Knowing our place and staying in it before figures of authority, whether kings or judges, can be quite useful toward getting the results we desire (Prov 25:1-12). Submission yields favorable outcomes.
Familiarity breeds contempt (Prov 25:17). Be moderate with the demands of a relationship.
Everyone appreciates dependability; under no circumstances are the unfaithful valued (Prov 25:13, 19).
Prov 25:20 is conceptually the same as Rom 12:15. “Blessed are the merciful.”
Prov 25:21-22, used also in Rom 12:20, indicates God rewards those who lean on him for justice, rather than taking it into one’s own hands. I wonder if the reward is the knowledge that God’s fury unleashed on our offender will be far more satisfying than our feeble attempt to gain justice? While our own psychological satisfaction is not God’s purpose in doling out justice, it can serve some utility.
Embrace mystery. While it’s helpful to analyze complex situations, understanding cause-effect relationships and the confluence of events leading up to its culmination, sometimes knowing when to back off and accept our intellectual limitations is just plain good sense (Prov 25:27). “Why?” and “How?” are innately human questions, but answers are not always ours to know. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us” (Deut 29:29).
Self-control (also a manifestation of God’s Spirit and a qualifying factor for church leadership, Gal 5:23; 1 Tim 3:2), is a fortress that protects and preserves the human soul (Prov 25:28). We can never have too much of it.
