He who keeps the commandment keeps his soul, But he who is careless of conduct will die. Proverbs 19:16

God's commandments are excellent keepers of our souls.  God did not give us His commandments to make our lives miserable - or to keep us from ever having fun - as some would accuse.  His commandments are boundaries that protect us from entering into areas where we would be harmed.  He does not command us to honor and obey our parents because He desires for us to be miserable as children - not getting our own way and being dominated by an older generation forever.  He does this so that children, who do not have good sense and whose sin nature would run rampant, would be protected from themselves.  He does so because they must be guided and helped to know the right from the wrong in their lives.  The Lord tells us to steer clear from adultery because God knows the damage and the destruction and misery caused by unfaithful partners in marriage.  He knows that sexual immorality will lead to disease and to the destruction of our bodies.  Thus the one who keeps the commandment indeed keeps his own soul. 

God's commandments go even deeper than our physical beings.  The one who keeps the commandment keeps his soul.  The word for soul here is the Hebrew word "nephesh" which means our breath.  This speaks of our inner being with its thoughts and emotions.  This came to mean our whole person - both body and spirit.  It spoke of the whole creature of man - both his outer health and his inner.  When we keep the commandment - watching closely to obey and even kep the "spirit of the commandments," we are protected inside as well as out.  Our mental health will be blessed by holding fast to God's commands and living by His ways.  God blesses our thinking, our reasoning, our understanding, our discernment, our decision-making processes . . . He blesses so much when we learn to walk in obedience to His commands.  But again I want to stress we obey the command - and we come to grasp the heart and love that is behind them.

The second part of the Proverb today reminds us that the one who is "careless of his conduct" will die.  The word careless is "bazah" which means to hold in contempt or to despise.  The reason one acts this way is because they have a basic disdain for something.  They disrespect the idea of a code of conduct.  They despise the idea that God would tell them how to live.  Here is the sin nature exposed in all its ugliness.  Mankind rebels against any master - and that is especially true of God as our Lord.  Fallen man trumpets his own freedom of will to do as he pleases - yet is so blind not to see that his will is in bondage to his own sinful desires and the spirit of this world.  He is careless of God's commands - and of his own ways.  He walks where he wants - being led about by his own lusts and by the "ruler of this world" who has rebelled against God as well.  He does not grasp that this rebellion - this contempt of God - this disrespect for His Word is a hellish thing. 

The one who lays hold of such a lifestyle will perish.  He will die in two ways.  First he will die physically - the wages of sin is death.  When God told Adam and Eve that in the day that they ate of the fruit they would surely die - He was not lying to them.  This was no mere ploy of God to keep them away from something good.  It was a loving warning that death lay in that decision to turn against Him and rebel.  But there is a death that comes spiritually as well.  The first pair knew sweet fellowship with God.  They could actually walk with the Lord in the cool of the day in the garden.  They could talk with Him, love Him, fellowship with Him in ways that we will only know in eternity.  All that was gone after they despised their conduct - or at least the one commandment given to them.  They died spiritually and passed down to all future generations a dead spirit at birth.  They were dead in their transgressions and sins - and so was every child descended from them.  In the first Adam we all died. 

Oh such a warning is given to us by this proverb.  How we should watch our ways - and watch God's commandments as our way.  The one who does so watches not just over his physical existance in this world.  He watches over the life that God gives him - both physically, but so much more importantly - spiritually.  Watch dear saints - watch your life and keep it according to God's Word.  See the positive call to life in every one of God's commandments.  For though they are given with a thou shalt not - there is within every one of them a call to life and life abundantly.  They is within them a freedom to walk in fellowship with God.  Enjoy it and walk in it!

For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light; And reproofs for discipline are the way of life. Proverbs 6:23

Today we are going to cover an amazing proverb that applies to every area and every aspect of life itself.  Here, like in the gospel, we are told of "the way of life."  Unlike in the gospel, this "way of life" is not one that can redeem us from sin - but it can be used by the Holy Spirit to make us a lifetime learner - a disciple who knows how God works through His Word and through the way that it is taught to us by the Spirit.  If there was ever a day to listen closely - today would be that day.

We are told of two things at the beginning of this proverb.  We are told of the commandent and the teaching.  These two things are compared to a lamp and to light.  First we have the commandment.  This is the same word that is used for God's 10 commandments.  It refers to God's Law - and I believe beyond the Old Testament it can be applied to the inspired Word of God anywhere in the Old or New Testaments.  We are told here that the commandment is a lamp.  A lamp is something that can emit light if used properly.  The lamp will always have the potential for light to come from it.  It is something that holds light - and if lit it will radiate light.  Interesting for us who understand the figures and types that are used for God's Holy Spirit, a lamp is filled with oil which is a type throughout the Old Testament for the Spirit and His work.  When that oil is lit - the lamp produces light.  In much the same way, the Word of God always has within it the teaching of the Holy Spirit - His leading and His instruction, warning, and rebuke.  When we come to God's Word, the lamp, we have the wonderful working of the Spirit of God as He illumines the Scriptures for us.  But before we think that simply reading or hearing the Word will always produce light, we need to remember that the commandment is a lamp.  It can produce light - but it can also remain unlit and just be a lamp.  There are those who misuse God's Word and no light comes forth.  The devil himself quoted the Scriptures to Jesus - to try and get Him to sin.  In that instance the lamp did not produce light - but it was abused to promote darkness.  There are also professors even at semniaries who do not believe the Bible is the Word of God.  The teaching they do promotes darkness.  This means that we cannot make a blanket statement that when the Bible is taught or read that it always results in light. 

The second statement made here is that the teaching is light.  First off we need to note here that we are not reading that the teaching is THE light. 
"THE" light is reserved for references to Jesus Christ Himself - God - and amazingly enough, us when we are manifesting God's character to others.  Here we read that the teaching is light.  The word for teaching here is the Hebrew word "torah."  Here torah means instruction or direction.  In the Old Testament the word mean instruction in a general manner from God Himself.  The idea here is that the command is the lamp - and when the Spirit or a Spirit-inspired teacher is instructing from it - the lamp becomes light - or begins to illumine with light.  This is so important for us to grasp because it is the very way that God will instruct and teach us.  We come to the Word, but we covet that when we do the Holy Spirit instructs us as we read and as we meditate upon what the Word says.  Do not misunderstand me to say that the Bible becomes the Word as it is taught.  That is false doctrine.  The Bible is always the inspired Wofrd of God that gives us the revelation of God.  It is just that we are blind to it without the instruction of the Holy Spirit who opens our hearts and spirits so that we can receive what God says.  That is why I think it is important to consciously ask the Spirit of God to teach us when we come to the Word of God. 

There is one other thing this passage teaches us about the functioning of the Word in our lives.  Today there are many who teach that the major reason for God's Word is that we can "confess who we are" in a positive way.  There is a potential problem with this doctrinal view.  We can get to the point where we only receive "positive" messages about ourselves from God's Word - and not conviction of sin.  When we read this passage though, it seems that we are learning something contrary to the positive confession doctrine. 

"And reproofs for discipline are the way of life."  When we read this we have to come to the conclusion that a large part of what the Word of God is going to do is reprove us.  It is probably at least one fourth of what it does because we read in 2 Timothy 3:16 that the Word of God is profitable for reproof.  Actually the 2 Timothy passage says not just reproof, but also correction as well.  The Word of God comes to us often to reprove and correct us.  One of God's complaints against the false prophets is that they would whitewash Israel's sin.  They would constantly talk about blessing without helping Israel and Judah to see that they had sinned against the Lord.  It does not matter how many "positive" confessions you make to yourself, God, and others - if you have unconfessed sin in your life - God will not bless you.  And since we are fallen creatures who live in a fallen world - we need for God to reveal to us that when we are acting "fallen!"  If you read Romans 7 - you do not come away with the thought that Paul just needed to be more positive.  He was wrestling with very real sin - and a very real fleshly, sinful nature that could not be defeated except through Jesus Christ.  That is why we need desperately to see that we need to be reproved and disciplined by God to become all that God desires for us to be in Christ.  Without that reproof and correction, we will not know from what we need to turn. 

The way of life is through being disciplined by God - and that involves the Lord reproving us for our sin.  When we come to His Word - His commandments - He is going to reveal to us how we have sinned against Him.  He does not do this because He hates us.  Contrary to that thought, He does it because He loves us!  He desires for us to share in His holiness (Hebrews 12) - and that means He wants us to share in His life. 

Wisdom is coming to God's Word in the right way each day.  It means that we approach the Lord each day being open to what He wants to teach us.  As we do this we also open ourselves to His Spirit to reveal to us that we may have sinned - or we may be lacking godly character - or a good attitude toward an authority.  There are any number of ways that God might speak to our hearts and help us to abandon sin - and embrace His holiness.  Regardless of what specifics are involved, God desires to bring blessing into our lives through this process.  Remember - the reproofs and discipline are the way of life!  He is bringing you life when He does these things.  Be wise therefore and receive what He is saying each day - whether it is encouragement, exhortation, teaching, or reproof.  They are all in his arsenal of blessing to conform you to the image of His Son and change you to be a better vessel for the blessing of not just yourself - but everyone around you.

My son, observe the commandment of your father And do not forsake the teaching of your mother; Proverbs 6:20

How does a father and a mother work together to rear their children for the Lord?  That is a good question to ask, and one that is often overlooked as we kind of stumble along in the paths of parenthood.  But believe it or not, the book of Proverbs has a proverb that instructs us on this matter - and does so very well.  We would be wise to listen to this counsel - and begin to pattern our parenting upon its precepts. 

Here in Proverbs 6:20, we have an interesting statement made that gives a role to both the father and the mother in giving wisdom to their children.  The first thing we read here is that a son should observe the commandment of his father.  Observe here is the Hebrew word "natsar" which means to watch, to guard, or to keep.  The word had several uses, but came to us from the military world where the idea of watching was prominent.  When a soldier was put on watch - it was his duty to scan the horizon and be ready at an instant to warn the troops of a sneak attack - or a full scale assault.  Were he to fall asleep at his post - the entire regiment would be at risk of being overrun and destroyed.  The word was then carried over into the idea of ehtics and watchfulness over God's or other's commands.  Here is spoke of a watchfulness for the purpose of being faithful to the command - as well as an ethical watch over one's own behavior so that the command was carried out with careful obedience.  The son is called to have this kind of watching when it came to his father's commandments.  As you can imagine, the word "commandments" is the normal word "mitsvah" which is the most common word for a commandment or a statute given to someone.  It is the word used of the 10 commandments - and the same word used most often to speak of God's law.  It is also part of the word for "barmitzvah" that speaks of the ceremony at age 13 when a Jewish boy was considered a man.  He was considered such because he was taking on the full responsibility of the Law of God.  Barmitzvah literally means, "son of the law" or "son of the commandments." 

The father calls his son to obey the commandments that he gives him.  If a man is wise - he will make his commandments very similar to those God gives us.  Flood a boy with too many commandments and he will lose heart trying to remember and keep all of them.  But when we give a child limitations and wise standards by which to live - he will be far more secure.  Just a warning though to the father who thinks that he can "christianize" his kids by the way he rears them.  The Law was meant to show us that we are sinners.  No matter how wonderfully you rear your children, they will still have to come to Christ to be saved and redeemed from their sinful, rebellious ways.  Yet, a wise man will knows the value of setting godly standards for his children.  A son would also be wise - very wise if he takes his father's commandments and seeks to govern his behavior by them.  Most young people (and by the way I definitely include myself in my younger years) have a basic disdain for their parents commandments.  That is a perfect way of seeing how sin and how the fall have affected our lives.  Wisdom tells us that those older than us are also usually wiser than us.  The only time a child can say that he is as wise as his elders is when he loves God's Word and seeks to know it with great passion.  Then Psalm 119 makes a promise that God's Word makes him wiser even than his elders.  (Just a brief word of wisdom though - if you do know the Word very well - you will also approach your elders with it with humility and grace - not with arrogance and a sense of superiority - that kind of attitude pretty much shows that you've descended back into foolishness again.) 

The mother's role is given next.  This verse says to us that the son also should not forsake the teaching of his mother.  The word forsake means just that - to forsake or to reject something.  Here it refers to the "teaching" of his mother.  The word "teaching" here is the Hebrew word, "torah."  It meant something that was taught - but more along the lines of giving specific instruction or direction to someone.  So we see an interesting thing here.  The father gives the basic commands to his son, but the mother then works with him to see how they are applied to everyday situations and in everyday life.  She takes the basic law given by the dad - and adds additional instruction and help in seeing how to walk in those commands each day.  Since the father usually has to go to work and be gone throughout much of the day, the mother then takes over the work of instructing and helping the sons and daughters grasp and understand how it is the father desires for them to live.  She makes his commandments into practical choices and works hard to teach those choices to the children. 

What is fascinating to me as I look at this verse is that this is how Jewish religion is set up.  They have the Law (mitzvah) which is given by God the Father.  They also have the instruction (the torah) which is given by the rabbis who teach the Law to the people.  They took this very concept and used it to set up their entire teaching system that they use with their people.  This works wonderfully - until the rabbis begin to have their teaching pervert the actual Law upon which it was based.  This is true also in families where mother and father are not on the same page in rearing their children.  Either the dad or mom is too strict - or too lenient, and the other decides to modify what they view as an unrealistic view by changing things themselves.  This leads to chaos in the child's mind - and the unique ability to play one parent against the other.  Regardless - the result is usually bad.

The wise son is the one who listens well to his parents - and who takes both the command of the dad - and the teaching of the mom - and uses it to make wise decisions in life.  May we be so blessed as to have fathers that will lead wisely and godly - moms that will teach according to his commandments - and children who in turn will know the right way to walk because they have heard it from their parents.