Walk Of Life – Day 16, October 2020 – Thoughts From The Book Of Proverbs
Proverbs 16:6 “By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.”
A little boy falls into a mud pit accidently while he was playing in the ground. He comes home drenched in mud. His mother washes off all the dirt and warns him to be careful while he is playing. The next day when the boy goes to the ground to play, he stays far from that pit, because he does not want to upset his mother by falling into it again.
We are sinners by birth, drenched in our iniquities. We are helpless, we need someone to cleanse us. While the law, that is the truth, says, “Punish him”, the enduring mercy of our Lord says,” Forgive him”. There is a place where the truth and the mercy met. We read in Psalm 85:10 “the mercy and the truth have kissed each other.” This took place at the cross. The Lord Jesus has not abolished the law but has fulfilled it, by taking the punishment that we deserved upon Him on the cross of Calvary. And by His mercy He cleansed our sins. By believing this we are forgiven and our sins are cleansed.
The verse in Proverbs 16:6 not just talks about cleansing of sins but also mentions about departing from evil. If the verse stopped at cleansing, then there would have been nothing that we had to do. The second part of the verse speaks about departing from evil. Though salvation is free, the spiritual fruit is not. You need to work to bear fruit. The fear of the Lord will help you to depart from the evil.
When we are cleansed from our sins, it is our duty to keep ourselves from sinning. Why did the boy not play near the mud pit the next day? He had the fear of his mother. So, he did not go near that mud pit again. In the same way if we have the fear of God, we will not defile ourselves with the sin from which we were cleansed. You might have wondered many a times thinking why does a person sin repeatedly. It is because that person does not fear the Lord who asks us an account of everything that we do.
When we are washed, we are no longer the old natured person, we put on the new man. We should not build the old nature which was once destroyed.
God is merciful beyond measure. However, this does not encourage us to continue in sin. Let us be thankful for His mercy and continue in our daily walk of life with fear of the Lord which enables us to depart from every evil.
