“The righteous hate lying, but the wicked bring disgust and shame. Righteousness guards people of integrity, but wickedness undermines the sinner. One person pretends to be rich but has nothing; another pretends to be poor but has abundant wealth. Riches are a ransom for a person’s life, but a poor person hears no threat. The light of the righteous shines brightly, but the lamp of the wicked is put out.” (Proverbs‬ ‭13‬:‭5‬-‭9‬ ‭CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

Several years ago, I heard a sermon about generosity. The preacher was talking about the myth that more money will make us happier. He shared some interesting survey data that showed there actually is a point below which more money seems to contribute to overall happiness, but it’s a lot lower than you’d think. This is an easy trap to fall into. We survey our lives, and see all the things we would or could do if we had more money, and conclude that if we had that money, we would feel more accomplished or secure or confident, and happiness would follow in the wake of all that. After eighteen years of ministry, I am in a very different financial place than when I started, yet I can say with confidence that I’m not any happier today specifically because of that. In this next batch of proverbs, Solomon makes this point in a really interesting way. Let’s dive right in.

“The righteous hate lying, but the wicked bring disgust and shame.” The first question that comes to mind for me here is why. Why do the righteous hate lying? Well, let’s think about what we have said about lying. We talk about this fair recently. What is a lie? Do you remember? A lie is an attempt to create a version of reality other than how it actually is, and to either live in it yourself, or to invite or coerce others to live in it, or both. The problem with these alternative realities, is that they don’t last. As inviting as they may be, they will all eventually crash into the walls of reality, bringing pain and suffering to those who are dwelling in them.

The next major Marvel movie is going to be Avengers: Doomsday. The fourth and fifth phases of their storytelling journey have been about introducing the Multiverse. This is the idea that there are an infinite number of universes out there, all existing in different planes of reality. But the story for Doomsday seems to be that all of these different universes across the multiverse are crashing into each other. This is going to continue until all of them are brought back into one, single reality that reflects what ultimately is. The process of getting there, though, is going to be messy.

People who are right with God and right with others – that is, they are righteous – hate the pain and suffering and frustration and heartache caused by these fantasy-reality intersections, or incursions to borrow Marvel’s term. They hate all of this and therefore they hate the lies that set them up to eventually occur even more. The best way to avoid that trouble is to live in and with the truth in the first place.

The second part of this proverb seems odd until you look at it through the lens of the first part. The wicked bring disgust and shame because they are comfortable with lying. They actively and eagerly create these false worlds because they don’t care about the pain they will cause others. They defiantly dwell in them in rebellion against God’s created order. Others are disgusted with them because of their lack of care for the people around them. And, one day, both they and those who they convince to live in those fantasy worlds with them will be ashamed of their choice as they see how dumpy their fabricated world is in comparison with God’s glorious world. Be a person of truth. Develop a healthy hatred for lying.

“Righteousness guards people of integrity, but wickedness undermines the sinner.” Being right with God and, especially for this context, right with others can serve as a kind of shield for our lives. When you live in ways that are good and consistent, people gradually begin to develop an opinion of you. They begin to trust you and that you will do what you say. They trust that you will not turn on them or take advantage of them to advance your own interests at the expense of theirs. The assume the best about you. They will defend you to others who doubt your character or motivations in a given situation. The amount of trouble you avoid by all of this is likely more than you imagine. People who might otherwise go after you will decide not to because the esteem with which you are held by others will mean that they will not only make an enemy of you, but of the many others who support you.

But when you choose a path of sin, brazenly doing what you want rather than what is right, you are going to find yourself in trouble more often than you won’t. When you try to go something good, those bad choices from your past will create unexpected and otherwise unnecessary obstacles to your forward progress. People will not trust you or support you, undermining everything you want to achieve. Developing a reputation for integrity takes work, but it is work that will pay off in spades over time. Lazily leaning into sin and selfishness will prove a disastrous choice if you make it.

“One person pretends to be rich but has nothing; another pretends to be poor but has abundant wealth.” Appearances aren’t always what they seem. Those without can become self-conscious of that fact and will put on a show to make people think they have more than they do to hide reality. But doing this will just bring the disgust and shame we talked about before. At the same time, falsely denying the reality of wealth isn’t necessarily a better option. To take this approach and present your situation as other than it is isn’t any better on this end of things. You’re still lying to people.

That’s a trap this proverb sets up for interpreters. The two halves of the standard proverbial parallelism here isn’t a contrast between one option that is good and one that is bad. It is simply observing that these two things happen. The challenge is for us as readers to think carefully and critically about the observation here and recognize that neither of these options are good paths to take. Refusing to walk these paths doesn’t mean we have to bemoan our poverty or flaunt our wealth. We don’t have to draw intentional attention to financial situation at all. We can simply pursue a path of being faithful, good stewards of whatever we have regardless of how much that is. When we are good stewards of what God has provided us, He will make sure that we have enough for ourselves and to use to be generous with others. Living comfortably and humbly within the walls of reality is always the better path.

“Riches are a ransom for a person’s life, but a poor person hears no threat.” Now, this one is a little tough because there is a kidnapping industry in some countries that doesn’t care about the amount of money the victim has. They demand a ransom, and if the family can’t pay, they just kill the victim and move on to the next one. That’s not the kind of situation Solomon imagined. The reality about kidnapping is that wealthy victims are far more likely to be the target of it than poor ones. If you demand a ransom the family can’t afford to pay or manage to get their hands on, you’ve just wasted everyone’s time.

The bigger picture here is that more money doesn’t necessarily bring more happiness. It can bring more problems. When you get more money and use that increase to grow the size of your lifestyle, while there will be more opportunities and experiences for you to enjoy, there will also be more to manage and keep up with. There will be more bills to pay, more debt to eliminate, more worries about what you stand to lose now. There is a simplicity that comes with having less that starts to look greener when you get over to where you once thought the green grass really grew.

Money isn’t going to automatically make you happier no matter how much of it you have. Money won’t necessarily solve problems either. It will reveal them. It will do this both by highlighting where you have made poor financial choices, and by revealing the character defects that will lead to your making them when given the chance. Put your hope in Jesus and not your stuff, and then use the stuff He has provided to you to advance His kingdom interests. That will always be the path that leads to the most flourishing.

“The light of the righteous shines brightly, but the lamp of the wicked is put out.” When you pursue the right path through life, you will stand out from the crowd of people who are stuck on sin and selfishness. You will be noticed for it and praised for it. In a world that is often a dark place, these folks are visible for miles around. When you are properly and consistently tapped into the righteousness of God, it will be His light shining through you. That light won’t ever go out. He will keep it burning brightly. If you take the path of wickedness, though, eventually the light He allows to shine through you simply by virtue of having been created in His image will go out. If you unplug the lamp or stop charging the batteries, it’s only a matter of time before they stop working. If you want a life that shines brightly and whose light doesn’t go out, staying connected to Christ is the only way forward.