Commentary - Proverbs 17:13

Bird's-eye view

The book of Proverbs is a book of applied righteousness. It is not a collection of helpful hints for a successful life, but rather a description of the grain of the universe. God made the world in a particular way, and to live successfully in it is to live in accordance with how He made it. This proverb, like many others, sets before us a stark principle of retributive justice. This is not karma, which is an impersonal, fatalistic force. This is the personal, covenantal justice of a holy God. The sin described here is a particularly grotesque one, that of repaying good with evil. The consequence is fittingly severe: a household under a lingering curse. This is a foundational law of God's moral government, and understanding it is key to understanding both the Old Testament warnings and the New Testament gospel.

Outline

He who returns evil for good...

The proverb begins by identifying a particular kind of man engaged in a particular kind of sin. The sin is not simply a failure to return good for good. It is not a neutral inaction. The sin is to receive a positive good and to return, in its place, a positive evil. This is a profound act of ingratitude, but it is more than that. It is a work of treachery. It is to take a gift and use it as a weapon against the giver. This is what Judas did. He received the bread from the Lord's own hand and went out into the night to betray Him. This is what Saul did to David. David served him faithfully, slaying Goliath and fighting his battles, and Saul repaid him by trying to pin him to the wall with a spear. This sin is a fundamental assault on the principle of grace. Grace is unmerited favor, a good gift. To receive that gift and then to turn on the giver is to show contempt for the very nature of goodness itself. It is a satanic inversion, calling good evil and evil good.

Evil will not depart from his house.

The consequence is as precise as the sin. The evil that this man has unleashed will not be a passing stranger; it will take up residence in his own house. Notice the federal and covenantal nature of this judgment. The sin is committed by an individual, "he who returns," but the judgment settles upon his "house." This is because in the biblical worldview, a man is not an isolated individual. He is a head, a representative of his household. His actions have consequences for all who are under his roof and in his line. We see this principle worked out in the tragic history of Israel. When David repaid the loyalty of Uriah with betrayal and murder, the prophet Nathan declared, "Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house" (2 Sam. 12:10). And it didn't. Amnon's rape of Tamar, Absalom's murder of Amnon, Absalom's rebellion, Adonijah's treachery, it was one bloody mess after another. When Saul violated Israel's treaty with the Gibeonites, a famine later came upon the land because of "Saul and for his bloody house" (2 Sam. 21:1). The evil he had done came home to roost, and it stayed there. This is not an injustice on God's part. It is the way the world is wired. A man who poisons the well should not be surprised when his own children get sick from drinking the water.

Key Issues

The Ultimate Ingratitude

The principle of this proverb finds its ultimate and most horrific expression at the cross of Jesus Christ. God bestowed upon mankind the greatest possible good. He sent His only begotten Son, full of grace and truth. The Son came to His own, and what did they do? They returned evil for His good. He healed their sick, and they called Him a blasphemer. He cast out demons, and they said He did it by the power of Beelzebub. He taught them the way of life, and they handed Him over to be crucified. Humanity looked at the face of perfect goodness and spat in it. We took the summum bonum, the highest good, and repaid it with the greatest evil we could muster: torture and execution.

And what was the result? Evil did not depart from that house. The house of Israel, which rejected its Messiah, was shattered. In A.D. 70, the Romans came and leveled Jerusalem, and the sword has, in many ways, never departed. But in a broader sense, the house of Adam, the entire human race, was placed under this curse. Our representative head, Adam, received the good gift of life in the Garden and repaid it with the evil of rebellion. Consequently, evil took up residence in the house of humanity. Death, disease, strife, and sorrow became our constant companions.

The Gospel Reversal

But this is where the gospel shines with blinding glory. On the cross, Jesus Christ took this very principle of retributive justice and absorbed it entirely. He was the only man who had ever done nothing but good. He was goodness incarnate. And yet, He received the ultimate evil. He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us. The evil that should have settled upon our house was instead heaped upon Him. The curse of Proverbs 17:13, writ large for all humanity, fell on His head. He received the evil that we deserved for the good that He had done.

And in doing so, He broke the curse. He exhausted it. For those who are in Christ Jesus, the evil has departed. He has established a new house, the Church, which is His body and His bride. In this house, the principle is gloriously reversed. We, who deserve evil, receive nothing but good from our Head. We are forgiven, adopted, sanctified, and glorified. The evil is gone, not because the law of sowing and reaping was suspended, but because Christ reaped the whirlwind of our evil sowing. Therefore, our response must be the opposite of the man in the proverb. Having received immeasurable good, we must spend our lives returning good, not just to God, but to all those around us, for His sake.

Application

First, we must take this warning with the utmost seriousness in our own lives. Do not repay evil for good. When someone is kind to you, be grateful. When you are blessed, acknowledge the giver. Ingratitude is the seedbed of apostasy. It is a wicked thing to receive a kindness and return a slight, a cruelty, or a betrayal. Examine your heart and your relationships. Have you done this to a parent, a spouse, a friend, or a benefactor? Repent of it, before that evil decides to move into your house.

Second, we must understand that this principle operates in the civil realm as well. A nation that receives the blessings of liberty, prosperity, and peace from God, and then repays Him with idolatry, immorality, and injustice, is inviting a national curse. Evil will not depart from that nation's house. We should not be surprised at the turmoil and strife we see when we as a people have repaid God's abundant goodness with rebellion.

Finally, we must flee to Christ. All of us, in some way, are guilty of the sin in this proverb. We have all taken God's good gifts, His breath in our lungs, His sun on our faces, and used them in the service of our own sin. We have returned evil for His good. Our only hope is the one who took our curse. Our only safety is within His household, the Church, where the evil has been cast out by His blood. Cling to Him, and learn from Him how to be the kind of person who, having received grace, returns nothing but grace.