The Great Divide: Flattery or Fighting Text: Proverbs 28:4
Introduction: The Myth of Neutrality
We live in an age that is desperate for peace, but which has forgotten the definition of peace. The modern world, and tragically, much of the modern church, believes that peace is the absence of conflict. Peace is keeping your head down. Peace is not rocking the boat. Peace is agreeing to disagree, which usually means you agree to be silent while the other side fundamentally reorders the world. This is not peace; it is cowardice. It is appeasement. It is the quiet lull before the entire house collapses on your head.
The Bible knows nothing of this kind of peace. Biblical peace, shalom, is not the absence of conflict, but the presence of righteousness. It is a positive, robust, and vibrant reality that comes from all things being rightly ordered according to the design of the Creator. And because we live in a fallen world, a world in active, hot rebellion against that Creator, true peace can only be established through conflict. The kingdom of God is a kingdom of peace, but it advances like an invading army.
This proverb from Solomon presents us with a stark, binary choice. There is no middle ground, no third way, no demilitarized zone. There are two paths, and only two. You are on one or the other. Your relationship to the law of God determines your relationship to the wicked. You will either forsake God's law and end up flattering evil, or you will keep God's law and find yourself fighting evil. This is the great spiritual continental divide. Every man, every church, every nation stands on one side of this ridge or the other. The water flows one way or the other. There is no such thing as neutral water.
Our generation has been catechized in the myth of neutrality. We have been taught that to be non-judgmental is the highest virtue. But this proverb yanks the emergency brake on that entire train of thought. To abandon God's standard is not to become neutral; it is to switch sides. To lay down your arms in this cultural war is not to become a peacemaker; it is to become a collaborator. This verse is a bucket of ice water for a sleepy church that wants to be winsome while the barbarians are not just at the gates, but running the city council, the school board, and the HR department.
The Text
Those who forsake the law praise the wicked,
But those who keep the law strive with them.
(Proverbs 28:4 LSB)
The Great Surrender (v. 4a)
The first half of the verse lays out the logic of apostasy:
"Those who forsake the law praise the wicked..." (Proverbs 28:4a)
First, we must understand what "the law" is. This is the Hebrew word torah. It does not simply mean a list of rules and regulations, like a legal code. It means instruction, direction, the whole counsel of God. It is God's authoritative definition of reality. The torah is God's owner's manual for the cosmos. To "forsake" it is to set it aside, to abandon it, to treat it as irrelevant to public life, or private life, or any life at all.
And what is the result of this great forsaking? Neutrality? A pleasant, secular pluralism? No. The result is that you will "praise the wicked." Nature abhors a vacuum, and so does the human heart. If you throw out God's dictionary, you will not be left without definitions. You will simply adopt the dictionary of the devil. When God's law is no longer the standard, some other standard must take its place. And the only other standard on offer is the standard of rebellion.
This is not a theoretical progression; it is an observable reality. Look at our culture. A generation ago, Christians began to forsake the law of God concerning sexuality. They said it was an unloving, outdated standard. And what happened? They did not arrive at a neutral position. They began to praise the wicked. They went from "homosexuality is a sin" to "let's not talk about it" to "love is love" to celebrating Pride month with rainbow flags on their church websites. They forsook the law, and they are now praising the wicked. They forsook the law of God on the sanctity of life, and now they praise abortion as "healthcare" and a "reproductive right." They forsook the law of God on the created distinction between man and woman, and now they praise the mutilation of children as "gender-affirming care."
The apostle Paul describes this exact progression in Romans 1. After outlining a litany of sins that flow from suppressing the truth, he delivers the final, damning charge: "Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them" (Romans 1:32). This is the bottom of the slippery slope. It is one thing to sin in weakness and shame; it is another thing entirely to sin and then throw a parade for your sin. Praising the wicked is the final stage of a culture's rebellion. It is the normalization and celebration of what God condemns. And it begins, always, with forsaking His law.
The Necessary Conflict (v. 4b)
The contrast could not be sharper. The second half of the verse shows us the path of faithfulness.
"But those who keep the law strive with them." (Proverbs 28:4b LSB)
To "keep the law" is the opposite of forsaking it. It means to guard it, to treasure it, to observe it, to build your life and your family and your culture upon it. It is to believe that God's Word is true and good, and that it is the only foundation for human flourishing. This is not legalism. Legalism is trying to save yourself by your law-keeping. The Christian keeps the law not to be saved, but because he has been saved. He obeys out of gratitude, not out of a desire to earn favor.
And what is the natural, inevitable, unavoidable result of keeping God's law in a fallen world? You will "strive with them." The Hebrew word here means to contend, to dispute, to stir up, to engage in conflict. It is a word used for battle and for lawsuits. It is not a passive word. It is not a "live and let live" word. It is a fighting word.
This is the great antithesis that God Himself established in the Garden: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring" (Genesis 3:15). There is a necessary, God-ordained hostility between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. To be a Christian is to be enlisted in a war. Keeping the law means you know what the war is about, you know what the standards of your King are, and you know who the enemy is.
This striving is not, in the first instance, carnal or angry. It is a principled, theological, and cultural conflict. We strive with them in the pulpit by preaching the whole counsel of God. We strive with them in the public square by speaking the truth about sin and righteousness. We strive with them in our families by raising our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord, refusing to hand them over to Caesar for their education. We strive with them by building institutions, churches, schools, and businesses, that are faithful to the crown rights of Jesus Christ.
Many Christians today have this backwards. They think that if they are gentle enough, winsome enough, and quiet enough, the wicked will leave them alone. But the proverb teaches the opposite. The conflict is not a sign that you are doing something wrong; it is the sign that you are doing something right. It is evidence that you are keeping the law. If you are not striving with the wicked, it is a terrifying possibility that it is because you have forsaken the law and have begun, in subtle ways, to praise them. If the world is at peace with you, you must ask yourself if you are at war with God.
Conclusion: The Choice Is Yours
This proverb forces a decision. It clears away all the fog and presents us with two teams. Team A forsakes God's instruction and gives standing ovations to evil. Team B keeps God's instruction and gets into the fight against evil. There is no Team C for the conscientious objectors.
The ultimate law-keeper was the Lord Jesus Christ. He did not forsake one jot or tittle of the law, but fulfilled it all perfectly. And because He kept the law, He strove with the wicked. He strove with the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Romans, and the demonic powers. His entire ministry was one of conflict, a great striving that culminated at the cross. On the cross, He engaged in the ultimate battle, absorbing the full wrath of God against lawlessness, disarming the principalities and powers, and winning the decisive victory.
Because He won, our striving is not the desperate struggle of a lost cause. We fight, but we fight from victory, not for it. We contend with the wicked knowing that their rebellion is doomed and that every knee will one day bow to the King whose law they have despised. Our striving is therefore filled with a postmillennial optimism. We are not just fighting a delaying action; we are taking ground. We are striving so that the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.
So the choice is before you. You cannot avoid it. Will you forsake the law? Will you set aside the clear teaching of Scripture because it is unpopular or uncomfortable? If you do, do not be surprised when you find yourself applauding the very things you once condemned. Or will you keep the law? Will you plant your feet on the solid rock of God's Word and, by His grace, refuse to be moved? If you do, then get ready for a fight. But it is a good fight. It is the fight of faith. And it is the only path to true peace.