Proverbs 21:17 - Homiletics

The love of pleasure

The love of pleasure is here described as a cause of poverty. No doubt this was meant to refer to physical destitution. But we cannot fail to see many other forms of poverty resulting from the same foolish infatuation.

I. IT IMPOVERISHES A MAN 'S PURSE . This direct meaning of the text is not without its valise. No man desires to come down in the social scale and to lose the comforts of life. But least of all will the pleasure lover welcome such a prospect. High minded, unselfish, unworldly men submit to the loss of all things, and "count them but dung" for the sake of some noble cud. The pleasure lover is not of this category. To him earthly loss must be a terrible infliction. Therefore, while the text may be of use for all, it is a direct argumentum ad hominem for such a person, Now, experience proves the truth of it.

1 . For pleasure a man neglects his business. In the present day of hard competition such folly is fatal.

2 . Many pleasures are costly. Thy cannot be had without great expenditure, and the passion for them leads to reckless extravagance.

3 . Some pleasures destroy the business powers of a man. They are literally dissipations. Brain and nerves are weakened, and the degraded slave of self-indulgence becomes a wreck, unable to fight the stern battle of life. The drunkard is incompetent. The dissolute man is lacking in business promptness and energy. Other men will not trust the pleasure seeker, and so business forsakes him.

4 . There are pleasures the, directly impoverish. Gambling—now so fearfully prevalent—is a direct road to poverty.

II. IT IMPOVERISHES A MAN 'S INTELLECT . Even though the pleasure seeker be prudent enough to preserve his fortune from shipwreck, or so exceedingly wealthy that he cannot easily squander all iris possessions, lie may and he will impoverish himself. Though he may always have money in his purse, his own mind will be emptied of all worthy possessions. The love of pleasure directly weakens the intellect. The physical effect of dissipation impoverishes the brain. The exciting distractions of a life of gayety destroy the powers of deep, continuous thinking. The mind is thus wasted away in frivolity. The pleasure seeker will not have patience to study solid literature, to think out great truths, to discuss with serious men grave questions of life and death. Exciting novels and plays will be his staple intellectual food, and the result will be mental ruin.

III. IT IMPOVERISHES A MAN 'S HEART . The pleasure seeker is often supposed to he a good-natured man because he is a genial companion. No doubt in any loose-living, self-indulgent men have shown great generosity to their friends. But that is because they are not given up to pure pleasure seeking. In itself pleasure seeking is selfish, hard, cruel. The Romans of the old empire made a fine art of the cultivation of pleasure, and they became monsters of cruelty. The tortures of the amphitheatre furnish, d them with the most exquisite delights. Pleasure-loving Roman ladies treated their poor slave girls with heartless cruelty. It is a gross mistake to suppose that kindliness goes with pleasure seeking, and that its opposite is a sour, ill-natured Puritanism.

IV. IT IMPOVERISHES A MAN 'S SOUL . The greatest loss is not that of money, nor even that of thought or heart. The chief treasure which the pleasure lover loses is the pearl of great price—the kingdom of heaven. He may gain the whole world, but he loses his own soul. Pleasure seeking destroys the spiritual faculties. It is not required that the Christian should be an ascetic, denying himself innocent delights, nor is it to be supposed that all pleasures are evil. The evil is the love of pleasure. Even the love of pleasures that are innocent in themselves may be the rock on which a soul is ruined, if this be the supreme passion of that soul, eclipsing the love of God.