“Lying lips are detestable to the Lord, but faithful people are his delight. A shrewd person conceals knowledge, but a foolish heart publicizes stupidity. The diligent hand will rule, but laziness will lead to forced labor. Anxiety in a person’s heart weighs it down, but a good word cheers it up. A righteous person is careful in dealing with his neighbor, but the ways of the wicked lead them astray. A lazy hunter doesn’t roast his game, but to a diligent person, his wealth is precious. There is life in the path of righteousness, and in its path there is no death.” (Proverbs‬ ‭12‬:‭22‬-‭28‬ ‭CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

When we lived in Virginia, the first few years we were there we had wonderful neighbors. Bobby and Francis were about as good as neighbors come. They became like a set of bonus great-grandparents to our boys. We loved them and they loved us right back. Then they moved out and some other people moved in. They were the opposite in every way. The house and yard that had always been immaculate were trashed. They had noisy, aggressive dogs that were allowed to roam freely and would chase our kids, terrorizing them. They would let their kids eat outside, which usually meant they would eat in our yard and then leave their dishes just sitting there when they were done. They were awful as far as neighbors go. But they were our neighbors. We didn’t need a feud with the people living next door. That would have been bad for everybody. Solomon has some counsel for dealing with neighbors in this final set of proverbs in chapter 12 along with an assortment of other advice. Let’s take a look.

What is a lie? As a verb it is the action of advancing a falsehood, to speak a statement you know not to be true with the intention of deceiving another person. You already knew that. I’m more interested now in what the noun means. My question is not what it means to lie, but what is a lie itself. Let’s try this on for size. A lie is a willfully advanced depiction of reality that is disconnected from what is actually true.

With this in mind, the act of lying is an attempt to create a false world that exists alongside this one that is a mostly accurate facsimile minus the one key detail that is the actual substance of the lie. Worse than that, it is an attempt to deceive or coerce someone else into living in this fantasy world instead of continuing to inhabit the real one.

To put some more theological language to this, when you lie you are creating a fantasy world that exists in conjunction with the world God actually made, but which is disconnected from it. Once you have created this world, you then attempt to make or trick someone else into living in it, thereby depriving them of the opportunity to enjoy the real world God actually created. Doing this to someone else is deceptive. It is manipulative. It is cruel and unloving. It deprives some access to the full joy of living in God’s good world. And God hates it. “Lying lips are detestable to the Lord.” What He much prefers—in fact He delights in this—is when people trust Him and live their lives His way.

“A shrewd person conceals knowledge, but a foolish heart publicizes stupidity.” When I was a kid, I liked sharing what I knew. I think I mentioned earlier this week about going through an obnoxious know-it-all stage. If I had a fact in my head that was even remotely relevant to a situation, I made sure to share it. Sometimes, I would share facts that weren’t relevant to the situation just because I found them interesting. There is a time to share knowledge, but sometimes it’s wiser to keep what you know a little closer to the vest.

This is especially true when going into a new situation or one in which you want to be able to maintain the upper hand. Like making a bluff in poker that your hand isn’t nearly as good as it is, if you can get others to think somewhat less of you by holding back some of what you know, then you’ll have an ace up your sleeve if you should need it that will allow you to turn things back in your favor. In those kinds of situations, letting others think you are stupid by sharing everything you know and then running out of knowledge before you run out of situation is foolish. If your first priority is being seen as knowledgeable, your pursuit of that can wind up revealing your ignorance. Save a few facts for later just in case.

“The diligent hand will rule, but laziness will lead to forced labor.” It’s true that there are plenty of people who have worked really hard and accomplished very little. In a world that is broken by sin, that kind of injustice sometimes occurs. Our economic system is the best suited to reward hard work in the world, but still there are cracks in the system that can result in injustices. That doesn’t mean the system needs to be thrown out in favor of another system (for there aren’t any better ones in terms of rewarding hard work justly), it means we need to be on the lookout for cracks so we can patch them.

That all being said, when you are willing to work hard, the likelihood that you will advance your career and open better opportunities for yourself is high. My wife just started a new position in the system where she works. It is most definitely a promotion that will likely bring future promotions with it. The higher ups in the system have been trying to get her to take this promotion for years. The reason is simple and obvious to anyone who knows her. She works really, really hard at everything she does. She makes every situation she is in better and more organized than it was before she arrived. She makes the people around her and especially the supervisors over her look really good because of her effort. If she was lazy and unconcerned about the job, she would have been left in her previous position indefinitely. But she isn’t, and so she wasn’t. Take the lesson from her. It’s worth learning.

“Anxiety in a peron’s heart weighs it down, but a good word cheers it up.” This is one of those proverbs that’s just obvious. When you are feeling anxious about something, everything is harder. I can always feel it in my gut to the point that I don’t want to eat. I have to force myself to eat in those times and then I pay for it. But when someone comes along to offer some encouragement, it makes such a difference. Work to be the kind of person who brings a good word to others. Encouragement is a valuable thing. An encourager is the kind of person everybody wants to have around.

I was just talking to someone last night at church whose struggling to get family members to come with them. One is a child; one is an adult. The child has started coming a little bit, and the reason is that we have one particular kids’ teacher who is an encourager. It’s just what he does. He is constantly building up others and loving on them. We have a bunch of other great teachers as well, but this one really goes above and beyond with it. The result is that this little one is getting to hear the Gospel. That matters.

“A righteous person is careful in dealing with his neighbor, but the ways of the wicked lead them astray.” My opening illustration aside, this isn’t talking only about the people who live next door. The person who is right with God and right with others deals with the people around him carefully. And what does “carefully” mean? With care and consideration; with kindness and compassion; with patience and gentleness; with love and mercy. Do that, and you will typically find yourself able to walk a smooth and easy path through life. If you try and deal with them based on your first instinct rather than God’s first instinct, though, and you’ll bring a whole world of trouble on the journey with you. Your behavior will lead you astray into relational thorns and briars that will make everything you do far more difficult than it might otherwise be.

“A lazy hunter doesn’t roast his game, but to a diligent person, his wealth is precious.” The idea here is that when you have worked hard for something, you should take care of that. The lazy hunter in this case kills and animal and then leaves it there. He is being contrasted with the wise and thoughtful and considerate hunter who makes a kill, and then carefully cleans and processes the carcass so that he can get the most out of it. He uses the meat to feed his family, the skin to make helpful things for the house, and so on and so forth. This is hard work, yes, but it is good work that brings a blessing to himself and to those around him. When you have started a job, follow through and finish that job. Treat the things you have earned for yourself as precious. Value them and you will get the most out of them.

“There is life in the path of righteousness, and in its path there is no death.” The death Solomon imagines here is not only physical. When you live in the ways of God rather than the ways of the world you will avoid relational death, economic death, emotional death, and so on and so forth. You might even avoid physical death in some situations. Of course, should our Lord tarry, physical death is eventually going to come for you like it will for all of us. That’s not what Solomon has in mind. But in Christ, even that death has lost all of its sting because we know that it won’t be our end. If we commit to the righteous path of Christ there is indeed no death waiting for us. Only a brief pause on life ahead of an eternity of life. Pursue righteousness with everything you have. You’ll be glad that you did.