Forsaking the law leads to praising the wicked, while keeping the law leads to opposing them.
The moral contrast in Proverbs 28:4 sets posture toward the law alongside posture toward the wicked: Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law strive with them (v. 4).
Those who forsake the law praise the wicked. Once a man has set aside the LORD's standard, he has no basis to call wicked behavior wrong. Soon he begins to admire it. The law, while held, kept the wicked in their proper light. Without it, evil starts to look like strength.
The man who keeps the law cannot remain neutral toward wickedness, and he adopts a position of striving against it. The law trains his eye to see what is wrong, and the seeing produces resistance. He contends with wicked men, sometimes by speech, sometimes by refusal to participate, sometimes by direct opposition. The verse names the divide. The law-keeper and the law-forsaker eventually arrive at opposite postures toward the wicked, the one resisting, the other approving.
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Proverbs 28:4 meaning
The moral contrast in Proverbs 28:4 sets posture toward the law alongside posture toward the wicked: Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law strive with them (v. 4).
Those who forsake the law praise the wicked. Once a man has set aside the LORD's standard, he has no basis to call wicked behavior wrong. Soon he begins to admire it. The law, while held, kept the wicked in their proper light. Without it, evil starts to look like strength.
The man who keeps the law cannot remain neutral toward wickedness, and he adopts a position of striving against it. The law trains his eye to see what is wrong, and the seeing produces resistance. He contends with wicked men, sometimes by speech, sometimes by refusal to participate, sometimes by direct opposition. The verse names the divide. The law-keeper and the law-forsaker eventually arrive at opposite postures toward the wicked, the one resisting, the other approving.