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Proverbs 23:20 · World English Bible

Proverbs 23:20 Meaning Don’t Be Among Ones Drinking Too Much

Don’t be among ones drinking too much wine, or those who gorge themselves on meat:

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What does Proverbs 23:20 mean?

The warning is not against a table but against a state of mind that seeks to drown its guilt in appetite. Wine here is the wish to blur awareness so the ego's fear need not be looked at, and the greedy eating of flesh is the belief that the body's cravings can fill an emptiness only love can heal.

From the Christian Psychology reading below.

Proverbs 23:20 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY

Christian Psychology

The warning is not against a table but against a state of mind that seeks to drown its guilt in appetite. Wine here is the wish to blur awareness so the ego's fear need not be looked at, and the greedy eating of flesh is the belief that the body's cravings can fill an emptiness only love can heal. Both are attempts to quiet the mind without correcting it.

To keep from such company is to refuse the inner voices that promise peace through excess. A mind that stops feeding its hunger for oblivion begins to want the one thing that truly satisfies, which is to remember it is innocent.

Winebibbers: the thoughts that seek to dull awareness so guilt need not be faced, the mind's flight from its own fear into a blur Eaters of flesh: the cravings that treat the body as the source of fullness, the belief that appetite can heal what only love can reach

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Christian Psychology lens

Live Proverbs 23:20 today

  1. When you reach for the phone or the fridge out of a vague discomfort today, stop for one breath and let the discomfort just be there. You do not have to fix it or name it, only sit with it for a second.
  2. If a group chat turns into everyone piling on about someone, do not add your line. That pile-on is its own kind of overindulgence.
  3. On a hard evening, swap the second drink or the third hour of scrolling for something plain: a walk, a shower, calling someone. Pick the thing that leaves you more awake, not less.

What are you trying not to feel, and what would happen if you let yourself feel it for one minute?

The same truth in other traditions

Buddhism

Craving does not end by being fed; each feeding deepens the groove. What looks like relief is the next link in the chain.

Stoicism · Seneca

Pleasures pursued to escape yourself leave you more alone with yourself than before. The appetite was never the real hunger.

Taoism · Tao Te Ching

The senses chased too far leave a person numb rather than full, so the wise keep to what is simple and stay awake. Excess dulls the very faculty it promised to delight.

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