Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Who Are We? | The Writings | Proverbs 23

Episode Date: October 18, 2024

Who are you? Do you define yourself by looking inward or outward? Who are you sharing your life with? In today's episode, Jeff shares how Proverbs 23 encourages us to see ourselves as a part of God's people. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Proverbs 23

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jeff Parrott. If someone were to ask you, who are you? Where would you look to find the answer? Would you look in the mirror? Maybe in the more ambiguous interior of yourself? What if the best way to answer that question, who am I,

is to look somewhere other than yourself? That's the fundamental question posed by Brian Rosner in his 2022 book, How to Find Yourself, while looking inward is not the answer. If you find yourself asking, Who am I? One of the locations Rosner wants you to explore is the community around you.

He says it this way in his book. You are not just an individual. You are not your own creation. You did not invent yourself. You exist in a web of relationships. You're a social animal. Your identity is constituted in relation to other people and in being known by them. Indeed, the social and psychological sciences are increasingly defining personhood in relational terms.

The self is no longer seen as an isolated and individual phenomenon, but as something formed within a network of relationships and neural connections, a being in relation. Now, that's a lot, but think about that. Do you believe that that's true about yourself? that you're not just an individual, that you're not your own creation? Do you see that you're formed within a network of relationships, that you're a being in relation? These statements are profoundly countercultural in light of the prevailing wisdom of our modern day. But according to the biblical

account of who we are, Rosner is spot on. For instance, when you approach the wisdom of Proverbs 23, you can't escape how it grates against the prevailing wisdom of the autonomous, expressive individualism of today. This chapter of Proverbs assumes that we are intimately connected to and informed by the community we share life with, that we aren't isolated individuals defining ourselves. We can't help but influence one another's choices and identities as humans sharing life together. Proverbs 23 presents the reality of identity formation within the community, yet it also presses us to see how our life together is bound together with the author of life. And doing all of this, Proverbs 23 unveils the true potency of what can happen when someone's identity is woven

into the fabric of community before God. Now, as we approach God's word now, let's pause and just ask for His grace to move in and through our time. Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of life and breath and for giving us another day. And thank you for your word. Jesus help us abide in you as we engage with your truth. Holy Spirit, we ask you to move in and through this time in Proverbs 23. As we read these words, let these words read us and renew us in Jesus' name. Amen. Now before we dive into some passages from Proverbs 23, let's remember something that was patently obvious to the first audience of Proverbs, yet largely oblivious to us. Proverbs was not originally crafted for the private consumption of isolated individuals. It was meant to be shared with a community that not only lived with one

another, but also identified with one another. Notice how these words of wisdom assume a fundamental connection between the individual person and the community. Let's read verses 19 through 21. Listen, my son, and be wise, and set your heart on the right path. Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttones become poor, and drowsiness close them and rags. Now, it'd be easy for us to gloss over the identity and desire-shaping elements at play here, but they're definitely there. The wisdom of Proverbs in verse 19 is talking about the trajectory of someone's heart,

the seat of their deepest desires and sense of self. And verse 19 tips us off that the topic at hand has to do with who we're becoming, with our sense of identity. But then in the next two verses, verses 20 through 21, the issue of the heart and identity, it's tied to the community we shared life with. It's saying, don't join those people because they're becoming something that you don't really want to become. This is wisdom that says,

Be careful who you share life with because when you share life with them you form your life with them. Later in Proverbs 23, we see the consequences of having a life shaped by someone that's going somewhere that we don't want to go. You can go on on Reed versus 29 through 35 to see a portrait of what that leads to.

What starts as joining those who drink too much wine, well, it turns into pain. Altered vision, altered thoughts. ultimately an altered self. In response to this warning from Proverbs, let's just pause and consider how our choices, our habits, our sense of identity could be miss shaped by the people we're sharing life with. So just consider this. How have you noticed yourself changing slowly over time because of the community you belong to? Do you find yourself doing things you never thought you do? But now you're doing them because they've been normalized by people you've used.

spend time with. Maybe consider the specific example given here in Proverbs 23. Are there particular substances like alcohol that you consume differently because of the people you're around? Ask God to graciously reveal how your life, your identity has been tied to others in ways that haven't been good for you or haven't been good for others around you. When the Bible describes identity formation and community, it's not only talking about what we're against. It's also talking about what we're for. Look at how Proverbs 23 does this in verses 15 through 16, for example. It says, My son, if your heart is wise, my heart will be glad too. My inmost being will exult when your lips speak what is right. Now, recognize the deep connection here between the hearts of people.

The wisdom of the son's heart leads to gladness of the following. There's a mingling here of wisdom and gladness that signifies an identity going beyond the autonomous, expressive individual. It's the wisdom that recognizes how God has created us to live. As the community goes, so I go. As I go, so the community goes. Considering the cautions in the Proverbs, it's worth noting here that the wisdom regarding who we share life with is not meant to turn us into a bunch of hermits living behind a castle wall. Jesus calls us to be in the world, yet not of it. We're meant to be salt and light to our neighbors and coworkers to be restorative, which means that we have to live in deep, meaningful relationships with them, while also being

distinct from them. And one of those distinctions is not only how we relate to one another, but also how we relate to God. Proverbs 23 is careful to connect our life together with the author of life. Notice the relationship between the human heart and God in verses 17 through 18. Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the Lord all the day. Surely there is a future and your hope will not be cut off. In these verses, there's not only a warning against tying one's identity to sinners, but an encouragement to tie one's deepest sense of identity to the Lord, to the one who made you, who knows you and loves you and makes you a new creation in Christ. This relationship between identity and relational love and relational knowledge,

it's acknowledged by Rosner in his book. He says this, in order to know yourself and be yourself, you need to be known intimately and personally by others. But it doesn't end there. You also need to be loved by them. Being known and loved are the key ingredients to every personal identity worth inhabiting. So ultimately, identity formation is not just about being shaped by other people.

It's about being known and loved by them. It's about being known and loved by your creator. This gets to the very heartbeat of the gospel, Jesus. Because of his death, resurrection, and reign, we are fully known and loved by the one who made us in his image and the one who made our fellow image bears. That's what we most deeply need when considering who we are. So while our cultural moment primes us to obsess over the question, who am I? The wisdom of the Bible prods us to ask, who are we? Who are we together? Of course, we are still individuals who make our own choices. There's no obfuscating a sense of healthy boundaries here. But for the people of God living in exile both today and thousands of years ago, we need to consider how our life together creates a compounding effect of life and love when we're

bound together. Heavenly fathers, we head into the rest of this day and into the rest of our lives. Would you help us see our identity not simply as isolated bodies, but as the unified body of Jesus? Jesus help us remember that we are fully known and fully loved by you and that you give us an identity worth inhabiting. Spirit bind us together so that we can share the life. life and love of Jesus within the church and through the church to the watching world today. In Jesus' name, amen.