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Proverbs 22:6 – Is This Teaching the Exact Opposite?
Proverbs 22:6 is used by some/many to prove that if a child is raised right in the Lord, then that child will come back even if he becomes unfaithful. Often this is heard when discussing the qualifications of elders. In reading the verse the other day, I was struck by the word “even.” Using this as a “power word” or “key word” turned this verse upside down for me. Instead of saying as if often the case, “even if he departs, when he is old he will return; the verse says, “he will never depart even when he is old.”
Proverbs 22:6 (HCSB) 6) Teach a youth about the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Besides the fact that this is a proverb and teaches “general truth” and not absolutes (answer a fool; don’t answer a fool – Proverbs 22:5-6), I have now discovered this verse is teaching the exact opposite of how it is used.
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