How to Preach Proverbs: Wisdom Needed to Herald Wisdom

ABSTRACT: When the New Testament authors quote or allude to the book of Proverbs, they only occasionally draw explicit links to Christ’s person and work. Much more often, they use this book of ancient wisdom to teach, reprove, correct, and train Christians in righteousness. As Christian Scripture, Proverbs does indeed highlight Christ as the wisdom of God, but more than that, it illustrates the wise, God-fearing life that flows from vibrant faith in him.

Viewing all the Scriptures through the lens of Christ has a long history in Christian interpretation. In the past half-century, this long-standing approach has received renewed impetus by influential scholars and preachers as well as new commentary series, all of which have championed an emphasis on preaching Christ in all the Scriptures.

This approach prioritizes the biblical metanarrative that culminates in Christ. According to Edmund Clowney, “All the Old Testament Scriptures, not merely the few passages that have been recognized as messianic, point us to Christ.”¹ In making this claim, the Christological hermeneutic examines every biblical text in its place in the unified redemptive plan of God that is centered in the work of Christ.

However, many have struggled to apply this Christological hermeneutic to the Wisdom Literature, including the book of Proverbs. So how can one preach Proverbs as distinctly Christian Scripture?

Identifying the Problem

Many New Testament texts cite the legal, historical, and prophetic books in the Old Testament as anticipating Christ through sacrifice and covenant. In addition, several psalms are explicitly linked to Christ (as, for example, Psalm 110 in Hebrews 5:6; 7:17, 21). However, numerous psalms, as well as many other parts of the Bible’s Wisdom Literature, are difficult to relate to Christ.²

When we come to the Old Testament wisdom books, and to the book of Proverbs specifically, an essential question arises: Do the wisdom sayings in Proverbs speak directly of Christ, or do they have broader reference to the people of God as they challenge them to live wisely in the fear of the Lord? Contending for a Christological reference, Benjamin Quinn writes, “When teaching Proverbs, we must remember and recognize Jesus all along the way. We remember Jesus as the one who is Wisdom incarnate, and we remember Jesus as the one who walked in wisdom perfectly, manifesting wisdom’s way in the world and modeling wisdom’s way to the world. Jesus is thus the hero of Proverbs.”³

However, proponents of preaching Christ in all the Scriptures acknowledge at least tacitly the considerable challenges of attempting to do that in the book of Proverbs. Many books that advocate preaching Christ from all the Bible leave Proverbs virtually untouched.⁴ In view of the infrequent references to Proverbs in such books, where does that leave us? How do the proverbs relate to Christ? To answer that question, we will need to consider some crucial exegetical data.

Examining the Evidence

Two passages in Proverbs that have most often been interpreted Christologically are Proverbs 8:22–31 and Proverbs 30:4. Proverbs 8:22–31 has had a long and contentious interpretive history; in particular, it played a significant role in the Arian controversy in the fourth century A.D.⁵ Some scholars contend that this passage depicts Wisdom as the Son of God and anticipates the coming of Christ as Wisdom incarnate.⁶ However, numerous proponents of preaching Christ from the Old Testament acknowledge that although this passage may foreshadow the role of Christ as the wisdom of God in 1 Corinthians 1:24, 30 and Colossians 2:3, it is better viewed as a poetic personification of wisdom. For example, Richard Belcher concludes, “It is difficult from an OT standpoint to argue that Lady Wisdom in Proverbs 8 is a divine hypostasis of Christ’s eternal divine nature. Lady Wisdom is consistently presented in Proverbs 1–9 as a personification of wisdom.”⁷

Similar uncertainties attend Proverbs 30:4. Agur’s question, “What is his name, and what is his son’s name?” has been directly linked with the words of Jesus to Nicodemus in John 3:13 by Clowney, who reasons, “Agur implies that to know God we need to have access to God: to have someone go up to heaven and bring back God’s word. Jesus affirms that the One who would ascend to heaven must first come down from heaven; indeed, that coming, He must also remain in heaven, His own home. He is the Son of Man; He will indeed ascend to heaven, but He has first come down from heaven, and can therefore speak of heavenly things.”⁸ Waltke, however, counters by reasoning, “The answer to Agur’s question . . . must be deduced from the firm lexical evidence that in Proverbs ‘son’ always refers to a student who listens to his teacher. The son whom Agur had in mind is Israel, as can be seen in many Old Testament passages, such as Exodus 4:22, where God called Israel His unique son.”⁹

Foundational for assessing how to preach Christ from the book of Proverbs is the narrative about Jesus in Luke 24:27, 44. Clowney argues, “If we are to preach from the whole Bible, we must be able to see how the whole Bible bears witness to Jesus Christ. The Bible has a key, one that unlocks the use of the Old Testament by the New. That key is presented at the end of the Gospel of Luke (Luke 24:13–27; 44–48).”¹⁰ Chapell makes the same point, although with a caveat: “Jesus related all portions of Scripture to his own ministry. This does not mean that every phrase, punctuation mark, or verse directly reveals Christ but rather that all passages in their context serve our understanding of his nature and necessity. Such an understanding compels us to recognize that failure to relate a passage’s explanation to preparation, aspects, or results of Christ’s ministry is to neglect saying what Jesus said all Scripture was designed to reveal. Full exposition of any text requires explanation of its relation to the One to whom all Scripture ultimately points.”¹¹

Chapell’s caveat points the way toward a crucial corrective to those who might search for clear links to Christ in every Old Testament verse. As Daniel Block has reasoned, in the Old Testament the explicit references to the Messiah are precious, but they are rare, so “the Messiah is indeed an important theme of the Old Testament, but we exaggerate Luke’s interpretation of the significance of Jesus’ speech . . . if we assume that this is the theme of the Bible and look for the Messiah on every page.”¹² Another factor to be considered is Luke’s frequent use of forms of pas (“all”) in an exaggerated sense, as for example in Luke 2:1, 3; 5:17; 6:17; 7:29; 12:7; 19:7; 21:17. I have argued elsewhere, “This interpretive issue could be compared to the difference between a political candidate claiming that every voter in all the fifty states supports him, and saying that voters in all of the fifty states support him.”¹³ In the context in Luke 24, it seems more feasible to envision Jesus explaining selected Old Testament scriptures that testified of him than to insist that in the short period of time with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus Jesus managed to elucidate all that was said about him in every Old Testament text.

It is also crucial to examine how the New Testament makes use of the language of Proverbs. Of the six direct quotations of Proverbs in the New Testament, all of them have referents other than Christ. Hebrews 12:5–6 cites Proverbs 3:11–12 in a reproof directed toward Christians. Proverbs 3:34 is quoted twice, in James 4:6 as correction to Christians and in 1 Peter 5:5 as instruction for younger Christians. Proverbs 11:31 in 1 Peter 4:18 functions as reproof for the household of God, that is, the Christian community. Proverbs 25:21–22 is used in Romans 12:20 as a corrective directed to Christians. Finally, in 2 Peter 2:22, Proverbs 26:11 is used in an extended condemnation of false teachers.

When the 53 allusions to Proverbs in the New Testament are examined,¹⁴ in 12 cases texts from the book of Proverbs are applied directly to Christ, the Son of God (Matthew 16:27; 25:40; Luke 2:52; John 3:13; 7:38; 9:31; Colossians 2:3; Revelation 2:23; 3:14, 19; 20:12–13; 22:12). In several other cases, the allusion relates more generally to God (Luke 16:15; Romans 2:6; 13:1; 2 Timothy 4:14) or specifically to the Father (1 Peter 1:17) or the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:11). By far, however, the allusions to Proverbs are directed toward mere humans, with 62 percent (33¹⁵ out of 53) functioning not as references to Christ but as teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness directed toward Christians.¹⁶ This biblical data demonstrates that in the New Testament, texts from Proverbs most often speak of the behaviors that should characterize the lives of wise, godly people, rather than referring specifically to Christ.

Approaching a Solution

In his essay “Meditation in a Toolshed,” C.S. Lewis differentiates between looking at a sunbeam and looking along a sunbeam.¹⁷ It has already been seen that only about a dozen of the wisdom sayings in Proverbs are applied directly to Christ in the New Testament, as they look at him. In 80 percent of the cases, quotations and allusions from Proverbs instead look along Christ as they teach, reprove, correct, and train Christians in their behavior. Paul Koptak reasons, “The larger context of wisdom literature supports the suggestion that the book is to be read as the education of a young man receiving the instruction of those older and more experienced than he.”¹⁸ Ernest Lucas adds the important point that “the sages are concerned with character formation. They want to produce better people who will produce a better world. The key to this is people whose ‘being’ is shaped by ‘the fear of Yahweh.’ This will then determine their ‘doing.’”¹⁹

When texts from Proverbs are alluded to in the New Testament, in most cases their original focus on the character formation of the youth is retained, but it is applied more broadly to all Christians. Thus, this anthology of wisdom sayings “provides a pedagogical resource for sanctification”²⁰ pertaining to the believer’s completion in Christ (Colossians 1:28). What Proverbs enjoins is the quality of life of those whom Paul describes as spiritual people (1 Corinthians 2:15–16; Galatians 6:1), whose lives manifest a consistent pattern of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23). Duane Garrett argues well, “The function of the Scriptures is not only to lead unbelievers to repentance and faith in Christ but also to instruct and nurture believers with truth that transforms our understanding and our lives. If this is so, then the believer must study the wisdom literature of the Bible . . . and the Christian minister must preach it. . . . Here we can learn to reject wrong and harmful behavior and to choose the paths that please God and bring happiness, the way of life that arises from faith in the Lord.”²¹

Proverbs invites us to preach to believers in way that endeavors to transform their actions, attitudes, and values more and more in the direction of Christlikeness, of being complete in Christ, which Paul stated was the goal of his ministry (Colossians 1:28).

Preaching Proverbs as Christian Scripture

How then can we preach Proverbs as Christian Scripture?

Following the pattern of the New Testament, we can occasionally draw connections between descriptions of wisdom in Proverbs and aspects of Christ, who is the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24) and in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3). In these cases, we preach Proverbs by looking at Christ.

However, much more often in the New Testament, texts from Proverbs are used to teach believers how to walk in the way of God’s wisdom. By this means, believers are exhorted to obey the imperative to work out their salvation (Philippians 2:12), grounded in the indicative that God is at work within them by his indwelling Spirit, thus giving them both the desire and the ability to do what pleases him (Philippians 2:13). In effect, the New Testament writers show us how to look along Christ as texts from Proverbs provide teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness for Christians.

As we preach Proverbs as Christian Scripture, we must keep several things in mind. First, read Proverbs as God’s wisdom for life, as its prologue indicates (Proverbs 1:1–7). In Proverbs, the wise person is one who is skilled in living according to the righteous standard of God — that is, living by the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning or essence of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10). In writing about the Psalms, C.S. Lewis insisted that they must be read as poems if they are to be understood properly, or “we shall miss what is in them and think we see what is not.”²² Similarly, as we preach Proverbs, we must read and apply its sayings as wisdom, or we may miss what they do teach.

Second, link the imperatives of wise behavior with the indicatives of what God has done for and in the believer through Christ. If Proverbs is preached only as a moralistic call to shrewd living that is not grounded in the gospel, then it can be heard merely as a challenge to turn over a new leaf in an effort to achieve a happier, more successful life. However, if Proverbs is presented as God’s call to his people to revere him in all their actions and attitudes, then that requires a transformation rooted in the righteousness of Christ that is imputed to those who have placed their faith in him. Only the Spirit of Christ in us can produce the desire and the ability to live wisely and to please God.

Third, preach Proverbs as wisdom sayings, not as absolutes or guarantees. In every culture, wisdom sayings are memorable generalizations rather than comprehensive or precise teachings, and that is why they are often balanced by other maxims. For example, we say that “the early bird gets the worm,” but also that “haste makes waste.” Proverbs 26:4 counsels, “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself,” but the next verse urges, “Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.” Neither saying is intended to be taken absolutely; rather, the wise person knows when to ignore the fool and also when to call the fool out. The familiar saying in Proverbs 22:6 has too often been touted as a formulaic guarantee that good parenting will produce good children, but that hardly explains the family in which some of the children follow their godly parents but others depart from the faith. In fact, Proverbs has much to say about the child’s responsibility as well as that of the parents.

Fourth, for the most part, preach topics from Proverbs rather than individual sayings. Several individual proverbs (such as Proverbs 3:5–6) and some groups of related wisdom sayings (for example Proverbs 26:13–16) can be expounded as independent literary units. However, the book of Proverbs most often presents a collection of sayings that do not appear to be set in an easily discernible context. To preach these, some diligent forethought and planning will be required. Read through Proverbs and select the sayings that relate to a particular theme, study each saying individually, and then synthesize them into a topical outline. Using this process, I once developed a sermon series from Proverbs on uncommon virtues that should be cultivated in the Christian life.²³

Because the Old Testament is part of Christian Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16), the themes found in Proverbs are God’s word, by which “the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:17). In addition, they often can be linked with exhortations to godly living in the New Testament. Ultimately, the righteous behavior exhorted in Proverbs is rooted in the imputed righteousness of Christ, which empowers those who are in Christ to walk in wisdom.