August 12, Day 224 – The Whole Duty of Man
- Dr. Eric Stricker
- Aug 11
- 3 min read
In the second half of Psalm 94, verses 12-23, we see several precious promises: “The man who is disciplined by the LORD is blessed” (verse 12). Seldom – if ever – do we like to feel the rod of discipline. In fact, the writer of the book of Hebrews tells us that “God disciplines us for our good that we may share in His holiness … no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it” (cf., Hebrews 12:10-11). The Psalmist explains that God’s discipline “grants us relief from days of trouble” (verse 13). Training usually makes our lives easier after proficiency is achieved. We also see here that “the LORD will not reject His people nor forsake His inheritance” (verse 14). God will “rise up for us against the wicked and take a stand against evildoers” – when no one else will (verse 16), because “He is our Rock and our Fortress in Whom we take refuge” (verse 22). God wants to protect and to care for us, and these promises help to alleviate many of our anxieties.
Yesterday, we looked at 2 Chronicles 1 which focused on King Solomon. Because Solomon was the author of Ecclesiastes, it is fitting for us now to look parenthetically at the book of Ecclesiastes and then come back to 2 Chronicles again in a few days. Ecclesiastes is a wonderful book that considers the meaning of life. Solomon – the wisest man who ever lived (cf., 1 Kings 4:31) – is the “Teacher” (verse 1), and he wants us to think about the world that we inherited with Adam and Eve’s initial sin. Through their sin, they – and we – rejected the world that might have been. Ecclesiastes contrasts that world with the “meaningless world” that we got in exchange. In this book, the Teacher considers “everything under the sun” (verses 2 and 9), including wisdom, pleasure, work, pain, power, riches, religion, nature, and more. These all have some value, but only if man places God at the center of his life. Without God, these things are nothing more than meaningless illusions. In fact, God has designed human life specifically to be meaningless and empty apart from Him. In the end, the teacher will say, “here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” (cf., Ecclesiastes 12:13). In chapters 1-3, we see Solomon’s opening experiment and initial conclusions about life under the sun – “He has set eternity in the hearts of men, yet they cannot fathom what God has done” (cf., 3:11).
Now in 1 Corinthians 7, Paul addresses the fifth problem of the Corinthian church – marriage and singleness. Here, he treats some of the intimate relational issues that created so much anxiety in that church and in today’s – marriage, sex, divorce, and singleness. Properly, God created us for completeness and the intimacy that makes completeness possible. Marriage is God’s ideal for men and women, and it existed before sin came into the world. However, sin’s entry into the world severed completeness within intimate relationships, and it inflicted anxiety and complexity upon us. Adam and Eve’s sin separated them from God, from the world, from each other, and from themselves (i.e., effectively “killing” all those relationships). In chapter 7, Paul is teaching us in advance to count the cost of the complexities that we introduce into our own lives. Simplicity is a lot easier to manage than complexity, but it is not God’s ideal for completeness; few individuals are content or satisfied with it. On the basis of “peace” (verse 15), God considers each of these relationships to be “good” (verses 1 and 7). He recognizes human difficulties with “self-control” and “burning passion” (verse 9), but He calls and expects us to live within the context and boundaries of propriety and holiness (verse 14).
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