Better the poor whose walk is blameless than the rich whose ways are perverse.
Proverbs 28:6
Proverbs 28:6 is one of those scriptures so easily turned on its head.
Spoiler alert! This verse does not say it is better to be poor than rich; it says better to be blameless than perverse.
Yet, somehow, we always tend to focus on the wrong aspects of verses like this. I guess this is because we are physical beings in a physical world. As such, our immediate focus is on what we see every day; the poor vs the rich.
So, when we read a verse like this, we immediately latch on to the obvious — and we zone in on the words, ‘Better the poor…’
And why wouldn’t we? Our Christian culture loves to focus on the virtues of poverty over the evil of riches. But this is a cardinal error on our part with respect to this verse — because Proverbs 28:6 is not concerned with issues of poverty vs wealth. It is primarily concerned with issues of sin vs righteousness.
Jesus did not come into this world to save us from poverty. Nor did he come into this world to save us from wealth, for that matter. He came to this world to take away our sin and to make us righteous before God.
Better the Poor — Exposing the Lie
So, if we read the verse again — carefully this time — it does not say, ‘Better the poor… than the rich.’
Rather, it says, ‘Better [to be] blameless… than [to be] perverse.’
The verse simply uses poverty vs riches as a measure against which to show us exactly how important this is. In fact the writer assumes that everyone agrees we would rather NOT be poor. It assumes that everyone would want to have a little more money in their pockets.
Then it teaches the lesson; those whose walk is blameless are far better off than those who are perverse. Even if they were steeped in poverty — something we all agree is a terrible fate — they are still better off than they would be if they were perverse.
To be perverse, according to the dictionary definition, is to deliberately deviate from what is good. At its core, this scripture addresses a condition of the human heart. Blamelessness versus perverseness. So how do we become blameless? Well, that is what the Bible is really all about. Jesus died on the cross and, in so doing, took all our sin — our perverseness, if you like — on himself. And in that same moment, he imparted his righteousness, or blamelessness, to all who would accept his free gift of grace.
Relative wealth or poverty pales into insignificance next to this eternal gift of righteousness — which is precisely the point that the writer of Proverbs 28:6 is trying to make.