.