Proverbs 4:18, 19 But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shines more and more to the perfect day. We have two perfect contrasts in these two verses - the path of the just and the way of the wicked; the one is very closely connected with light and the other with darkness. I. SIN AND DARKNESS. (Ver. 19.) We may say that: 1. Sin is darkness. It is (1) the ignorance of the mind; it is (2) the error of the heart - it is the soul's supreme mistake, misreading, misunderstanding every one and everything from the highest to the lowest. 2. Sin spreads darkness (1) over the soul of the sinner himself, blinding his eyes, distorting his vision, confusing his perceptions; (2) over the souls of others, leading them into the darkness of folly, superstition, wrong doing. 3. Sin leads to the ruin which attends darkness; it ends in making the sinner blind to the true character of his own transgressions: "They know not at what they stumble;" blind, also, to the final issue of his guilt: they know not into what they stumble - into what a "blackness of darkness." II. WISDOM AND LIGHT. (Ver. 18.) By "the just" in this verse we understand not particularly the man who is equitable in his dealings with his fellows, but the good and wise man - the man who, in the fear of God, seeks to act with rectitude in all his relations. This man is closely associated with the light. 1. Knowledge is light, and heavenly wisdom is the truest and best knowledge - that of God, and of the human soul, and of the path of eternal life. 2. That which reveals is light, and heavenly wisdom is the best and most beneficent revealing power. The wise, the "just" man is "making manifest" (see Ephesians 5:13) the highest, the most far-reaching, deep-descending truths. He does this (1) by his direct endeavour to instruct; (2) unconsciously, by the influence of his life. "The life is the light of men" in our case as in his who was "the Life made manifest." 3. The light of the just man grows ever stronger and more illuminating: it "shineth more and more unto the perfect day." With added opportunities of inquiry and acquisition, with multiplied privileges, with more of Divine discipline, with increase of power resulting from the exercise of spiritual faculty, there is (1) growing light within, burning more steadily and lustrously; and (2) advancing influence for good which flows forth in wider, deeper, and larger streams. - C. Parallel Verses KJV: But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. |
    |