Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

In my opinion, the wording of this verse with regard to riches, honor, and life is to be taken in a spiritual sense. (Most translations I found express the words rendered as "long life" in the New Living Translation as simply "life", which could mean eternal life as well as temporal life.)

This verse is not to be construed as a "prosperity gospel", or as a guarantee of material wealth, long life, or any other blessing in this world in exchange for humility and the reverential fear of God (although God is certainly capable of granting rewards for those attributes at His pleasure).

However, I would say that individuals who are proud and who do not reverence God would be less likely to achieve the necessary perspective of their relationship to God that would motivate them to seek the forgiveness and salvation that He offers in Christ. Even though they might prosper in this life, they will be like the foolish rich man whom Jesus described in His teaching (Luke 12:13-21) because of not being mindful enough of the fleeting, transient nature of this world and its pleasures in comparison to eternity.

September 26 2016 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report