Gold Nugget
Verse 13: “Whoever rewards evil for good, evil will not depart from his house.”
Commentary
Children will naturally weigh the cost of misbehaving. I’ve advised young parents to take care in avoiding inconsistent correction of poor actions by their children. If you only discipline a child 1 out of every 4 times that they break the touch the untouchables, they will naturally play the odds and continue touching them. Odds are, they won’t pay a price for their actions and will conclude that it’s worth it. I will go even further, knowing with experience, that they will even continue this behavior if the parent disciplines 3 out of 4 times. Only 4 out of 4 times will teach the child that there isn’t any hope of getting away with this and they know with confidence that their attempts are futile. The reality is, the times that they successfully touched the untouchables without discipline, they were rewarded. Their reward was a free pass on bad behavior. This actually encourages more bad behavior. So as a summary thus far, we conclude that overlooking sin/evil is equivalent to rewarding evil. Today’s “gold nugget” tells us that, “Whoever rewards evil for good, evil will not depart from his house.”
It’s not easy, but a Christian sometimes must “boycott” sinful or evil people. We must refuse to enable, permit or encourage sinful practices. It isn’t popular today, but if we got back to the foundational teachings of the bible, we would find that we are accountable to God for instructing and proclaiming the truth of His Word and what He expects of us to the entire world. Failing to do so and remaining ‘friends” with the world is, “rewarding evil for good”, and will ensure “evil will not depart from your house”.
Prayer
Lord, in today’s age where people are not to speak out against others actions, it’s difficult to take a stand against immoral deeds. We are being programmed that we should be tolerant and refrain from judging. All this really means is we are overlooking evil and neglecting sound judgment. Help us to be bold enough to stand for your Word and your expectations regardless of its popularity and the persecution it may bring against us . Amen
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