Photo Credit: Josh Appel
This life is our spending money, it is not the full payment. Therefore, live with caution.
This life is our spending money...
There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off. — Proverbs 23:18
Jesus promised that where He is we shall be also because He has gone to prepare a place for us. Because of this hope we endure the trials, we overcome temptations, and we fear God and keep His commandments.
Verse 17 of that same chapter in Proverbs says, Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always continue in the fear of the LORD. What we see now is not the full package of what we have been promised. But not so the wicked...they gather into barns and store up treasures here on earth. And then they beat their chest and boast in their plenty. There is no future hope for the wicked. Proverbs 24:20, "..for the evildoer has no future hope, and the lamp of the wicked will be snuffed out."
A receipt in full is the lot of the wicked
When we give your gifts to the poor, when we pray, when we fast, we do it in secret because our reward is with God. Therefore, for the righteous, what we see now is not the full package of what we have been promised. But the unrighteous are not so. They take no care about the way they live. Everything they do is about temporary gain and immediate pleasure. The wicked have no hope that they look forward to. Rather they have their bellies, their appetites, and their thirst to satisfy this very moment. They live for now. They seek gain. Not hope. Therefore, for everything they do, they have their receipt in full. They get a full payment in this life and in the hereafter judgement awaits them. The hypocrite does 'good' for temporary benefits, for what they can gain in the present. And for that they get a full payment in this life. The popularity, the validation from men, the accolades, the gains... they get a receipt in full!
As for the righteous, we endure. We are tried but are not discouraged because we know that after now there is a reward. This life for us is pocket money, not the full payment. So we live our lives with caution. We despise gain and treasure the hope we have in Christ. And we judge God faithful who is able to complete what He has started by giving us the full payment in immortality.
Matthew Henry’s Commentary:
Apechousi ton misthon. It signifies a receipt in full. What rewards the godly have in this life are but in part of payment; there is more behind, much more; but hypocrites have their all in this world, so shall their doom be; themselves have decided it. The world is but for provision to the saints, it is their spending-money; but it is pay to hypocrites, it is their portion.
Selah!
Proverbs 28:17 Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always continue in the fear of the LORD.
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