Proverbs in Community

Tim Keller (Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church - NYC) recently posted an article on how to study Proverbs. Keller highlights several important issues, one of which is the need to study Proverbs in community. He states:

. . . The Bible does not give us so much hard and fast rules as 'proverbs' -- motives, goals, and values that have to be applied with wisdom to situations in the world. And that wisdom happens more through communal reflection on Scripture, especially a text like Proverbs.

How can we best integrate our faith with our work? I think we need more experienced people in a field meeting with younger persons in that field and working through a book like Proverbs in community, always applying its insights to the work they are doing in the world.

Earlier in the article he writes:

So Proverbs cannot be "dipped into". It only repays very long study in which you keep the whole book in your head and compare passage with passage. How is that best done? In a community! Some commentators argue that the book of Proverbs was originally written as a manual to be studied by a community of young men under the mentorship of older men -- for a number of years. Each proverb was to be discussed and considered and compared to the others. Examples from life were to be shared. In other words, Proverbs may have been written to be the basis for deep, comprehensive personal growth through mentoring in community. It touches on every area of life.

The article is called: Proverbs, Community, and the Culture, and can be found at the blog Redemer City to City .

You can read the full text of it here >>

Blessings
3 John 8
Bill H.