Commentary - Proverbs 13:7

Bird's-eye view

This proverb is a sharp, two-edged blade that cuts to the heart of all human pretense. In just a few words, it lays bare two common and opposite follies related to wealth and identity. On the one hand, you have the man who puts on a show of riches, whose life is a carefully curated facade of prosperity, but who is, in reality, spiritually and often financially bankrupt. On the other hand, you have the man who makes a show of poverty or simplicity, perhaps out of a false humility or a miserly spirit, yet he possesses great substance. Both are engaged in a form of deception, one by inflating his appearance and the other by deflating it. The central issue is a disconnect between appearance and reality, a hypocrisy that God's wisdom always exposes. The proverb forces us to ask what constitutes true wealth and whether our outward presentation aligns with the reality of our hearts before God.

At its core, this is a warning against living for the opinions of men. The man who pretends to be rich craves the admiration and status that wealth appears to grant. The man who pretends to be poor may crave the reputation of being pious and detached from the world, or he may simply be a slave to greed, hoarding his wealth in secret. Neither man is living honestly in the station God has assigned him. True contentment and integrity are found in acknowledging what God has actually given, whether much or little, and stewarding it faithfully before His face, not in constructing a false front for the watching world.

Outline

Context In Proverbs

The book of Proverbs is intensely practical, dealing with the nuts and bolts of everyday life, and a recurring theme is the right and wrong way to think about wealth. Proverbs consistently teaches that wealth obtained through diligence and righteousness is a blessing from the Lord (Prov 10:4, 22), while ill-gotten gain is a snare (Prov 10:2). This particular proverb fits squarely within that stream of wisdom. It follows verses dealing with the fruit of a man's mouth (v. 2), the consequences of diligence versus laziness (v. 4), and the hatred of falsehood by the righteous (v. 5). Proverbs 13:7 continues this theme of righteousness versus wickedness by exposing the falsehood inherent in financial posturing. It is a specific application of the broader principle that the righteous man values truth and reality, while the wicked man deals in lies and appearances.

Key Issues

Reality Over Reputation

Our age is obsessed with image, with branding, with the curated self. Social media is little more than a massive, global platform for the sin described in the first half of this proverb. People go into debt to purchase the props for a life they are not actually living. They pretend to be rich in experiences, rich in influence, rich in possessions, but behind the screen, there is nothing. It is a life of "vanity," as the Preacher in Ecclesiastes would say, a chasing after the wind.

But the second half of the proverb is just as relevant, though perhaps more subtle. We have our own forms of pious pretense. There is a kind of virtue-signaling that makes a great show of being poor, of being simple, of being detached from "materialism." But this can be just as much a posture as the man with the leased luxury car. A man can have great wealth and hoard it like a dragon, all the while wearing threadbare clothes and talking about the evils of money. In both cases, the heart is disordered. Both men are liars. Wisdom calls us away from this game of appearances and into the freedom of reality. God knows what you have. He is the audience of One. Living honestly before Him is the only path to true riches.

Verse by Verse Commentary

7 There is one who pretends to be rich, but has nothing;

This is the man of the prosperity gospel, but without the prosperity. He is the man who lives on credit, whose entire life is leveraged to maintain an appearance of success. He drives the right car, wears the right clothes, and lives in the right neighborhood, but it is all a house of cards. One stiff breeze, one missed payment, and the whole charade collapses. The Hebrew for "pretends to be rich" (mit'asher) is a reflexive verb, meaning he makes himself rich, he plays the part of a rich man. It is an act. And the result? He "has nothing." This is not just a financial statement; it is a spiritual one. In his pursuit of the image of wealth, he has neglected to acquire any substance. He has no true friends, only admirers of his facade. He has no peace, only the constant anxiety of being found out. And most importantly, he has no spiritual treasure, for he has laid it all up where moth and rust destroy.

Another pretends to be poor, but has great wealth.

This is the opposite error, but it springs from the same root of hypocrisy. This man makes himself out to be poor. The Hebrew (mit'roshesh) is again reflexive; he puts on the act of poverty. He might do this for several reasons. He could be a miser, a man whose god is his hoard, and he lives in squalor to protect and grow his treasure. Think of Ebenezer Scrooge before his conversion. Or, he could be feigning poverty for the sake of a reputation for piety. He wants men to see him and think, "There goes a truly spiritual man, one who is not attached to the things of this world." All the while, his bank account is full, and his heart is as attached to his money as the other man is to his image. He has "great wealth," but it does him no good. It is not being used for the glory of God, for the good of his neighbor, or even for his own proper enjoyment. It is a dead thing, a monument to his greed or his false piety. He, too, "has nothing" of true value, because his wealth possesses him rather than the other way around.

Application

The application of this proverb is straightforward and deeply convicting. We must wage war on all forms of pretense in our lives. The gospel frees us from the need to pretend. In Christ, our identity is secure. We are sons of the King, and that is a wealth that can never be diminished. Therefore, we have no need to posture as financially wealthy to secure our value. Our value was secured at the cross.

Likewise, the gospel frees us from the false piety of pretending to be poor. Our righteousness is not in our asceticism or our simple lifestyle, but in Christ alone. This does not mean we should not live simply; it means our simplicity should flow from a heart of genuine contentment and a desire for good stewardship, not from a desire to be seen as holy by others. Whether God has given us much or little, our task is the same: to receive it with gratitude, to enjoy it with freedom, and to deploy it with generosity for the advance of His kingdom. We are to be faithful stewards of reality, not masterful curators of a lie. The truly rich man is the one who is rich toward God, regardless of what his balance sheet says. He is the one who has nothing to prove and therefore nothing to hide.