J.I. Packer wrote,

[John Owen] is by common consent not the most versatile, but the greatest among Puritan theologians. For solidity, profundity, massiveness and majesty in exhibiting from Scripture God’s ways with sinful mankind there is no one to touch him. (A Quest for Godliness, 81)

In an age of giants, he overtopped them all. (191)

The first volume of Owen’s collected works contains three major essays on the glory of Christ, which is my theme in this message. He wrote A Declaration of the Glorious Mystery of the Person of Christ, Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ, Meditations and Discourses Concerning the Glory of Christ, Applied. No other works have increased my understanding and admiration of the glory of Christ more than these, with the possible exception of Jonathan Edwards’s sermon “The Excellency of Christ.”

So, as we focus together on the glory of Christ, the music playing in the background of my mind will be the music of John Owen. And every now and then, I’ll let you hear some of its remarkable strains.

Seeing Glory, Being Glorious

I share Owen’s conviction that the more clearly we see and savor the glory of Christ, the more freedom we will enjoy from the power of temptation. He based this largely on 2 Corinthians 3:18: “Beholding the glory of the Lord, [we] are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” Owen said,

Herein would I live [in beholding the glory of Christ], hereon would I dwell in my thoughts and affections, to the withering and consumption of all the painted beauties of this world, unto the crucifying all things here below, until they become unto me a dead and deformed thing, no way meet for affectionate embraces. (The Works of John Owen, 1:291)

In other words, the path of holiness is achieved by having such clear views of the superior beauties of Christ that lesser sinful attractions wither and die. Owen was always combining the highest views of Christ with practical holiness. “No man,” he said, “can by faith take a real view of [Christ’s] glory, but virtue will proceed from it in a transforming power to change him into the same image” (Works, 1:292).

I have a picture in my mind of the glory of Christ like the sun at the center of the solar system of your life. The massive sun — 333,000 times the mass of the earth — holds all the planets in orbit, even little Pluto, which is 3.6 billion miles away. And so it is with the glory of Christ in your life. All the planets of your life — your sexuality and desires, your commitments and beliefs, your aspirations and dreams, your attitudes and convictions, your habits and disciplines, your solitude and relationships, your labor and leisure, your thinking and feeling — are held in proper orbit by the greatness and gravity and blazing brightness of the glory of Christ at the center of your life. And if he ceases to be the bright, blazing, satisfying beauty at the center of your life, the planets will fly into confusion, a hundred things will be out of control, and sooner or later they will crash into destruction.

We were made to know and enjoy Christ as he really is. We were created to comprehend — as much as a creature can — the glory of Christ. And this comprehending, this knowing, is not the knowing of disinterested awareness, but the knowing of admiration and wonder and awe and intimacy and ecstasy and embrace.

“If there is anything worthy of praise anywhere in the universe, it is summed up supremely in Jesus Christ.”

We were made to see and savor, with everlasting satisfaction, the glory of Christ. Jesus prayed for this in John 17:24: “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory.” Owen said, “Such a manifestation of his glory unto his disciples doth the Lord Christ here desire, as might fill them with blessed satisfaction for evermore” (Works, 1:286). We were made for this “blessed satisfaction.” It is precisely the power of this superior satisfaction in the glory of Christ that severs the root of sin.

Immensity of Christ’s Glory

My prayer for this conference, and for all of you one by one, is that you will see and savor the glory of Christ — married or single, male or female, old or young, devastated by disordered desires or walking in a measure of holiness — that all of you will behold and embrace the glory of Christ as the blazing sun at the center of your life, and that the planets of all your desires will orbit in their proper place. Oh, that the risen, living Christ would come to us (even now) by his Spirit and through his word and reveal to us his glory!

The glory of his deity, equal with God the Father in all his attributes — the radiance of his glory and the exact imprint of his nature, infinite, boundless in all his excellencies
The glory of his eternality that makes the mind of man explode with the unsearchable thought that Christ never had a beginning, but simply always was — sheer, absolute reality while all the universe is fragile, contingent, like a shadow by comparison to his all-defining, ever-existing substance
The glory of his never-changing constancy in all his virtues and all his character and all his commitments — the same yesterday, today, and forever
The glory of his knowledge that makes the Library of Congress and the British Library look like little matchboxes, and makes all the information on the Internet look like a little 1940s farmers’ almanac, and makes quantum physics seem like a first-grade reader
The glory of his wisdom that has never been perplexed by any complication and can never be counseled by the wisest of men
The glory of his authority over heaven and earth and hell, without whose permission no man and no demon can move one inch — who changes times and seasons, removes kings and sets up kings, who does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, so none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”
The glory of his providence, without which not a single bird falls to the ground in the farthest reaches of the Amazon forest, or a single hair of any head turns black or white
The glory of his word that moment by moment upholds the universe and holds in being all the molecules and atoms and subatomic particles we have never yet dreamed of
The glory of his power to walk on water, cleanse lepers, heal the lame, open the eyes of the blind, cause the deaf to hear and storms to cease and the dead to rise — with a single word, or even a thought
The glory of his purity never to sin or to have one millisecond of a bad attitude or an evil, lustful thought
The glory of his trustworthiness never to break his word or let one promise fall to the ground
The glory of his justice to render in due time all moral accounts in the universe, settled either on the cross or in hell
The glory of his patience to endure our dullness decade after decade and to hold back his final judgment on this world, that many might repent
The glory of his sovereign, servant obedience to keep his Father’s commandments perfectly and then embrace the excruciating pain of the cross willingly
The glory of his meekness and lowliness and tenderness that will not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick
The glory of his wrath that will one day explode against this world with such fierceness that people will call out for the rocks and the mountains to crush them rather than face the wrath of the Lamb
The glory of his grace that gives life to spiritually dead rebels and awakens faith in hell-bound haters of God and justifies the ungodly with his own righteousness
The glory of his love that willingly dies for us even while we were sinners, and frees us for the ever-increasing joy of making much of him forever
The glory of his own inexhaustible gladness in the fellowship of the Trinity, the infinite power and energy that gave rise to all the universe and will one day be the inheritance of every struggling saint, when he says, “Enter into the joy of your master.”

Knowing the Incomprehensible Christ

If he should grant us to know him like this, it would be but the outskirts of his glory. Time would fail to speak of the glory of his severity, invincibility, dignity, simplicity, complexity, resoluteness, calmness, depth, and courage. If there is anything admirable, if there is anything worthy of praise anywhere in the universe, it is summed up supremely in Jesus Christ. He is supremely glorious in every admirable way over everything:

Over galaxies and endless reaches of space
Over the earth, from the top of Mount Everest (29,000 feet up) to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean (36,000 feet down into the Mariana Trench)
Over all plants and animals, from the peaceful blue whale to the microscopic killer viruses
Over all weather and movements of the earth: hurricanes, tornadoes, monsoons, earthquakes, avalanches, floods, snow, rain, sleet
Over all chemical processes that heal and destroy: cancer, AIDS, malaria, flu, and all the workings of antibiotics and a thousand healing medicines.
Over all countries and all governments and all armies
Over the Taliban and Al Qaeda and ISIS and Hamas and Hezbollah and all terrorists and kidnappings and suicide bombings and mass murders
Over Putin, Zelensky, Trump, Xi Jinping, and Netanyahu
Over all nuclear threats from Iran or Russia or North Korea or America
Over all politics and elections
Over all media and news and entertainment and sports and leisure
Over all education and universities and scholarship and science and research
Over all business and finance and industry and manufacturing and transportation
Over all the Internet and information systems and artificial intelligence

And though it may not seem so now, it is only a matter of time until he is revealed from heaven in flaming fire to give relief to those who trust him and righteous vengeance on those who don’t.

Ask, Seek, Knock, Behold

Oh, that the almighty God would help us see and savor the glory of his Son. Give yourself to this. Study this. Cultivate this passion. Eat and drink and sleep this quest to know the glory of Christ. Pray for God to show you these things in his word. Owen said that the main motive for contending for the Scriptures and resisting those who would take them from us is “that they would take from us the only glass wherein we may behold the glory of Christ” (Works, 1:316). Swim in the ocean of the Bible every day. And with all you’re getting — whatever it takes — get the all-satisfying glory of Christ at the center of your life.

“The deepest cure to our pitiful addictions is to be staggered by the infinite, all-satisfying glory of Christ.”

This is the blazing sun at the center of your solar system, holding the planet of mental health, family life, vocation, ministry, and sexuality in sacred orbit. This is the ballast at the bottom of your little boat, keeping it from being capsized by the waves of temptation. This is the foundation that holds up the building of your life. Without this — without knowing and embracing the glory of Christ — the planets fly apart, the waves overwhelm, and the building will one day fall.

Obstacles to Our Enjoyment

So, what stands in the way? What is the main obstacle to seeing the glory of Christ, with a deeply satisfying and life-transforming sight of that glory? The biblical answer to that question is this: the absolutely just and holy wrath of God. We cannot know Christ in our sin because the wrath of God rests on us in our sin. What we deserve in our fallen sinfulness is not the knowledge of Christ’s glory but the judgment of God’s wrath. And since we are cut off from the knowledge of Christ by the wrath of God, we are cut off from the holiness without which we will not see the Lord. God doesn’t owe us holiness; he owes us punishment. Therefore, we are hopelessly depraved and hopelessly condemned.

Except for one thing: the good news that Christ has become for us the curse to bear God’s wrath and the righteousness to meet God’s demand. This is the heart of the gospel. And it is the apex of the glory of Christ. Without it, there is no hope to escape God’s wrath and no hope to know Christ’s glory. But here it is for everyone who believes. Galatians 3:13 says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us — for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.’” Romans 8:3 says, “God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.” Colossians 2:14 says, “[God canceled] the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”

Of this saving work of Christ, Owen said, “An unseen glory accompanied him in all that he did, in all that he suffered. Unseen it was unto the eyes of the world, but not in his who alone can judge of it” (Works, 1:338). “For him, who was Lord of all universally, thus to submit himself to universal obedience, carrieth along with it an evidence of glorious grace” (Works, 1:339).

What could be more glorious than God himself in Christ enduring the condemnation of divine wrath, so that now every thought of God and every act of God toward us in Christ is designed for our eternal happiness! “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).

And what is the greatest gift purchased by the glorious sufferings of Christ? The best gift is not the imputed righteousness of Christ. The best gift is not the forgiveness of sins. The best gift is not eternal life. The best gift is the everlasting, all-satisfying seeing and savoring of the glory of Christ himself. The glory of the cross achieved the enjoyment of the glory of Christ. Christ was the price, and Christ was the prize.

Souls Enlarged and Sanctified

To close, I want to circle back to where we began and recall the connection Owen made between seeing the glory of Christ and practical holiness. He said that the reason Jesus prayed for us in John 17:24 that we would see his glory is because this sight would “fill them with blessed satisfaction forevermore” (Works, 1:286). The reason that is so is because the human soul was made to see Christ, to know Christ, to love Christ, to enjoy Christ, and to be enlarged by the greatness of the glory of Christ. Without this, our souls shrink. And little souls make little lusts have great power. The soul, as it were, contracts or expands to encompass the magnitude or minuteness of its treasure. The human soul was made to see and savor the glory of Christ. Nothing else is big enough to enlarge the soul as God intended and make little lusts lose their power.

I know that vast, starry skies seen from a mountaintop in Utah, and four layers of moving clouds on a seemingly endless plain in Montana, and standing on the edge of a mile-deep drop in the Grand Canyon can all have a wonderfully supplementary role in enlarging the soul with the glory of creation. But nothing can take the place of the glory of Christ. As Jonathan Edwards said, if you embrace all creation with goodwill, but not Christ, you are infinitely parochial. Our hearts were made to be enlarged by Christ, and all creation cannot replace his glory.

My conviction is — and I think I learn it from Owen — that one of the main reasons the world and the church are awash in lust and pornography (by men and women) is that our lives are disconnected from the infinite, soul-staggering grandeur for which we were made: the glory of Christ. Inside and outside the church, modern culture is drowning in a sea of triviality, pettiness, banality, and silliness. It is inevitable that the human heart, which was made to be staggered with the glory of Christ but instead is drowning in a sea of banal entertainment, will reach for the best natural buzz that life can give: sex.

Therefore, the deepest cure to our pitiful addictions is to be staggered by the infinite, everlasting, unchanging, all-satisfying glory of Christ. This is what it means to know him. Christ has purchased this gift for us at the cost of his life. Therefore, I say with Hosea, “Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord” (Hosea 6:3).

ABSTRACT: When the New Testament authors quote or allude to the book of Proverbs, they only occasionally draw explicit links to Christ’s person and work. Much more often, they use this book of ancient wisdom to teach, reprove, correct, and train Christians in righteousness. As Christian Scripture, Proverbs does indeed highlight Christ as the wisdom of God, but more than that, it illustrates the wise, God-fearing life that flows from vibrant faith in him.

For our ongoing series of feature articles for pastors and Christian leaders, we asked Dan Estes (PhD, Cambridge University), Distinguished Professor of Old Testament at Cedarville University, to help pastors preach the book of Proverbs as Christian Scripture.

Viewing all the Scriptures through the lens of Christ has a long history in Christian interpretation. In the past half-century, this long-standing approach has received renewed impetus by influential scholars and preachers as well as new commentary series, all of which have championed an emphasis on preaching Christ in all the Scriptures.

This approach prioritizes the biblical metanarrative that culminates in Christ. According to Edmund Clowney, “All the Old Testament Scriptures, not merely the few passages that have been recognized as messianic, point us to Christ.”1 In making this claim, the Christological hermeneutic examines every biblical text in its place in the unified redemptive plan of God that is centered in the work of Christ.

However, many have struggled to apply this Christological hermeneutic to the Wisdom Literature, including the book of Proverbs. So how can one preach Proverbs as distinctly Christian Scripture?

Identifying the Problem

Many New Testament texts cite the legal, historical, and prophetic books in the Old Testament as anticipating Christ through sacrifice and covenant. In addition, several psalms are explicitly linked to Christ (as, for example, Psalm 110 in Hebrews 5:6; 7:17, 21). However, numerous psalms, as well as many other parts of the Bible’s Wisdom Literature, are difficult to relate to Christ.2

When we come to the Old Testament wisdom books, and to the book of Proverbs specifically, an essential question arises: Do the wisdom sayings in Proverbs speak directly of Christ, or do they have broader reference to the people of God as they challenge them to live wisely in the fear of the Lord? Contending for a Christological reference, Benjamin Quinn writes, “When teaching Proverbs, we must remember and recognize Jesus all along the way. We remember Jesus as the one who is Wisdom incarnate, and we remember Jesus as the one who walked in wisdom perfectly, manifesting wisdom’s way in the world and modeling wisdom’s way to the world. Jesus is thus the hero of Proverbs.”3

However, proponents of preaching Christ in all the Scriptures acknowledge at least tacitly the considerable challenges of attempting to do that in the book of Proverbs. Many books that advocate preaching Christ from all the Bible leave Proverbs virtually untouched.4 In view of the infrequent references to Proverbs in such books, where does that leave us? How do the proverbs relate to Christ? To answer that question, we will need to consider some crucial exegetical data.

Examining the Evidence

Two passages in Proverbs that have most often been interpreted Christologically are Proverbs 8:22–31 and Proverbs 30:4. Proverbs 8:22–31 has had a long and contentious interpretive history; in particular, it played a significant role in the Arian controversy in the fourth century A.D.5 Some scholars contend that this passage depicts Wisdom as the Son of God and anticipates the coming of Christ as Wisdom incarnate.6 However, numerous proponents of preaching Christ from the Old Testament acknowledge that although this passage may foreshadow the role of Christ as the wisdom of God in 1 Corinthians 1:24, 30 and Colossians 2:3, it is better viewed as a poetic personification of wisdom. For example, Richard Belcher concludes, “It is difficult from an OT standpoint to argue that Lady Wisdom in Proverbs 8 is a divine hypostasis of Christ’s eternal divine nature. Lady Wisdom is consistently presented in Proverbs 1–9 as a personification of wisdom.”7

Similar uncertainties attend Proverbs 30:4. Agur’s question, “What is his name, and what is his son’s name?” has been directly linked with the words of Jesus to Nicodemus in John 3:13 by Clowney, who reasons, “Agur implies that to know God we need to have access to God: to have someone go up to heaven and bring back God’s word. Jesus affirms that the One who would ascend to heaven must first come down from heaven; indeed, that coming, He must also remain in heaven, His own home. He is the Son of Man; He will indeed ascend to heaven, but He has first come down from heaven, and can therefore speak of heavenly things.”8 Waltke, however, counters by reasoning, “The answer to Agur’s question . . . must be deduced from the firm lexical evidence that in Proverbs ‘son’ always refers to a student who listens to his teacher. The son whom Agur had in mind is Israel, as can be seen in many Old Testament passages, such as Exodus 4:22, where God called Israel His unique son.”9

Foundational for assessing how to preach Christ from the book of Proverbs is the narrative about Jesus in Luke 24:27, 44. Clowney argues, “If we are to preach from the whole Bible, we must be able to see how the whole Bible bears witness to Jesus Christ. The Bible has a key, one that unlocks the use of the Old Testament by the New. That key is presented at the end of the Gospel of Luke (Luke 24:13–27; 44–48).”10 Chapell makes the same point, although with a caveat: “Jesus related all portions of Scripture to his own ministry. This does not mean that every phrase, punctuation mark, or verse directly reveals Christ but rather that all passages in their context serve our understanding of his nature and necessity. Such an understanding compels us to recognize that failure to relate a passage’s explanation to preparation, aspects, or results of Christ’s ministry is to neglect saying what Jesus said all Scripture was designed to reveal. Full exposition of any text requires explanation of its relation to the One to whom all Scripture ultimately points.”11

Chapell’s caveat points the way toward a crucial corrective to those who might search for clear links to Christ in every Old Testament verse. As Daniel Block has reasoned, in the Old Testament the explicit references to the Messiah are precious, but they are rare, so “the Messiah is indeed an important theme of the Old Testament, but we exaggerate Luke’s interpretation of the significance of Jesus’ speech . . . if we assume that this is the theme of the Bible and look for the Messiah on every page.”12 Another factor to be considered is Luke’s frequent use of forms of pas (“all”) in an exaggerated sense, as for example in Luke 2:1, 3; 5:17; 6:17; 7:29; 12:7; 19:7; 21:17. I have argued elsewhere, “This interpretive issue could be compared to the difference between a political candidate claiming that every voter in all the fifty states supports him, and saying that voters in all of the fifty states support him.”13 In the context in Luke 24, it seems more feasible to envision Jesus explaining selected Old Testament scriptures that testified of him than to insist that in the short period of time with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus Jesus managed to elucidate all that was said about him in every Old Testament text.

It is also crucial to examine how the New Testament makes use of the language of Proverbs. Of the six direct quotations of Proverbs in the New Testament, all of them have referents other than Christ. Hebrews 12:5–6 cites Proverbs 3:11–12 in a reproof directed toward Christians. Proverbs 3:34 is quoted twice, in James 4:6 as correction to Christians and in 1 Peter 5:5 as instruction for younger Christians. Proverbs 11:31 in 1 Peter 4:18 functions as reproof for the household of God, that is, the Christian community. Proverbs 25:21–22 is used in Romans 12:20 as a corrective directed to Christians. Finally, in 2 Peter 2:22, Proverbs 26:11 is used in an extended condemnation of false teachers.

When the 53 allusions to Proverbs in the New Testament are examined,14 in 12 cases texts from the book of Proverbs are applied directly to Christ, the Son of God (Matthew 16:27; 25:40; Luke 2:52; John 3:13; 7:38; 9:31; Colossians 2:3; Revelation 2:23; 3:14, 19; 20:12–13; 22:12). In several other cases, the allusion relates more generally to God (Luke 16:15; Romans 2:6; 13:1; 2 Timothy 4:14) or specifically to the Father (1 Peter 1:17) or the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:11). By far, however, the allusions to Proverbs are directed toward mere humans, with 62 percent (3315 out of 53) functioning not as references to Christ but as teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness directed toward Christians.16 This biblical data demonstrates that in the New Testament, texts from Proverbs most often speak of the behaviors that should characterize the lives of wise, godly people, rather than referring specifically to Christ.

Approaching a Solution

In his essay “Meditation in a Toolshed,” C.S. Lewis differentiates between looking at a sunbeam and looking along a sunbeam.17 It has already been seen that only about a dozen of the wisdom sayings in Proverbs are applied directly to Christ in the New Testament, as they look at him. In 80 percent of the cases, quotations and allusions from Proverbs instead look along Christ as they teach, reprove, correct, and train Christians in their behavior. Paul Koptak reasons, “The larger context of wisdom literature supports the suggestion that the book is to be read as the education of a young man receiving the instruction of those older and more experienced than he.”18 Ernest Lucas adds the important point that “the sages are concerned with character formation. They want to produce better people who will produce a better world. The key to this is people whose ‘being’ is shaped by ‘the fear of Yahweh.’ This will then determine their ‘doing.’”19

When texts from Proverbs are alluded to in the New Testament, in most cases their original focus on the character formation of the youth is retained, but it is applied more broadly to all Christians. Thus, this anthology of wisdom sayings “provides a pedagogical resource for sanctification”20 pertaining to the believer’s completion in Christ (Colossians 1:28). What Proverbs enjoins is the quality of life of those whom Paul describes as spiritual people (1 Corinthians 2:15–16; Galatians 6:1), whose lives manifest a consistent pattern of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23). Duane Garrett argues well, “The function of the Scriptures is not only to lead unbelievers to repentance and faith in Christ but also to instruct and nurture believers with truth that transforms our understanding and our lives. If this is so, then the believer must study the wisdom literature of the Bible . . . and the Christian minister must preach it. . . . Here we can learn to reject wrong and harmful behavior and to choose the paths that please God and bring happiness, the way of life that arises from faith in the Lord.”21

Proverbs invites us to preach to believers in way that endeavors to transform their actions, attitudes, and values more and more in the direction of Christlikeness, of being complete in Christ, which Paul stated was the goal of his ministry (Colossians 1:28).

Preaching Proverbs as Christian Scripture

How then can we preach Proverbs as Christian Scripture?

Following the pattern of the New Testament, we can occasionally draw connections between descriptions of wisdom in Proverbs and aspects of Christ, who is the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24) and in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3). In these cases, we preach Proverbs by looking at Christ.

“Only Christ in us can produce the desire and the ability to live wisely and to please God.”

However, much more often in the New Testament, texts from Proverbs are used to teach believers how to walk in the way of God’s wisdom. By this means, believers are exhorted to obey the imperative to work out their salvation (Philippians 2:12), grounded in the indicative that God is at work within them by his indwelling Spirit, thus giving them both the desire and the ability to do what pleases him (Philippians 2:13). In effect, the New Testament writers show us how to look along Christ as texts from Proverbs provide teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness for Christians.

As we preach Proverbs as Christian Scripture, we must keep several things in mind. First, read Proverbs as God’s wisdom for life, as its prologue indicates (Proverbs 1:1–7). In Proverbs, the wise person is one who is skilled in living according to the righteous standard of God — that is, living by the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning or essence of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10). In writing about the Psalms, C.S. Lewis insisted that they must be read as poems if they are to be understood properly, or “we shall miss what is in them and think we see what is not.”22 Similarly, as we preach Proverbs, we must read and apply its sayings as wisdom, or we may miss what they do teach.

Second, link the imperatives of wise behavior with the indicatives of what God has done for and in the believer through Christ. If Proverbs is preached only as a moralistic call to shrewd living that is not grounded in the gospel, then it can be heard merely as a challenge to turn over a new leaf in an effort to achieve a happier, more successful life. However, if Proverbs is presented as God’s call to his people to revere him in all their actions and attitudes, then that requires a transformation rooted in the righteousness of Christ that is imputed to those who have placed their faith in him. Only the Spirit of Christ in us can produce the desire and the ability to live wisely and to please God.

Third, preach Proverbs as wisdom sayings, not as absolutes or guarantees. In every culture, wisdom sayings are memorable generalizations rather than comprehensive or precise teachings, and that is why they are often balanced by other maxims. For example, we say that “the early bird gets the worm,” but also that “haste makes waste.” Proverbs 26:4 counsels, “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself,” but the next verse urges, “Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.” Neither saying is intended to be taken absolutely; rather, the wise person knows when to ignore the fool and also when to call the fool out. The familiar saying in Proverbs 22:6 has too often been touted as a formulaic guarantee that good parenting will produce good children, but that hardly explains the family in which some of the children follow their godly parents but others depart from the faith. In fact, Proverbs has much to say about the child’s responsibility as well as that of the parents.

Fourth, for the most part, preach topics from Proverbs rather than individual sayings. Several individual proverbs (such as Proverbs 3:5–6) and some groups of related wisdom sayings (for example Proverbs 26:13–16) can be expounded as independent literary units. However, the book of Proverbs most often presents a collection of sayings that do not appear to be set in an easily discernible context. To preach these, some diligent forethought and planning will be required. Read through Proverbs and select the sayings that relate to a particular theme, study each saying individually, and then synthesize them into a topical outline. Using this process, I once developed a sermon series from Proverbs on uncommon virtues that should be cultivated in the Christian life.23

Because the Old Testament is part of Christian Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16), the themes found in Proverbs are God’s word, by which “the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:17). In addition, they often can be linked with exhortations to godly living in the New Testament. Ultimately, the righteous behavior exhorted in Proverbs is rooted in the imputed righteousness of Christ, which empowers those who are in Christ to walk in wisdom.