Text: “Whoever is greedy for unjust gain troubles his own household, but he who hates bribes will live” (Pr 15:27). Proverbs 17:23 teaches much the same thing: “The wicked accepts a bribe in secret to pervert the ways of justice.” The lesson here is to have the wisdom to say no to the bride, to be unpurchasable.

In one of my favorite songs by Roger Waters named “Too Much Rope” he has the following lyrics:

When the sleigh is heavy
And the timber wolves are getting bold
You look at your companions and test
The water of their friendship, with your toe
And they significantly edge
Closer to the gold
Each man has his price, Bob
And yours was pretty low

Bob was for sale, as it were. And it didn’t take much. Bob had his price.

It’s different strokes for different folks, as the cliche goes. For some people, it’s positional authority. They’ll compromise in order to gain it. For others, it’s money. They’ll fudge in certain areas or look the other way, if it benefits their bottom line. For others, it’s power. If they feel they can be viewed as “large and in charge,” their insecurites get validated in their spirit. Now they feel they finally have a seat at the table of importance.

This past week, someone came to me and said, “Hey, we have a soldier who needs a chaplain down at unit ______. Can you handle it?”

“Sure,” I said. “Do you have the contact info?”

I copied down the contact info, contacted the soldier, drove to meet him, spent about an hour with him, listened to him, gave him a summary of what I had understood him to mean, and offered some practical steps to help navigate the waters he was in. It was, in short, our bread and butter as chaplains–providing spiritual wisdom and religious support to soldiers. I loved it. It was “our lane” as chaplains.

Afterwards I followed up with the soldier again and then informed his chain of command that I’d gotten the soldier the help he had requested from a chaplain. Mission success.

But here’s the thing. There was nothing to be gained by me. I was just doing my job, my calling. The soldier got what he needed. The unit got their soldier back–and he was better off. There was no fanfare. The reward was simply knowing that I did my job. No money was involved. No publicity. No gamesmanship. Just doing my duty.

But what Solomon is driving at here is that some people don’t want to do the work; they want notoriety. They want the applause of men. They want to be seen as the savior-figure but they don’t want to put forth any effort. They want to be seen as caring and concerned, but they don’t actually care or demonstrate concern. They have the appearance of godliness but lack the character of such godliness. Paul says they go about “having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people” (2 Tim 3:5). They dupe sheeple. They pimp the undiscerning for their own selfish gains.

A recurring theme in Christianity is wisdom–to understand the times and what God’s people are to do. Christians are commanded to seek wisdom and live wisely. A crucial part of wisdom is learning to discern the true from the false, to see through optics to the reality, to distinguish between mere appearance and the genuine. Lord, grant eyes to see, I pray, for blindness is pervasive.