Proverbs 17:11 · World English Bible
Proverbs 17:11 Meaning An Evil Man Seeks Only Rebellion
An evil man seeks only rebellion; therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him.
What does Proverbs 17:11 mean?
The mind set on separation is in constant revolt against its own peace, forever seeking a quarrel because the ego lives by conflict and would rather fight than remember it is loved. What comes against such a mind is not a punishment sent from outside but the direct return of its own choice, for the cruelty it looks for is the guilt it first projected, now wearing the face of a hard messenger and seeming to threaten from without.
From the Christian Psychology reading below.
Proverbs 17:11 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
Christian Psychology
CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY
Christian Psychology
The mind set on separation is in constant revolt against its own peace, forever seeking a quarrel because the ego lives by conflict and would rather fight than remember it is loved. What comes against such a mind is not a punishment sent from outside but the direct return of its own choice, for the cruelty it looks for is the guilt it first projected, now wearing the face of a hard messenger and seeming to threaten from without.
The correction is to recognize that the enemy at the door was never other than the mind's own attack reflected back, so that laying down the rebellion is the same as calling off the messenger.
Evil man: the part of the mind committed to separation and conflict, in revolt against the peace that is its own nature Cruel messenger: the harshness the mind's own guilt sends back to it, its projected attack returning in a threatening form that seems to come from outside
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Christian Psychology lens
Live Proverbs 17:11 today
- Look at the thing you have been pushing against all week, the app, the paperwork, the schedule. Stop arguing with it for an hour and just do the next step.
- With the person you have decided is difficult, go into the next conversation without your case prepared. You will get a different person than you have been getting.
- In traffic or a long line, when you feel yourself bracing for someone to wrong you, unclench your jaw and let the car in. The hostility you were expecting was mostly your own posture.
Where am I picking the fight I keep saying is being picked with me?
The same truth in other traditions
Buddhism · Dhammapada
The mind that carries hostility meets hostility everywhere. The world it walks through is the one it brought with it.
Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius
The obstacle you keep cursing is largely your own resistance wearing an outside face. Drop the fight and the enemy thins out.
Tao Te Ching
Whoever strains against the current calls the current an enemy. Yield and there is nothing left to be at war with.
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