Proverbs 25:27 - Meaning and Application

We should be wisely dead to two things. First, we should not live for the pleasures of the senses. It is not good to eat too much honey. Honey is pleasant, and in moderation it is healthy, but too much of it becomes sickening and harmful. In the same way, all the pleasures people chase will eventually leave them full but never truly satisfied, and they are dangerous to those who indulge in them freely.

Second, we should not be greedy for human praise. We should not make it our aim to search out our own glory, to court applause, or to try to make ourselves popular. That is not a person’s honor, but his shame, because people will laugh at such pride. The glory that is sought in this way is not real glory at all, since it is no true honor to a person.

Some understand the verse differently. They take it to mean that, just as eating too much honey is harmful, so it is dangerous to pry too far into lofty and glorious things. Those things may seem sweet to us, but if we try to grasp more than our minds can hold, they can overwhelm us. Others take it this way: you may grow tired of too much honey, but the final glory, the glory of the blessed, is true glory. It will always be fresh, and it will never lose its sweetness.