Proverbs 6:27 Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned?
Or as we would say today: “If you play with fire, you’re gonna get burned.”
Something about the wording in Proverbs 6 fits me better than our modern phrase. I don’t think of myself as “playing with fire” very often, but I can imagine myself “carrying fire next to my chest.”
Playing with fire sounds like you’re callous about having fun with sin; live and let live and ask for forgiveness later. Pretty cold.
But carrying fire sounds like you’re harboring imaginative thoughts in your heart that you know aren’t good, but you haven’t had the guts or self-control to let them go yet.
Maybe judgmental thoughts. Or bitterness. Or anger. Or lust. Or...
Regardless of the words we use to explain it, let's put the fires out now.
Burned clothes stink and burned hearts ache.
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