Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 4:25
Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.
Pro 4:25
Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.
Eyes right
These words occur in a passage wherein the wise man exhorts us to take care of all parts of our nature, which he indicates by members of the body. Every part of our nature needs to be carefully watched, lest in any way it should become the cause of sin. Any one member or faculty is readily able to defile all the rest, and therefore every part must be guarded with care. Having eyes, use them; using them, take care to use them honestly. Some persons are always as if they were asleep. Others are somewhat awake mentally, but are not looking right on; they are star-gazing; they lead but a purposeless life. A man ought to have a way; it should be a straight way; and in that straight way he should persevere. The best way for a man is the way which God has made for him. When you are on the Kings highway, you may go ahead without fear.
I. Let Christ be your way. If He be, you will begin first to seek to have Christ. Then you will want to know Christ. Then you will go on to obey Christ. Then you will seek to be like Christ.
II. Set your eyes on Christ as your way. Think of Him, consider Him, study Him.
1. That you may know the way of life, let your eyes be fixed on Him.
2. That you may follow Him well, follow Him wholly. Gather up all your faculties to go after the Lord.
3. Look alone to Jesus, and do this to keep your spirits up. Some live in retrospection; others in unhealthy introspection; and yet others carry much too far a sort of circumspection. If you begin to look two ways at a time, you will miss the Lord Jesus. Under the Jewish law no man who had a squint was allowed to be a priest.
III. Let your eyes distinctly and directly look to Christ alone.
1. Look not to any human guide.
2. Look to Christ for yourself.
3. Look not to any secondary aims.
4. Forget all things when seeing Christ.
5. Take care that you continue gazing upon Christ until you have faith in Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Simplicity
What is in these terms specially indicated is simplicity of principle and aim; singleness of motive; an upright, unswerving regard to duty. The path of duty is one. It is narrow and straight. On it the eye should constantly and steadily be set–looking right on, not to any seducing objects that present themselves on the one hand or on the other. Many things may allure–may hold out tempting seductions from the onward path. Many other paths may appear more smooth, more easy, and in all respects for the time more desirable; but the one and only question must ever be, What is duty? (R. Wardlaw, D.D.)
Looking to our way of life
Gods people have their minds made up as to all those things which concern their everlasting interests. But to know our way is of little use unless we keep that way in view. There are many spiritual travellers who know the way to Zion, but have not their faces thitherward. The text is an important motto for every man who is setting out for heaven. To understand the use and value of this precept, consider it–
I. As it applies to the faith of the child of God. By the faith is meant the great doctrines on which their hopes are grounded. Often, in our experience, we are tempted to entertain unworthy thoughts of the gracious Saviour; to mix up our own works with the plan of His redemption, to place the confidence in frames and feelings, in notions and professions, which should be placed in Him alone. Against such temptations the text provides a remedy. Keep Jesus constantly in view.
II. As it applies to the duties of the child of God. The text is a preservative against unlawful pleasures and indulgences. It is an exhortation to a close and constant obedience to the revealed will of God, and to the duty of Christian integrity–to an honest, upright, guileless conduct in all our dealings with mankind. Seek, then, strength from God, that you may continue steadfast in the holy course of life, as advised in this text. (A. Roberts, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Direct all thine actions by a good intention, to a right end, and keep thy mind fixed upon that way which leads to it, and neither look nor turn aside to the right hand nor to the left, as it follows, Pro 4:27.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
25. Let . . . before theethatis, pursue a sincere and direct purpose, avoiding temptations.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Let thine eyes look right on,…. To the path of truth and holiness, without turning or looking to the right hand or left, as it is afterwards expressed; to the word of truth, as the rule to walk by; to Christ, the author and finisher of faith, from whom all grace, and the supplies of it, are to be had; and to the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God;
and thine eyelids look straight before thee; to the precepts of the word, to observe them; to the promises of it for encouragement; to the examples of the saints gone before, as motives to excite diligence, and to exercise patience, faith, and hope; to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life, and to the blessed hope laid up in heaven.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(25) Let thine eyes look right on.Comp. the advice of Sir. 7:36, Whatsoever thou takest in hand, remember the end, and of Heb. 12:2, to look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
25. Eyelids look straight Rather, be straight or level. A caution against all insincerity of word or conduct. Comp. Pro 6:13; Pro 10:10; Mat 6:22-23.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Pro 4:25. Let thine eyes look right on This advice principally regards the conduct of manners. “Apply yourself to yourself, to your own proper conduct, to the direction of your own ways: carry not your eyes, your attention, to things which are foreign to you, to the persons and the affairs of others: For the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth.” See chap. Pro 17:24.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Pro 4:25 Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.
Ver. 25. Let thine eyes look right on. ] E regione, vel in rectum. Let them be fixed upon right objects. Get that stoic eye of our Saviour; get a patriarch’s eye; be well skilled in Moses’s optics; Heb 11:27 have oculum in metam, which was Ludovicus Vives’s motto. Do as mariners that have their eye on the star, their hand on the stern. A man may not look intently upon that which he may not love. The disciples were set agog by beholding the beauty of the temple. Mat 24:2 If therefore thine eye offend thee, or cause thee to offend, pull it out of the old Adam, and set it in the new man. If thou use it not well, thou wilt wish that thou hadst pulled it out indeed, as Democritus did.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Pro 23:5, Pro 23:33, Job 31:1, Psa 119:37, Mat 6:22
Reciprocal: Psa 5:8 – make Psa 37:34 – keep Pro 8:20 – in the Pro 23:26 – let Ecc 7:18 – good Eze 1:9 – they turned Luk 10:4 – and