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“The Virtuous Man, Part 1”
Categories: Sermons
Among churches of Christ today, the most studied chapter in Proverbs, and possibly the most studied chapter in the Old Testament, is Proverbs 31. Countless women’s classes have explored the topic of the virtuous woman, as determined sisters strive to emulate her fictitious excellence. One might almost say that she has achieved celebrity status among Christians. After all, she does have her own line of handbags!
There’s certainly nothing wrong with studying Proverbs 31, but for the next few Sunday evenings, I want to examine a lesser-known paragon we’ll reach in this week’s Bible reading. In Job 31, Job launches into a point-by-point defense of his character, explaining why it is that he hasn’t earned God’s wrath. Even though Job lived under a different dispensation than we do, everything that he lists is something that men of God ought to strive for today. Indeed, as we’ll see, some of the topics that he explores have a very modern ring to them. Without further ado, then, let’s see what we can learn this evening from the first part of our study of the virtuous man.
According to Job, the first attribute that the virtuous man possesses is PURITY OF HEART. Let’s read about it in Job 31:1-4. To me, this is fascinating. Normally, we think of lust as a New-Testament kind of sin. After all, didn’t Jesus warn us that lust was as bad as adultery in the Sermon on the Mount? It’s obvious from this text, though, that thousands of years before the Sermon on the Mount, Job recognized the spiritual dangers of looking lustfully on a young woman. Indeed, he foresaw such problems that he made a covenant with his eyes to keep them looking where they should.
There are two important lessons here for us. The first is that if we want to keep our hearts free from lust, we are going to have to be determined about it. Back in the day, a covenant was a solemn legal obligation. Abraham’s covenant with God and the Sinai covenant were sealed with the blood of sacrifices. You did not make a covenant lightly, and you did not break it once you made it.
If we don’t have this solemn resolution, we inevitably will find our eyes looking on someone else with lust. Our society makes lust incredibly easy. When I go to Wal-Mart in the summer, half the women in the store are wearing things that reveal more than I ever wanted to know. Online, things are no better and often worse. It is more work to not find someone to gaze on than it is to find them. If we don’t live with determination and resolve, our eyes will lead us into sin.
Second, when we are considering whether we should watch someone we don’t have a right to watch, we should remember who is watching us. As Job points out in v. 5, God sees all our ways. He knows when our eyes are looking where they shouldn’t, and when our hearts are thinking things they shouldn’t. Lust is subtle enough that we can hide it from others if we are careful, but we never should think that we can hide it from Him.
Next, Job examines the value of HONESTY. Consider Job 31:5-8. This is a text that is about Job’s business dealings. It considers the question of whether he has been deceitful and used his position to exploit others.
I think we see clearly what Job is talking about when we consider the penalty of v. 6. There, he invites God to weigh him in a just balance, implying that wrongdoing would be using an unjust balance. We don’t do things that way today, so let me explain. Thousands of years ago, when goods were sold by weight, merchants used a balance, like we see in those pictures of the scales of justice. If you wanted to sell, say, a pound of olives, you would put your one-pound weight in one pan and olives in the other until the scales balanced.
Unscrupulous merchants, though, would keep two sets of weights: a heavy set for when they were buying, and a light set for when they were selling. That way, they could buy 1.5 pounds of olives for the price of one pound and sell .5 pounds of olives for the price of one pound. That might be a good way to enrich yourself, but it sure is slimy!
Today, we see unscrupulous merchants pull the same trick when they take advantage of their superior knowledge to put one over on an unsuspecting customer. This is like the auto mechanic who tells you you need half your engine replaced when you actually don’t. He knows he’s lying, but you don’t, so he skins you.
Christians have to be above that. We have to love fair dealing more than we love money. If we’re selling a used car, and we know the car has problems, we have to tell potential sellers about those problems. If we’re selling a house, and we know it’s got mold in the attic, we can’t ignore the situation and hope the home inspector doesn’t notice. We have to be forthright. Being straightforward will cost us some money, but being deceitful will cost us our souls.
Finally, Job informs us that the virtuous man is SELF-CONTROLLED. Look at the text of Job 31:9-12. Here, Job expresses the wish that if he has sneaked around and committed adultery with his neighbor’s wife, that his own wife will betray him with his neighbor. That’s pretty strong stuff!
Today, of course, adultery is no less a temptation. If you talk to the elders here, they can give you decade after decade of stories about Christian men who have been unfaithful to their wives, and all the disasters that followed from that. First, as Job observes, it’s the sort of thing that can get you brought before a judge. Sneaking around is a great way to end up in divorce court, and as anybody who has had anything to do with a divorce can tell you, that’s not where you want to be!
Second, Job points out the destructiveness of adultery. He says that it would produce a fire that would destroy his whole life. Brethren, we need to think seriously about this. There’s no better way to ruin everything we hold dear than to cheat on our wives. That will place tremendous stress on our marriage if not destroy it altogether. Financially speaking, the single worst financial mistake people can make is to get divorced. It will have horrific effects on our kids. I’ve seen more than one girl whose father was unfaithful to her mother grow up and marry a man who betrayed her in just the same way. That was the kind of man her father’s example taught her to look for. Finally, of course, it will ruin our relationship with God and cause us to lose our souls unless we repent. If there is any sin that we should fear to the depths of our being, it is adultery.
