What Attracts Sin?

Friday, May 6, 2022

8-19 Pay close attention, friend, to what your father tells you;

    never forget what you learned at your mother’s knee.

Wear their counsel like a winning crown,

    like rings on your fingers.

Dear friend, if bad companions tempt you,

    don’t go along with them.

If they say—“Let’s go out and raise some hell.

    Let’s beat up some old man, mug some old woman.

Let’s pick them clean

    and get them ready for their funerals.

We’ll load up on top-quality loot.

    We’ll haul it home by the truckload.

Join us for the time of your life!

    With us, it’s share and share alike!”—

Oh, friend, don’t give them a second look;

    don’t listen to them for a minute.

They’re racing to a very bad end,

    hurrying to ruin everything they lay hands on.

Nobody robs a bank

    with everyone watching,

Yet that’s what these people are doing—

    they’re doing themselves in.

When you grab all you can get, that’s what happens:

    the more you get, the less you are.

-Proverbs 1:8-19 The Message

The Enticement of Sinners

8 Hear, my son, your father’s instruction,

    and forsake not your mother’s teaching,

9 for they are a graceful garland for your head

    and pendants for your neck.

Verses 7-9 studies: The internet is information central. Knowledge is there, but wisdom is difficult to get. Wisdom goes deeper than knowing basic attitudes in your everyday life. The foundation of knowledge is to fear the Lord, honor and respect God, live in his power, and obey his Word. Our faith in God should be our main principle for understanding the world, attitudes, and actions. Trust in God; he will make you wise!

Verse 8 study: Actions speak louder than words. This is true mainly in the home. Children learn values, morals, and priorities by watching how parents act and react daily. If parents show deep reverence depending on God, children will catch on to that and have attitudes like that. Let your children see this. Teach your children to live right by worshipping in an important place in your family life. Take time to read the Bible together.

10 My son, if sinners entice you,

    do not consent.

11 If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood;

    let us ambush the innocent without reason;

12 like Sheol let us swallow them alive,

    and whole, like those who go down to the pit;

13 we shall find all precious goods,

    we shall fill our houses with plunder;

14 throw in your lot among us;

    we will all have one purse”—

15 my son, do not walk in the way with them;

    hold back your foot from their paths,

16 for their feet run to evil,

    and they make haste to shed blood.

17 For in vain is a net spread

    in the sight of any bird,

18 but these men lie in wait for their own blood;

    they set an ambush for their own lives.

19 Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain;

    it takes away the life of its possessors.

Verses 10-19 studies: Sin is a quick way to prosperity; to make us feel like the crowd. When we refuse to listen to the truth, our thoughts become masters and will do anything to satisfy them. Sins can be deadly, especially when it is attractive. We should learn to make choices based on long-range effects, not on short-range pleasure or flashy stuff. Sometimes, we may have to steer clear of people who want us to lure into activities that we know are wrong. We can’t be friendly to sin and expect our lives to remain unaffected.

Verse 19 study: “Gains by violence” is Satan’s powerful trap. It starts by planting suggestions that we can’t live without something or money. That desire then fans our fire until it is an obsession. Ask God for wisdom to see greedy desires before it destroys you. Then, God will help you overcome it.