The topics of money and laziness should apply to just about every youth you’ll ever meet. This study on Proverbs six deals with both of those issues and more. There is a lot of stuff in this chapter, so you may want to divide this study into two and take a little more time on each topic. Either way here is a brief overview of this jam-packed chapter of Proverbs.
Proverbs Six
Activity: What are you like?
Going around your circle or asking random people, have them answer the following three questions:
- What type of food are you most like?
- What type of animal is the person on your left most like?
- What famous person is the person on your right most like?
Read Proverbs chapter 6
vs 1-5 (Finances)
Do these verses say never loan money to a friend? The deeper lesson here is to take good care of what God has given you. How could co-signing a loan be not taking good care of what God has given you? What are some things that God has given us that He expects us to take care of? (Money, clothes, possessions, time, talents) We need to make the best use of them.
If someone gave you a million dollars, would you still spend the same amount per month as you do now or would you spend some of that extra million? God gives us all kinds of things for us to use wisely – money, time, talents, etc… And He expects us to take good care of them.
vs 6-11 (Laziness)
Does that mean we shouldn’t sleep in on weekends? The lesson here it to take responsibility. If you don’t act in a responsible way (doing things that need to be done), then you’re going to end up with nothing.
Is it responsible for someone to sleep in? Would it be responsible for me to work at a job 18 hrs a day, seven days a week? No, I would be neglecting my responsibilities to my family, to my church, and my other responsibilities. So basically it’s saying “You need to do what you need to do”.
vs 12-19 (Things God Hates)
Write out the list of things God hates in ‘today language’.
Does anyone admit to doing anything from this list? What do you guys hate? (Ie. fingernails on the chalkboard, people who ask why, why, why, why) If you have a friend who did all these things – lots – how would that affect your relationship? God hates this stuff – SO DON’T DO IT!
vs 20-23 (Keep the Commands)
We talked about this in an earlier Bible study. What does it mean to “bind them to your heart or fasten them around your neck”?
vs 24-35 (Consequences)
In these verse are some very clear warnings against adultery. Even though you guys aren’t married yet – it’s important for you to know this stuff before you get married. That way you’ve already got it in your head and hopefully your heart. But I also want to point out a theme in this passage that we’ve also seen in the rest of the chapter.
Consquences:
vs 5 – the guy who co-signs the loan will end up like a deer with a hunter after it.
vs 11 – the guy who is lazy will be pounced on by poverty.
vs 15 – the wicked will be suddenly destroyed.
vs 27-29 & 32-34 – lots of bad stuff
There are consequences to every thing you do. That’s why it’s so important to choose wisely. What kind of choices have you been making in your life recently? Have you shown wisdom in how you handle money and everything else God has entrusted to you? Have you shown wisdom avoiding those things God hates and keeping his commands?