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EFLECTION

The theme for our reflection is “Peace in understanding and wisdom.” Peace is experiencing wholeness through the divine presence. Understanding is the comprehension of information and its meaning, while wisdom is the practical application of that understanding with good judgment, discernment, and experience. Peace in wisdom and understanding means experiencing wholeness through the understanding, obedience and application of the Word of God. We shall reflect on the fact that in a world full of temptations, true peace comes from understanding the Word of God and its wise application in our lives.

Beloved in the Lord, there is a constant struggle to obey the evil desires of the flesh or to follow the path of righteousness through the reading and understanding of the Word of God to gain wisdom. Proverbs 2:13-22 contrasts the dangers of walking with the wicked against the rewards of following wisdom. It warns that those who abandon the path of righteousness, including the seductive “wrong woman,” lead others to destruction, while those who have wisdom are protected and will ultimately flourish. The passage concludes that the upright will remain on the land, and the faithful will be established there, while the wicked will be destroyed and removed. 

A woman who desires peace or wholeness must live according to the instruction of Scripture that gives her understanding and wisdom that will shield her from perverse men. The lives of many women have been destroyed by men who are unfaithful, immoral, selfish and wicked. Such men used cunning words and deceit to lure and destroy marriages and single women who wholeheartedly love them. Women have been greatly admonished that “Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse, 13 who have left the straight paths to walk in dark ways, 14 who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, 15 whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.” (Proverbs 2:12-15) Dear married and single women, let us not fall for the entrapment of power, money and wealth of these opportunistic and morally perverse men, but allow the understanding wisdom of Scripture to guide us in our relationships and acquiescence with men. Many women are easily carried away by words of flattery that focus on their outward beauty. They pay little attention to the character and true intentions of the men who are interested in them. No wonder these relationships do not last; they usually end right after the first sexual encounter. For many of these perverse men, it is their stock in trade. It is their business venture to trap a woman by luring her through falsehood and money, and after satisfying their sexual need, they move on to the next lady. Dear married and single ladies, we are being admonished to seek understanding and wisdom that guarantees peace. If you’re married, remain faithful to your husband, have no business with a man who is not your husband, yet is trying to get your attention through any means. You are destined for destruction if you continue entertaining him. If you are a single woman, don’t live totally on the generosity of a man who seeks to be sexually intimate with you. At the end, he only sees you as a mining site; he would keep prospecting and exploring until the precious mineral is mined and the site abandoned. A man who truly loves you and desires to give you peace would yearn for a relationship that transcends your body and sexual intimacy; he will see you beyond an object of pleasure and be willing to settle with you as a life partner.

On the other hand, single and married men also need understanding and wisdom from the Word of God to experience peace and protection from unstable and unfaithful women whose purpose is to seduce and destroy them. “Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman, from the wayward woman with her seductive words, 17 who has left the partner of her youth

and ignored the covenant she made before God. 18 Surely her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead. 19 None who go to her return or attain the paths of life.” (Proverbs 2:16-19) Indeed, some women are driven by lust, money and materialism, hence they are immoral, selfish and wicked. They are unfaithful in marriage and have no shame in having extra-marital affairs with other men. An example of such a woman is Potiphar’s wife in Genesis 39. We are told, “Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, 7 and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, ‘Come to bed with me!” (Genesis 39:6-7) Although she was perverse and continued to lure Joseph to sleep with her, Joseph applied wisdom from his knowledge and fear of God. “But he refused. “With me in charge,” he told her, “my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. 9 No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” 10 And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her” (Genesis 39:8-10). An equally foolish and morally perverse man would have counted it a rare privilege to sleep with the wife of his boss or master. Some men have met their untimely death or destruction because they were unable to withstand this kind of temptation. Whether or not we are single or married, we experience peace when our ultimate goal is to please God and remain faithful to the women in our lives as wise and God-fearing men.

The admonishment to both Christian men and women is to seek peace in wisdom and understanding by obeying the Word of God. “Thus you will walk in the ways of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous. ²¹ For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it; ²² but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be torn from it.” (Proverbs 2:20-22) Ultimately, let’s consider Paul’s admonition to the church of Corinth when he wrote, “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually sins against their own body. 19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore, honour God with your bodies. (1 Corinthians 6:18-20)

In summary, we discovered that in a world full of temptations, true peace comes from understanding the Word of God and its wise application in our lives. In other words, the purpose of understanding and wisdom gained from the Word of God is to save us from those who would lead us astray from the path of righteousness and salvation. Shalom.

PRAYER

May the Holy Spirit grant us peace in understanding and wisdom, even as we continue to study the Word of God and may we remain steadfast in the Lord in the face of temptations. Amen.