Whoso walketh uprightly shall be saved; but he that is perverse in his ways shall fall at once (Proverbs 28:18).
He that walketh uprightly walketh surely. But may he not stumble and fall into calamity? Solomon never meant to deny that he may; but although he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down. He shall be preserved and rescued by the power of God, who looketh upon the upright with complacency, and glorifies his power and faithfulness by the salvations which he bestows on them. The upright are exposed to the same calamities with other men, and sometimes they meet with special hardships and dangers for the sake of their uprightness; but if they should die for the sake of a good conscience, they are safe, for Christ hath assured us, that he who loses his life for bearing an upright testimony for the sake of Christ shall save it.
The double-minded man expects safety from his pliable temper. He is not like the inflexible oak, but like the pliant osier, which bends with every wind, and therefore he thinks that no tempest shall blow him down; but God hath said it, and his word will stand that he shall fall at once. His arts may succeed for a time to spin out an infamous life, or to preserve his property and credit; but the ruin which he endeavours to avoid, shall seize upon him when he is not expecting it, and to his great mortification, he shall find himself ruined by those very arts which he employed for his security. He is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare, and his destruction, when it comes, shall be complete and irremediable. It may be delayed for a time, but when it comes it shall not need to rise up the second time.
The reading for today is an excerpt from “Exposition of the Book of Proverbs” by George Lawson.
