There is a way that seems right to a man,
but its end is the way to death.
Even in laughter the heart may ache,
and the end of joy may be grief.
The backslider in heart will be filled with the fruit of his ways,
and a good man will be filled with the fruit of his ways.Proverbs 14:12-14
The commentators point out that 'right' here refers to a seeming short cut to success taken by those who are impatient of advice, hard work, or moral scruples. One thinks of different examples: buy a premium bond and you may have twenty-five thousand pounds by the end of the week - the short cut to financial success; covet the special blessing and take a short cut to instant spiritual maturity, by-passing the inevitable discipline that alone can produce it. Sadly enough, this is a truth that is often only learned the hard way. In 13, the word 'that' should be omitted. The thought expressed is that of the poignancy of human experience, with its inevitable and inescapable mixture of tragedy and gaiety. It is certainly true, as the hymn says, that 'all our joys are touched with pain, that shadows touch our brightest hours, that thorns remain'. The proverb does not tell us, as the New Testament does, that the grace of the gospel enables us not only to live with this, but to triumph over it. In 14, the 'backslider in heart' is translated in the RSV as 'a perverse man'. The verse speaks of two different kinds of loneliness: the perverse man, who turns away from God, is left in an isolation of his own making, and that can be at times unendurable. As Ernest Hemingway makes one of his characters say, 'Having done such a thing, there is a loneliness which cannot be borne'. In contrast, however, there is a loneliness in which one finds contentment. Paul says in Philippians 4:11b 'I have learned in whatsoever state I am to be content'. He was independent of circumstances, because his heart was feeding at the hidden source of all contentment. He had Christ, and that to him was life. It is the worldling who needs things; he lives his life coveting them, whether business or domestic; he grasps them, believing they are the answer to the craving of his heart. But the good man, even though he may have nothing, is content, because he knows that true life is independent of things, consisting not of the abundance of what he may have, but of a proper attitude to life, which when a man has, he is 'satisfied from himself'. What does our life consist of?