Key Verse Spotlight
Proverbs 14:22 - Meaning and Application
Understand how this verse speaks to what you're facing and how to apply it today
Translation: World English Bible — Catholic Edition
" Don’t they go astray who plot evil? But love and faithfulness belong to those who plan good. "
Proverbs 14:22
Verse in Context
Understanding the surrounding verses prevents misinterpretation:
20 The poor person is shunned even by his own neighbor, but the rich person has many friends.
21 He who despises his neighbor sins, but he who has pity on the poor is blessed.
22 Don’t they go astray who plot evil? But love and faithfulness belong to those who plan good.
23 In all hard work there is profit, but the talk of the lips leads only to poverty.
24 The crown of the wise is their riches, but the folly of fools crowns them with folly.
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See here how badly mistaken people are who not only do evil, but plan it. Do they not go wrong? Yes, certainly they do. Everyone knows it. They think that by sinning with cleverness and planning, and by carrying out their schemes with more trickery than others, they will handle their sins better and come out ahead. But they are mistaken. God’s justice cannot be fooled. Those who plan evil against their neighbors go badly wrong, because it will surely come back on them and end in their own ruin. That is a deadly mistake.
See also how wisely those act who look out for their own good by not only doing good, but planning it. Mercy and truth will be with them, not as a debt they have earned, for they know they deserve nothing, but as a gift of mercy, pure mercy, mercy according to God’s promise. God is pleased to bind himself by his promise to show mercy and truth to such people. Those who are generous enough to plan generous deeds, who look for chances to do good and think about how their giving can reach the most people and be most helpful to those in need, will stand by generous deeds (Isaiah 32:8).
From This Chapter
Proverbs 14:1
"Every wise woman builds her house, but the foolish one tears it down with her own hands."
Proverbs 14:2
"He who walks in his uprightness fears the LORD, but he who is perverse in his ways despises him."
Proverbs 14:3
"The fool’s talk brings a rod to his back, but the lips of the wise protect them."
Proverbs 14:4
"Where no oxen are, the crib is clean, but much increase is by the strength of the ox."
Proverbs 14:5
"A truthful witness will not lie, but a false witness pours out lies."
Proverbs 14:6
"A scoffer seeks wisdom, and doesn’t find it, but knowledge comes easily to a discerning person."
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