Proverbs 2:13: I’m not a bad person!

[God will deliver you from those] “who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness,”
-Proverbs 2:13

I love the way this section is written.

Solomon has been talking about how God will deliver us from evil, and so now he’s going to give us several verses that tell us about the people He’s going to rescue us from.

It’s great because we’re all expecting him to talk about the murderers and rapists and people who talk in the theater, but that’s not where he starts. In fact, he starts with someone who may not be doing much wrong at all. He starts with us.

So often we want to look at the Bible and say, “I don’t really need to worry about this, because I’m not a bad person.” “Not a bad person” is the standard of so many people. When Jesus tells us to love, so many will respond, “Well, I don’t hate anyone, so that’s good enough.” When Jesus tells us to give, so many will respond, “Well, I don’t steal anything, so that’s good enough.” We aren’t bad, but we certainly aren’t good either.

Jesus tells us about the Day of Judgment, and it’s interesting what He says to the people who are to be cast out:

Then he will say to those on his left, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.”
-Matthew 25:41-43

I find that interesting, because He doesn’t say, “Depart from me, for you murdered people and talked in the theater.” No, the standard is not “I’m not a bad person,” it’s, “I’m a good person.”

The standard for Heaven is love: pure, undefiled, not seeking of its own gain, never failing, never faltering. That’s the standard.

We’re not good people, my friends. We have forsaken the paths of righteousness for the paths of darkness. We are this person in this verse. Maybe we’re not too bad compared to other people, but against God’s standard, we don’t make it.

We need His forgiveness. And that is why Jesus came to earth and died. See, we deserve to be cast out like those people in the passage above. But Jesus, who loved us even when we did not love Him, died upon the Cross to take our place in death. Then He rose again and returned to Heaven to make a place for us in eternal life.

If we repent of our failures to reach God’s standard and believe in Jesus, we will be saved. God will rescue us from this fate.