Proverbs 19:16-23 The Good Life

5/5/10

Time Spent: 22 min

Main Idea: The "good life" is a life spent in fearing the Lord

What I Learned about God: The greater view of God one has leads to a greater life that one can live.

Summary: The "good life" is introduced in v.16 as one who follows commandments. From this general statement, it then goes on to list what this good life entails; be kind to the poor (17), be involved in your children's lives and discipline them (18) avoid friendships with those who lack self-control (19), acknowledge the rule of God (21), understand that love and integrity are what bring real happiness (22), and fear the Lord (23). All of these fall under the umbrella concept of fearing the Lord. The Proverb then is seemingly not listing what it takes to live a "good life", but rather that the fearing of the Lord will lead to the other things above. Thus a healthy relationship with God will bring the good life to a person.

Application: The good life for me consists of plenty of rest and reading. It is hard to imagine that a "good life" involves so much action and outside fruit. This goes to show that a life lived under God will be readily discernable to the world because of the fruit in his or her life. One of the areas where my life does not match this (besides the children one) is in the understanding that love and integrity bring happiness. I had always considered them Christian things to do and passed them off as mere duties. However, the verse is stating that these are the things which can bring true happiness. When I think about love, especially for the people in my life that are difficult to love, I must remember that it is not out of begrudging self-discipline that I endure them, but rather because it is the way towards the good life.