Wisdom Of The Teacher For College Students, Ch. 4.Sample

“Trying to keep up with the Joneses” was a phrase often used to talk about to attain a level of comfort or possessions that a neighbor might have. I’m not sure who the Joneses were or who they were trying to keep up with in the first place, but the desire to get what our neighbor has is the focus of these verses. 

The idea is that what drives all of us is a basic envy of what someone else possesses, whether that’s a skill or a new gadget. That desire drives us to do more which in some ways can be a good thing, but usually ends up consuming us rather than encouraging us to do our best. 

The Teacher uses a couple of proverbs in his day to point out two opposite approaches to this drive. One was if you don’t have that drive and cease to work, you end up harming yourself. The other points out the problem with never knowing when enough is enough. 

Being a lazy person and being a workaholic, both are vanity! One just has nothing, and the other doesn’t know the good things they have. Oh, that we could work hard and learn to be content with what the Lord provides for us through that work without harming our relationships in the process!