Proverbs 16:17-25

Terms to remember:

The Simple
The young and/or inexperienced. The teacher does not condemn them unless they ignore advice.

The Fool
The person who chooses to find his guidance/wisdom someplace besides the instructions of God.

The Wicked 
The person who knows and chooses to act in ways that reject the wisdom of God; the adulterer, the drunk, the liar.

The Evil
The person who hurts others in his wickedness or tries to influence others to wickedness.

The Righteous 
Those who keep the moral law. Under grace, people covered by Jesus.

The Wise
Those who accept God’s instruction and do as He instructs. 



The Role of Counsel

1. The role of counsel protects us from metal fan moments (learning the hard way).

Proverbs 19:20, 15:22

A wise counselor takes their past experiences and turns it into nourishment for others. 

Wisdom helps to protect us from dangerous decisions.

Wise counsel helps to put up the proper guard rails in our lives.


2. The role of counsel keeps us healthy.

Proverbs 25:12, Psalms 141:5, Proverbs 12:1

Sometimes, counsel hurts.

Healthy living is a discipline. 


3. The role of counsel brings us closer to God.

“We should get in the habit of continually seeking His counsel on everything, instead of making our own commonsense decisions and then asking Him to bless them.” – Oswald Chambers

Proverbs 15:31-33

Scripture should be the first place we seek counsel.


4. The role of counsel strengthens our relationships. 

Proverbs 27:17, 13:10 (NIV)

God put us in community. He is in community.

We need other people. 



The Call to Character

Proverbs 28:20-22

Proverbs calls us to a high level of character and integrity in our lives. 

1. The strength of our character is equivalent to our ability to reflect Christ. 

Isaiah 33:15, Proverbs 27:19

Our true character will always be exposed. 

We need to see our character the way that God sees it.

Psalms 26:2 

Our reputation has the ability to hide our character.


2. Our character helps to keep us safe; just like counsel, it provides guard rails to keep us from harm. 

Proverbs 28:18, 11:3, 13:6, 11:5, 10:9

Proverbs gives us two paths: one that walks in integrity and the one whose ways are crooked. 


3. We cannot address our character without talking about our testing.

Proverbs 17:3, 27:21, I Peter 1:6-7

We cannot hide our character from God. He knows who we are on the inside.

Testing will happen. 

Our trials and sufferings help to purify our character.