Pleasant words are pure. (See [Critical Notes].) This is the Scripture ethics. If we desire to know whether “words are pure” (and, words here, for Eastern reasons, mean actions as well as words; nay, really mean the whole round of conduct; see Job xx. 12; Isa. x. 7), if we wish to know whether a man’s whole life is pure, all we have to ask is—Is it kind? It is the plans of mischief that are the abomination of Jehovah.—Miller.
How lightly do most men think of the responsibility of their thoughts! as if they were their own, and they might indulge them without restraint or evil. One substantial sin appals men, who quietly sleep under the mighty mass of thinking without God for months and years, without any apprehension of guilt. But thoughts are the seminal principles of sin.—Bridges.
“Words of pleasantness are pure”—the gracious words that seek to please, not wound, are to Him as a pure acceptable offering, the similitude being taken from the Jewish ritual, and the word “pure” used in a half ceremonial sense, as in Mal. i. 11.—Plumptre.
The words of the pure are pleasant words. Such as God books up, and makes hard shift to hear, as I may so say; for He “hearkens and hears” (Mal. iii. 16).—Trapp.
God seeth that Himself is not in all the thoughts of the wicked, and what can it be but abomination to God where God is not? It is God in all things that is pleasing to Himself, and it is the absence of God in anything that makes it to be abominable. But as for the thoughts of the pure, they are words of pleasantness, wherein they sing and make melody in their hearts to the Lord. In them they sweetly converse to themselves, by them they heavenly converse with God. Pleasant they are to themselves by the joy they have in them, pleasant they are to God by the delight He taketh in them. The wicked, though alone, and though doing nothing, yet are doing wickedly; for even then their thoughts are working, and working so naughtily as to be an abomination to the Lord. There is no need of company to draw them into villainy, they have always a rout of mischievous thoughts on hand to give them entertainment. And as great is the pleasure which themselves take in them, so great is the abomination which God hath of them.—Jermin.
main homiletics of verse 27.
The Curse of Covetousness.
I. The definition of a covetous man. “He that is greedy of gain.” He desires more than enough, and he desires it to the exclusion of the rights of others. It is lawful and right to desire to possess some amount of substance in the world; he who was without such a desire would be hardly a man. It is good to ask for neither poverty nor riches, but for such an amount of the world’s wealth as will prevent us from being harassed with care, and at the same time keep us free from the temptations and anxieties which accompany great riches. But when a man is consumed with a desire for more than sufficient for his necessities, he is “greedy of gain,” and is in moral danger. If a vessel finds enough water in the river to carry her on her voyage, all bids fair to be safe and prosperous; but if the water is so high that it pours over her deck and gets into the hold, she is in great danger of sinking. So a moderate desire after worldly gain is an impetus to a man’s activity, and is a blessing both to himself and to the community; but an inordinate desire after riches is a dead weight upon his spiritual progress, and is often the cause of his going down in the moral scale. Desiring more than enough often leads to using unlawful means of satisfying the desire. The second clause of the verse seems to refer to the temptation of a judge to accept bribes. Men holding such an office, and possessed by this greed of gain, have been known, under its influence, to commit the enormous crime of knowingly acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent; and in all positions and stations of life the sin of covetousness is a fruitful source of other crimes. “But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Tim. vi. 9, 10).
II. The evil effect of covetousness is not confined to the covetous man himself. “He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house.” Many men try to excuse their covetousness by the plea that they only desire to make ample provision for their family, but it is upon the family that the curse of greediness falls most heavily. If the head is diseased the members must suffer. A covetous man is a selfish man, and those who are most nearly related to a man who is eaten up with a desire to grow rich feel most keenly the blighting influence of the passion upon all the joys of family life. And a man who is thus greedy of gain brings trouble upon his house by involving them in the curse of his sin. Those whom he has wronged by this injustice hate his children for the father’s sin, and as we have before seen—“the wealth of the sinner”—of him who has grown rich by unfair dealing—is “laid up for the just” and his own children inherit only the misery of having had such a father. (See Homiletics on chap. [xiii. 11–22], pages 307–332.)
III. The man of opposite character, “the hater of gifts,” shall live. 1. He does live now. Life and death are in a man’s character. A leaf that has lost all its beauty and greenness is dead although it still exists. The leaf is there—the shape and outline exist—but all that made it lovely is gone, because all vitality is gone. A flower may still have all its petals upon the stalk, but if all fragrance and colour are gone we know that life is gone. The life or the death of the leaf or flower are states or conditions of its existence, and not the simple adherence or separation of its particles. So it is with a man. His life or his death is not existence or non-existence, but the condition of his spiritual nature. If he is destitute of righteousness he is dead—if he is a man of true integrity—such a man as is described in chap. [xi. 3] (see on that verse) he is alive. God is the “living God” not simply because He has an eternal existence, but because He possesses moral life—in other words, because He is perfectly holy, just, and true. Now the man who “hates gifts”—who abhors every kind of unfair dealing—gives proof by his hatred that he is morally alive. 2. He shall live in the esteem of posterity. Nothing lasts like a good character. The memory of the just man is embalmed in the hearts of men long after his body is gone to dust. (See chap. [x. 7].) 3. He shall live in the esteem of God. We are naturally disposed to regard with favour those who show us honour and endeavour to further our purposes and desires. The “just God” is a lover of those who strive to “do justly, to love mercy and walk humbly with Him” (Micah vi. 8), and such men shall live in the sunshine of His eternal favour (Psalm xxx. 5).