“The wicked person earns an empty wage, but the one who sows righteousness, a true reward. Genuine righteousness leads to life, but pursuing evil leads to death. Those with twisted minds are detestable to the Lord, but those with blameless conduct are his delight. Be assured that a wicked person will not go unpunished, but the offspring of the righteous will escape. A beautiful woman who rejects good sense is like a gold ring in a pig’s snout. The desire of the righteous turns out well, but the hope of the wicked leads to wrath.” (Proverbs‬ ‭11‬:‭18‬-‭23‬ ‭CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

Our culture is suffering from a crisis of meaning. Having unmoored ourselves from the solid rock of Christian theism with its clear and compelling vision for each person’s life, we are searching with greater desperation for something, anything that can give our lives the substance we need. Work is sometimes one of those things, but again, without that large framework of meaning, it quickly becomes empty too. All the rewards we receive from it amount to nothing. Solomon warns us of that here at the beginning of our next group of proverbs. Let’s take a look at these together today.

A couple verses ago, Solomon pointed to the emptiness of riches when they exist by and for themselves. He echoes that idea out of the gate here…or at least he rhymes with it. “The wicked person earns an empty wage.” This could be taken in a couple of different ways. For starters, Solomon could once again be referring to the utter emptiness of wealth for its own sake. The one who is wicked may work hard, but her work never really brings her any joy. The futility of her labor weighs heavily on her mind like a thick, heavy coat on a hot day. She may get paid and get paid well, but it’s all empty. It has no substance. It does not fulfill. It is empty.

In another sense here, the apostle Paul told us that the wages of sin is death. There is hardly anything emptier than that. The wicked person works for a lifetime, and at the end, the only thing he has to show for it is death and the grave. What a waste! No wonder Solomon proclaimed that everything is empty, a vapor, a passing mist…everything that is, when it is pursued devoid of any relationship with God. When we pursue righteousness, investing in it deeply throughout our life, we will indeed receive a true reward. Of course, our righteousness isn’t ever going to be enough to merit that reward. But Christ’s righteousness, accessed by faith, will more than cover our gap. In Him we will receive the true reward of eternal life.

“Genuine righteousness leads to life, but pursuing evil leads to death.” We will yet see many proverbs running on this same basic theme. In an ultimate, cosmic sense, righteousness will always eventually lead to life, and evil will lead to death. Don’t grow weary of doing good, Paul told the Galatian believers. At the right time, we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.

Don’t miss, though, the first word of this proverb. It is not just righteousness that leads to life, but genuine righteousness. It has to be real. It can’t be manufactured. It can’t be faked. It is only the real thing that is going to get us there. It is easy to create a mirage of righteousness that is good enough to fool most people most of the time. We put on that costume when we go out, but once we are safely out of the public eye (and off of social media) we wipe off the mask and our true self shows out. That kind of righteousness as an act won’t lead to life. Neither will self-righteousness. Those are both pursuits of evil in different forms. Only the genuine righteousness of Christ will get us where we are trying to go.

“Those with twisted minds are detestable to the Lord, but those with blameless conduct are his delight.” God delights in those who simply, humbly, and honestly reflect His character in and to the world around them. We live in a culture that is deeply cynical. We have watched too many leaders – including leaders in the church – lie to us and deceive us and be revealed as hypocrites of the highest order for too long. We expect there to be a catch. We assume on the worst. We dabble in the dark and macabre – especially at this time of year. Our minds and hearts are twisted by sin. And God hates it. A simple pursuit of righteousness may be looked down on as terrible gauche by the world around us, but theirs isn’t the opinion that matters most in the end. Consider carefully who you are really trying to impress and adjust your behavior accordingly.

“Be assured that a wicked person will not go unpunished, but the offspring of the righteous will escape.” The State of Tennessee has been in the news lately for botching the execution of a woman who has been on death row for a very long time. The execution team erred gravely in the process, and the woman not only didn’t die, but was made to suffer terribly for a time before she could be provided medical care. Opponents of the death penalty generally used the case in an attempt to advance their cause. She’s been punished enough, they alleged. But the woman in question brutally and grotesquely tortured and murdered a classmate in a case so horrifying that I don’t believe a horror movie has ever portrayed something so grisly as what she did. And that doesn’t include being later charged while in prison with another gruesome attempted first-degree murder.

She deserves to die for what she did. That should have happened a long time ago. Now it feels like she might escape that punishment because of some incompetence on the part of an execution team that wasn’t adequately prepared for their task. Rest assured, though, she won’t ultimately go unpunished. Unless she has placed her faith in Christ and accepted His sacrifice for her sins, she will pay for her sins herself.

As comforting – or perhaps disquieting if you are on the wrong side of things – as the first part of this proverb is, the second is really interesting. The offspring of the righteous will escape. Escape what? Punishment. The blessings of righteousness don’t apply only to the one who is righteous. They extend like an umbrella to those around them. We see this across the Old Testament narrative. God will deal gently with the children and descendants of the righteous because of His favor for them in their righteousness. This doesn’t mean someone can assume on the faith of a parent or grandparent as sufficient to make them right with Christ. We all must stand on our own two feet in Him before God. But it does mean that your faithful pursuit of the righteousness of Christ will create a climate that will make it more likely that your children and grandchildren will do the same. Don’t forget that.

“A beautiful woman who rejects good sense is like a gold ring in a pig’s snout.” This one is just funny. The imagery here is hard to not immediately picture in your mind. Someone might be good-looking, but if there’s no substance to them, their beauty will only serve them so far. You can dress up a pig, but in the end, it still gets slaughtered. The fancy adornments don’t change what it fundamentally is. Guys, just because she looks good doesn’t mean she’s going to be good for you. Ladies, just because he’s extra easy on the eyes doesn’t mean he’s going to be a good husband or father one day. Character counts more than we often credit it. Inner beauty is worth a great deal. Be attracted to whoever you will, but before you dive in too deeply, make sure you dig a bit beneath the surface to make sure that what you find there is worthwhile.

“The desire of the righteous turns out well, but the hope of the wicked leads to wrath.” When people who love God and live in pursuit of His kingdom chase after something they want, that thing is probably going to lead to blessing for the people around them. When someone who has rejected God’s ways and is only out for himself seeks some goal, though, you probably don’t want to be anywhere in the neighborhood when they finally achieve it. If you want to have a sense of whether you are walking a path of righteousness or wickedness, consider what would be the result for those around you of you getting everything you want. If they are made better for it, you are probably on a good path. If not, you may want to do a bit of soul searching and course correcting.