Open in the app
Mid-century illustration of a tree planted by a pool of water on a path

Proverbs 12:2 · World English Bible

Proverbs 12:2 Meaning A Good Man Shall Obtain Favor From

A good man shall obtain favor from Yahweh, but he will condemn a man of wicked plans.

Read it in the app

What does Proverbs 12:2 mean?

A mind aligned with love rests in favor because it has stopped opposing what love is, and love meets no resistance in it. This is not a reward earned by good behavior but the natural state of a mind that has laid down attack and therefore has nothing left to fear from its own Source.

From the Christian Psychology reading below.

Proverbs 12:2 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY

Christian Psychology

A mind aligned with love rests in favor because it has stopped opposing what love is, and love meets no resistance in it. This is not a reward earned by good behavior but the natural state of a mind that has laid down attack and therefore has nothing left to fear from its own Source.

The condemnation the ego dreads is not sent down from above. A mind full of scheming condemns itself, for it cannot both plot against another and feel innocent, and the guilt it manufactures becomes the judgment it then imagines coming toward it. What is really being described is one mind at peace with its Creator and another mind at war with itself, each simply living out the teacher it has chosen.

Christian Psychology lensGo deeper in the app

Christian Psychology lens

Live Proverbs 12:2 today

  1. Scroll back through your sent messages from the past week and find any one written to manage someone rather than to be honest with them. You do not have to fix it, just see it clearly.
  2. With someone you have been handling carefully, say the plain true thing instead of the angled one. It is usually shorter, and you will feel lighter the second it is sent.
  3. When you catch yourself building a case against a coworker in your head, drop it mid sentence. The case was never protecting you, it was just keeping you tense.

Where am I working hard at something that would feel better if I just stopped?

The same truth in other traditions

Taoism · Tao Te Ching

Water does not fight anything, which is why nothing can oppose it. It rests easy because it is not pushing against the way things flow.

Buddhism · Dhammapada

Hatred held inside burns the one holding it. Lay it down and you are not rewarded with peace, you simply find peace is what is left.

Stoicism · Seneca

The scheming mind never sleeps well, because it has to keep watch over its own tricks. A clear conscience is not a prize, it is just the quiet that comes when there is nothing to hide.

Mid-century illustration of Jesus teaching the crowd on a hillside above the sea

Free · No account needed

Read all of Proverbs 12 through 17 lenses

Lensightful opens every verse of the Bible through the traditions you choose. Save readings, ask a follow-up question, and get one verse a day.

Get Lensightful on the App Store