Shortcuts - appealing, alluring, out of the blue shortcuts. Who doesn’t like a shortcut? We like the shortcut because it’s faster, because it’s different, because it’s fun. A shortcut makes you feel special because you feel like you figured out something special. Like you have insider information that other wish they had.
But shortcuts come with a trade-off. There is always a trade-off otherwise it wouldn’t be a shortcut, it would be the established road to take. The tradeoff might be safety (which would manifest itself in a plethora of ways) or bad road signs (i.e. easy to get lost). But there is always a trade-off.
Most of us have taken a shortcut on some road trip that turned into a rather obnoxious mess. And before it’s all over you really wish you had never listened to the voice of that know-it-all buddy who said it this was the way to go.
And while shortcuts on a road trip are one thing shortcuts in moral decision are quite another. The consequences for a taking a wrong road can be disastrous. The penalty for making the wrong moral choice is terrifying – eternally.
The same temptations we are met with on the interstate met us on the path of life. I want a good grade in math. Take the established route of homework and hard work or take the shortcut – look in the back of the book for the answer. Attract the fellas by the established pattern of by cultivating character and integrity or take the shortcut – flatter and flash skin. Gain money by the time-honored fashion of hard work and stick-to-itiveness or scheme, scam and lie your way to the top. All of these shortcuts work – for season. They work out marvelously for a time. Steroids work out great until your kidneys start to shut down and oppression works out swell until the peasants start to riot.
The book of Proverbs gives us for reasons to stay on His path.
Shortcuts typically meet the criteria of the first reason only. The shortcut is selfish and self serving. It is taken with the thought of personal convenience or advancement, God and others are not weighed into the decision. Only God’s route fulfills this fourfold reasoning.
1. Obey God and stay on His path because it works out best for you.
Girls, if you make the choice to wear immodest clothes what kind of guy do you think is going to be running after you? Will you reel in the moral, upstanding man who wants to know you for who you are on the inside or the guy who is there on the basis of the advertising? If you want a guy to love you and pursue you for your mind – cover up your body. This is logical. And more often than not it will keep the deadbeats at bay. So, it turns out that following the wisdom of God works out best for you.
2. Obey God because it is the best thing for your community.
A bad parent doesn’t disciple their child and leaves it up to the government and society to punish them. Their little ones go from being brats, to punks, to flat out degenerates – a drain on society economically, morally, and spiritually. If you love your neighbors you will discipline your children and teach them to take care of their community. A good citizen does not happen by accident. Who can measure the damage done to a society by liars, thieves, scammers, rapists and murderers? Do you want a god community? Walk down the path of Light set out by God.
3. Obey God because it is the best thing for your children.
Every good parent wants to provide the very best for their little ones. They want to give them the best gifts. Sadly many parents have understood (or at least communicated through practice) that the best gifts are material things. They act as if the best things in life are TV’s and fancy houses rather than pure relationships, a clean conscience and a fear of God. Further, many have made the mistake of saying “do what I say not what I do.” You can talk all day to your child about how to have the right posture but at the end the day the kid walks just like you. As J.C. Ryle put it, “Precept may teach us but it is example that draws us.” If you want your kids to walk the Path don’t just talk about it, walk down it. You want your kid to live mightily for the LORD? Walk the line.
4. Obey God because it honors Him.
This is the one reason that marks this out as uniquely Christian. This is the ultimate, highest reason for doing anything. When you ask the typical Sunday Schooled kindergartener why they should obey their parents they will give you the standard reply “because God says so.” And this is true but this is not the only reason that He gives to His people. Instead He supplies us with the previous three reasons as well. While it is true that this fourth reason establishes whether one is on the Path for the right reason the other three show the absurdity of taking any other route. The other three reasons reflect the corrosive nature of pursuing sinful shortcuts. While this one gives us the Christian motivation the others help us to see the illogical nature of sinful choices. God’s way truly is Light. And in Him there is no darkness. His highway is the best thing for you, for your community, for your children and it is the only way that honors Him.
To be sure there is much more that can be said and quoted. This is in no way an exhaustive explanation of that which is contained in Proverbs – just some basic tenets to hang your thoughts on as you travel through its pages.
There are a multitude of verses in Proverbs supporting the points made above. As a case in point I simply kept the quoted verses from the current chapter I am studying. Not only this but John loaded up his first epistle with this same imagery of the path as well as Paul in his letter to the church of Ephesus. This teaching is all over the Scripture not isolated to Proverbs.
