Pride Unwise
9
Better to be an ordinary person with a servant
than to be self-important but have no food.
10
The godly care for their animals,
but the wicked are always cruel.
Verse 9
This is a puzzle. A famous person can be very poor. An unimportant person can be wealthy. Often, we do not understand why a person should be poor or wealthy.
Some people pretend that they are wealthy. Or, perhaps, they pretend to be poor. We see these people, and we do not always understand their behaviour.
It does not matter whether someone is important or not. It does not matter what people pretend. It does not matter whether a person is famous or not. It does matter whether a person has food or not. We must try to understand the things that really matter.
Verse 10
A good man is never cruel. He is not cruel to people, and he is not cruel to animals. Every action of a good man is kind.
Proverbs doesn't hold back when it comes to Pride, considering it one of the seven deadly sins according to the Church. It's seen as particularly dangerous because it's easy to hide. Once it's hidden away, it can grow and eventually bring down even the proudest person.
The first proverb takes a practical view of pride. It's smarter to be honest about what you can afford rather than pretending to be wealthy when you're not. After all, you can't eat an image of wealth.
Another thing Proverbs points out is how troubled and messed up people can be when they lack empathy and are cruel to pets and other animals. It's like Proverbs knew this way before psychologists did.
Now, think about this: Society often looks down on being poor. But if someone's poor because they're lazy, maybe that's understandable. However, most of the time, it's not that simple. There just aren't enough jobs available. Proverbs reminds us not to be prideful by pretending to be rich when we're not.
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