Living as a Brother

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

LIVING AS A BROTHER

Prov 17:2

2 A wise servant will rule over a disgraceful son, and will share the inheritance as one of the brothers.

NIV

Once again we could view this in the historical sense when there were servants or slaves as it were, and as in the case when Abram was upset over the fact that he was sonless and had no heir, he determined that his faithful servant would be his heir. It might also been sense in that same story that Hagar, a servant girl became family by giving birth to a son by Abram and therefore should have been entitled to share in the inheritance. But we could also see this as our own self being that disgraceful son. We, being unable to obtain any righteousness of our own, unable to inherit any part of the kingdom of God, must learn to allow the greatest of servants to rule over us. Jesus said that he did not come to be served, but to serve, to be a servant, a wise servant going to the cross in our place. So as he is the true wise servant and we are in fact the disgraceful son, we need to see that he does in fact rule over us so as he shares in the inheritance so do we. We might also see ourselves as the wise servant who rules over self when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, forfeiting the life of sinful pleasures and submitting to his Lordship, then we become co-heirs with Christ, we become as brothers with him. We need to see the need to leave the disgraceful life behind and live as a brother of Christ.