Contemplative Bible Reading

Proverbs 20:30 (New International Version)

Blows and wounds cleanse away evil,
and beatings purge the inmost being.

I read this passage just this week. Something must be wrong here, this must be a misprint. If nothing else, this passage can easily be misapplied. I mean look at it, if someone is sinning you take a baseball bat and beat the sin out of them. Right? That is what this says. Doesn’t it?

Time to do some research or study or something. I find a new resource for study and learned something as well.

The “new” resource for study is the Online Parallel Bible. This is similar to BibleGateway, but shows many translations of one verse on the screen as well as some commentary from older (out of copyright) texts. So, from the online parallel Bible I found this:

Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary

20:30. Severe rebukes sometimes do a great deal of good. But such is the corruption of nature, that men are loth to be rebuked for their sins. If God uses severe afflictions, to purify our hearts and fit us for his service, we have cause to be very thankful.

The key phrase for me is But such is the corruption of nature. I don’t think God made us so that someone could beat sin out of us, but in the corruption of the world by sin such is our condition at times. It is hard for me to realize this, but sin is that bad. Sin has the ability to ruin just about everything that is good in God’s creation. Sin even leads people to try to beat themselves into avoidance of sin. Strange.

God, thank you for rescuing me from sin through the blood of Jesus. Help me to daily recognize the power and evil of sin.