Gang Membership for Dummies

Dearly beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, we come this morning to the first lecture of the book of Proverbs. The prologue is over; we have seen the thesis statement — and now we have the privilege of looking together at “chapter 1” — the first thing that the book has to say to its readers. What is that thing? It is that sin is a whole lot more serious than you think. Sin, in fact, is deadly. Here, at the beginning of the book, Solomon confronts us with an extremely stark kind of temptation. There is absolutely nothing subtle about how sin is presented here. Why is that? Because even the subtlest of sins is deadly. The difference between sins is only a difference of degree, not of kind, and so even the smallest sin is really no different than the gang violence and armed robbery presented here. Do you think it’s okay to murder people for $50? If not, then you should be opposed to every sin, to sin in all its forms. That is the message King Solomon presents, the first thing he has to say to his readers.