Clarke's Bible Commentary - Proverbs 14:14
Verse 14. The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways - 1. Who is the backslider? gws sug. 1. The man who once walked in the ways of religion, but has withdrawn from them. 2. The man who once fought manfully against the world, the devil, and the flesh; but has retreated from the battle, or joined the enemy. 3. The man who once belonged to the congregation of the saints, but is now removed from them, and is set down in the synagogue of Satan.
2. But who is the backslider in HEART? 1. Not he who was surprised and overcome by the power of temptation, and the weakness of his own heart. 2. But he who drinks down iniquity with greediness. 3.
Who gives cheerful way to the bent of his own nature, and now delights in fulfilling the lusts of the flesh and of the mind. 4. Who loves sin as before he loved godliness.
3. What are his own ways? Folly, sin, disappointment, and death; with the apprehension of the wrath of God, and the sharp twingings of a guilty conscience.
4. What is implied in being filled with his own ways? Having his soul saturated with folly, sin, and disappointment. At last ending here below in death, and then commencing an eternal existence where the fire is not quenched, and under the influence of that worm that never dieth. Alas, alas! who may abide when God doeth this? And a good man shall be satisfied from himselJ. - 1. Who is the good man? ( bwf Ťya ish tob.) 1. The man whose heart is right with God, whose tongue corresponds to his heart, and whose actions correspond to both. 2. The man who is every thing that the sinner and backslider are not.
2. He shall be satisfied from himself-he shall have the testimony of his own conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, he has his conversation among men.
3. He shall have God's Spirit to testify with his spirit that he is a child of God. He hath the witness in himself that he is born from above.
The Spirit of God in his conscience, and the testimony of God in his Bible, show him that he belongs to the heavenly family. It is not from creeds or confessions of faith that he derives his satisfaction: he gets it from heaven, and it is sealed upon his heart.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 14. The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways , etc.] One that is a backslider at heart, whose heart departeth from the Lord; in whom there is an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; and indeed apostasy begins at the heart, and shows itself in the life and conversation: there may be a backsliding when the heart does not wickedly depart from God; but is through the infirmity of the flesh and the force of temptation; from which backslidings the Lord’s people are recovered, and which are healed by his grace; but here such an one is meant who willingly and heartily backslides; and such shall have the reward of their hands and actions given them, or the full and due punishment of their sins; they shall have their bellyful of their own wicked ways and works, the just recompense of reward for them; and a good man [shall be satisfied] from himself ; shall eat the fruit of his own doings, shall be blessed in his deeds, and have peace and satisfaction therein; though not salvation by them, or for them: he shall be satisfied with the grace of God bestowed on him and wrought in him; and, from a feeling experience of the grace of God within him, shall be satisfied that he has in heaven a better and an enduring substance; or he shall be satisfied “from above himself” f398 , from the grace that is in Christ, out of the fulness which is in him; and shall be filled with all the fulness of God he is capable of; and especially in the other world, when he shall awake in his likeness.
The Targum is, “a good man shall be satisfied with his fear;” and so the Syriac version, with the fear of his soul; it may be rendered, as by the Vulgate Latin version, “a good man shall be above him” f399 ; that is, above the backslider; shall be better tilled, and be more happy than he.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 14 - Of all sinners backsliders will have the most terror when they reflec on their own ways.
Original Hebrew
מדרכיו 1870 ישׂבע 7646 סוג 5472 לב 3820 ומעליו 5921 אישׁ 376 טוב׃ 2896
