For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.
The wicked are sustained by wrongdoing and cruelty as if by food and drink, with evil become their daily bread and violence their daily wine for nourishment. They cannot sleep or rest unless they have done mischief and caused others to fall. Their way is darkness in which they stumble without knowing what causes them to fall, in contrast to the path of the just that shines more and more unto the perfect day, and this dark, stumbling condition is the condition of the world today. The warning is to stay completely away from their path by not entering it, avoiding it, turning from it, and passing on, while taking fast hold of instruction and keeping her, for she is life.
This feeding on evil and violence happens to those who leave the right path, and whatever a person becomes accustomed to, whether good or evil, is hard to give up. Departure from the right path removes barriers and breaks down safeguards, so that one wrong step prepares the way for another and return becomes difficult. It takes far less time and labor to corrupt the ways than to build habits of righteousness and truth into the character.
A single glass of wine can open the door of temptation and lead on to habits of drunkenness, just as a single indulged vindictive feeling can open the way to a train of feelings ending in murder. The least turning from right and principle brings separation from God and can end in apostasy.
The wicked are sustained by wrongdoing and cruelty as if by food and drink, with evil become their daily bread and violence their daily wine for nourishment. They cannot sleep or rest unless they have done mischief and caused others to fall. Their way is darkness in which they stumble without knowing what causes them to fall, in contrast to the path of the just that shines more and more unto the perfect day, and this dark, stumbling condition is the condition of the world today. The warning is to stay completely away from their path by not entering it, avoiding it, turning from it, and passing on, while taking fast hold of instruction and keeping her, for she is life.
This feeding on evil and violence happens to those who leave the right path, and whatever a person becomes accustomed to, whether good or evil, is hard to give up. Departure from the right path removes barriers and breaks down safeguards, so that one wrong step prepares the way for another and return becomes difficult. It takes far less time and labor to corrupt the ways than to build habits of righteousness and truth into the character.
A single glass of wine can open the door of temptation and lead on to habits of drunkenness, just as a single indulged vindictive feeling can open the way to a train of feelings ending in murder. The least turning from right and principle brings separation from God and can end in apostasy.