Bible Study 6/5

Proverbs 9

The ways of wisdom and folly are contrasted. Wisdom invites the simple to a banquet in which she has prepared food and promises live and insight. It is held within a solid house (7 pillars). Folly has prepared a banquet and invites the simple to enjoy stolen food and drink, and she conceals the dead that are within her house.

Correcting a fool will only get you their anger; correcting a wise man will earn you their love.

The theme is repeated that the fear of the Lord (knowledge of who he is and responding with reverence and faith) is the beginning of wisdom.

Romans 7

Paul, in continuing his dead to _____ alive to ______ comparisons, now talks about how the believer has died to the law (the rules of right and wrong) through Christ and now has been raised with Christ to belong to God. This affects the way that we serve God - not by the written code, but by the Spirit. What this means becomes clearer later in Romans.

The next somewhat confusing section shows the relationship between sin and the law. Paul answers the accusation that he was teaching that the law was evil - on the contrary, the law is holy and righteous and good. However, apart from the law (we must assume is talking about more than just the law received by Moses, the "moral law" in general) sin lies dead. The temptation is not there apart from the law. But the law clearly points out sin and actually aggravates it; sin takes advantage of the law to produce death through what is good by reacting against the law. The purpose of all this is so "sin might be shown to be sin, and through the law might become sinful beyond measure."

Paul then gives an account of how this plays out in his own life. Even though he is a believer, and he delights in God's law and has the mind of Christ, his flesh is still sold under sin. This produces a war of conflicting desires, and a frustration at an inability to do good by law-keeping because of sin taking advantage of the flesh's inability to keep the law. Paul's answer to this dilemma is in the next chapter.