What is the meaning of Proverbs 6:14? With deceit in his heart Deceit is an inner condition long before it shows up in words or actions. Solomon starts with the hidden place where sin takes root—the heart. • Scripture reminds us that “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure—who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). When a person allows deception to linger there, everything that flows out of him becomes tainted. • David observed the same pattern: “His speech is smooth as butter, but war is in his heart” (Psalm 55:21). Polished words can mask poisonous intentions. • Ananias and Sapphira illustrate the danger. Peter asked, “How could Satan have so filled your heart that you lied to the Holy Spirit?” (Acts 5:3). Their deceit began quietly but quickly infected the whole church community. • The warning is personal: if we entertain even small falsehoods in the heart—flattery we don’t mean, resentments we won’t admit—those lies become the soil where larger sins grow. he devises evil The heart’s deceit doesn’t stay idle; it plots. • Micah exposed this mindset: “Woe to those who devise iniquity and plot evil on their beds!” (Micah 2:1). Nighttime should renew trust in God, yet the wicked use it to sharpen schemes. • Proverbs itself cautions, “Do not devise evil against your neighbor, for he dwells trustfully beside you” (Proverbs 3:29). Trust is a gift; plotting against the trusting is a betrayal God will judge. • Genesis shows the breadth of mankind’s problem: “Every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was altogether evil all the time” (Genesis 6:5). Planning wrongdoing is not an occasional lapse but a natural bent apart from God’s grace. • God sees those plans before they launch: “The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the LORD” (Proverbs 15:26). Because He reads motives perfectly, we can’t hide behind good intentions that don’t exist. he continually sows discord The climax is damage done to relationships. • A perverse person “spreads dissension” (Proverbs 16:28). What starts as hidden deceit produces outward division—gossip, half-truths, wedge-driving comments. • James traces the same arc: when jealousy and selfish ambition lodge in the heart, “there will be disorder and every evil practice” (James 3:16). Discord is rarely accidental; it is cultivated. • Proverbs 6 circles back in verse 19, listing “a person who spreads discord among brothers” as something the LORD hates. Discord is not merely unpleasant—it is detestable to God because it fractures the unity He intends for His people. • Paul places “dissensions” among the “acts of the flesh” that, if unchecked, “will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19-21). Chronic sowing of discord signals an unrepentant heart. summary Proverbs 6:14 traces a lethal progression: deception takes root in the heart, grows into deliberate schemes, and blossoms into discord that tears communities apart. God calls us to confront deceit at its source—our own hearts—before it advances. By yielding every thought to Christ and choosing truth, we break the chain that leads from hidden lies to open division. |
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