I’m sure you’ve all noticed the Christmas decorations that we have around here this morning. I really appreciate the work of the people who were involved in putting up these decorations; they really add a nice touch to our Christmas celebrations this month.
I know that as these decorations were going up this last week, we had a little trouble getting one of our Christmas trees to stand upright. It’s kind of funny how that happens with stuff—you put something away in storage in perfectly good condition, and somehow when you pull it back out again, something doesn’t work right. You haven’t even touched it in the meantime, but somehow something got out of whack—a piece is bent or missing; something that used to light up doesn’t light up anymore; something that used to move is now locked in place; something that’s supposed to be upright isn’t upright anymore.
In some ways, we are a lot like our stuff—we have a hard time staying upright, too, and I’m not talking about getting a hunchback as you grow older! We have a hard time behaving in a way that is upright. Upright behavior is a word picture that the Bible uses to describe actions that are correct in God’s sight, actions that meet His standards. Think about the contrast between a board that is straight and upright versus one that is warped and crooked. That’s the picture that the Bible paints when it talks about upright behavior versus behavior that is wicked or crooked.
Proverbs says a lot about the person who is upright, so this morning we’re going to take a look at what it says. Some of the points we’ll look at are benefits that the upright person enjoys, and some of them are behaviors that the upright person embraces. We’re also going to look at verses that talk about the “righteous” person or the “blameless” person, because those are very similar ideas. So let’s answer this question together:
What characterizes the upright person?
I. He has a close relationship with the Lord
Let’s see what Prov. 3:32 has to say [READ 3:32]. The idea in this verse is that God accepts the upright person into His inner circle. We all have several different categories of friends in our lives. Many people today have their Facebook friends online. This group might include your playground buddy from Kindergarten that you haven’t spoken to in 30 years! Then you have your social friends—these are the people that you socialize with. You generally share a common interest with these people, and when you get together to share a few laughs and just have a good time. Then you have your close friends, the people who know everything about you. These are the friends that you seek advice from and share your secrets with.
Well the picture in this verse is that God brings the upright person into the kind of relationship that is enjoyed by close friends. He allows the upright to get to know Him and helps them understand the way that He looks at the world. This reminds me of what Jesus said to His disciple shortly before He died. In John 15:15 He said, “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.”
So the upright person enjoys an intimate relationship with God. Prov. 11:20 says, “The perverse in heart are an abomination to the LORD, but the blameless in their walk are His delight.” The Lord is also inclined to respond to the prayers of the upright person. Prov. 15:29 says, “The LORD is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous.” This isn’t hard to understand, because friends are always inclined to help each other. This is an awesome benefit of living an upright life!
II. He pleases the Lord by worshipping with the right attitude
Let’s read Prov. 15:8 [READ 15:8]. Let’s not miss the real difference here. Both men in this verse are performing religious acts—the wicked man is offering a sacrifice, and the upright man is offering a prayer. The difference is in their heart attitude—the wicked man has not been concerned about obeying God, whereas the upright man has.
The upright person knows that God values obedience rather than empty religious acts. Prov. 21:3 says, “To do righteousness and justice is desired by the LORD more than sacrifice.” How foolish we are to think that we can somehow pull the wool over God’s eyes with religious acts that aren’t performed from the heart! God is not impressed with our perfect church attendance if we live like the devil the rest of the week.
We don’t even think the people around us are pleased when we just go through the motions, so why would we think that God is pleased? Do you think your coach is truly happy if you just show up to practice and walk through the drills? Do you think your spouse is truly pleased if you just go through the motions of a relationship? “Okay—relationship checklist. Buy a present on his or her birthday; check! Don’t say what you really think of his or her parents; check…”
The upright person pleases the Lord because he doesn’t allow this kind of divorce between his attitude and his actions. He worships the Lord from the heart, and thus offers worship that truly pleases God.
III. He is protected from an untimely death
I’m not going to spend much time on this point because we’ve already seen this in our discussions of wisdom and the fear of the Lord. I just feel compelled to mention it again because Proverbs mentions it so often. Almost every time you turn the page you find this lesson coming up again. Let’s read a few verses [READ 10:2, 10:16, 11:19, 12:28, 19:16]
Perhaps one reason that Proverbs mentions this point so often is that in that time, the death penalty was assigned to many more criminal activities than it is today—even to actions like cursing your parents or working on the Sabbath day, which was supposed to be a day of rest. In that setting you can see how one foolish choice really could leave you facing death. But upright behavior protects a person from an untimely death, and that is no less true for us today, even though we live in a different setting.
IV. He has a firm foundation for life, even through difficult times
Turn with me to Prov. 10:25, and let’s read this verse [READ 10:25]. I wonder if Jesus was thinking of verses like this when he told his parable contrasting the wise man who built his house on the rock and the foolish man who built his house on the sand. The foolish man’s house was destroyed after the storms came, but the wise man’s house remained. When the foolish or the wicked person faces adversity, he has nothing on which to stand, no anchor to keep him mentally, emotionally, or spiritually stable.
Let’s look at a few more verses. Turn to Prov. 12:3 [READ 12:3]. I’m sure we’ve all seen old, established trees with a deep root system. Trees like that can withstand some fierce storms because of the stability that their roots provide. They may lose some branches, but the tree will almost always stand strong. Likewise, the righteous person will face periods of loss in life, but with roots that are sunk deep into the soil of the Savior, he can still stay on his feet.
These verses have not specifically stated the source of strength for the upright person, but Prov. 18:10 does [READ 18:10]. The “name” of the Lord in this verse represents His character—all that He is and all that He is capable of. So it is the Lord to whom the righteous man looks for emotional, spiritual, and when need be even physical strength.
Now none of this is meant to say that the upright person will somehow go through life unmoved and unshaken by times of hurt and pain. The upright man is not the person who never sheds a tear, but the person who remembers that he cries on the Lord’s shoulder, and once the tears are past he will see the smile of the Savior and know that there is still reason to live.
V. He receives rewards from his behavior that will last
Let’s read Prov. 11:18 [READ 11:18]. Whatever the wicked may gain from an evil lifestyle, his gains are deceptive because they don’t provide a lasting foundation on which to build a life. The rug could be pulled out from under him at any moment. Prov. 28:18 says, “He who walks blamelessly will be delivered, but he who is crooked will fall all at once.” Someone might suddenly take revenge against him, or the authorities might catch up with him if he has broken the law.
But the upright person receives rewards that will last. Prov. 11:18 uses the picture of planting and harvesting. The person who “sows” or plants righteousness will yield a harvest that he really can build his life upon. His blessings have been obtained in the right way, and so he has every reason to be confident as he moves forward in life.
We should be very careful to learn this lesson, and if we won’t take the Bible’s word for it, we should at least gain wisdom from the downfall of people like Bernie Madoff. He was living the good life for awhile as he was falsifying investments, but his whole life suddenly came crashing in on him after his crimes were discovered.
It simply isn’t worth it to try and get ahead in life through sinful choices. Whatever we might gain will never be stable, and it will never give the true satisfaction that comes from gaining blessings through a godly way of life.
VI. He receives blessings rather than trouble from his conduct
Look with me at Prov. 13:21 [READ 13:21] This is quite the word picture here. Adversity is described as “pursuing” sinners. The idea is that sinners don’t just experience hardship—hardship actually seeks them out! They might not be looking for adversity, but adversity is looking for them!
The righteous on the other hand receive not hardship, but prosperity as a reward. Commentator Tremper Longman had a good observation on this. He wrote, “Evil pursues sinners. On the other hand, the righteous…do not have to pursue a good reward; it comes naturally to them as a result of their righteousness.”*
Now the Hebrew word that is translated “prosperity” in this verse is not necessarily focused on money. It can include money, but it’s a more general term for blessings or pleasant things. We seem to be culturally conditioned to think about money whenever we hear the word prosperity, and that would have been on the Hebrew speaker’s mind as well, but the Jews would have thought of a prosperous life more in terms of the Old Testament concept of shalom, which refers to a wholeness in life that leads to peace and satisfaction.
And of course, the idea of a reward assumes that there is a rewarder; there is someone who grants the reward, and in this verse that of course would be the Lord. So God looks to give good things to the righteous, and adversity looks to give trouble to sinners.
VII. His character makes life easier for himself
Let’s read Prov. 15:19 [READ 15:19]. Have you ever encountered a patch of thorns while you were out on a hike? If you have to walk through something like that, that’s some tough stuff to go through. You have to move carefully, and there’s almost no way to escape without getting pricked.
Well I’m sure we’ve all been in situations where we’ve given in to laziness, and we’ve put something off until we absolutely had to do it. But then when you start, you encounter all kinds of problems, and the problems are much worse because you didn’t give yourself enough time to deal with them.
That’s the point that’s being made about laziness here—it puts you on a path that is beset with trouble. But the upright person is on the highway of life. He has open road ahead of him, and its smooth sailing because He has followed God’s way of doing things. The upright person has chosen a way that has been cleared of obstacles, and thus he has made life easier for himself.
These are just a few of the traits that characterize an upright person, but I think we can already see how desirable it is to live an upright life. The upright person makes choices that line up with God’s standards, so that must be our focus. We must know His standards for living and believe that they truly are the best, and then we must make our choices accordingly. As we have seen, some wonderful blessings and desirable traits await us if we will make that choice, so let’s do so today!
*Tremper Longman, Proverbs (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006), 290.
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