Proverbs 25:17-20

Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbour’s house.

Bad neighbours

Here are four kinds.

I. The intrusive. It is pleasant to be visited by a neighbour whose interest is genuine. Two evils accrue to those neighbours whose visits are intrusive.

1. They become tiresome. There is nothing fresh about them.

2. They become disliked. The natural consequence of irksomeness. Be not too intimate with any. Livy remarks “that the perfection of good behaviour is for a man to retain his dignity without intruding on the liberty of another.” Another bad neighbour here indicated is--

II. The slanderous. “A man that beareth false witness against his neighbour is a maul, and a sword, and a sharp arrow.”

1. A maul. This old English word, which is now obsolete, signifies a hammer or a club, an implement used in the rough warfare of fighting men in old times.

2. A sword. Another deadly implement, that by which millions of men have been cut down in all ages.

3. A sharp arrow. Another weapon of destruction. A slanderous neighbour is as mischievous as any or all of these murderous weapons. He knocks, he cuts, he pierces; he destroys you by his tongue. Not your body, but your plans, your prosperity, your reputation, your happiness. Another bad neighbour here indicated is--

III. The faithless. “Confidence in an unfaithful man, in time of trouble, is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint.”

1. That the unfaithful man fails. Like the “broken tooth” and the “foot out of joint,” he fails to fulfil what is required of him. Just when you want to eat, you find that the tooth is broken and useless; just when you rise to walk, you find that your foot is out of joint. Just so with the faithless man. All his old promises of friendship prove to be lies, nothing less.

2. The unfaithful man pains you. In the use of the broken tooth and the disjointed foot when you try them, there is not only disappointment, but torture. Such is the mental distress which is caused by the failure of confidence, in proportion to the degree in which you had cherished it. Especially is this felt “in time of trouble,” when help is so particularly needed. To trust and be deceived is at any time a bitter trial.

IV. The injudicious. “As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, and as vinegar upon nitre, so is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart.” When you are in trouble there are neighbours whose attempt to comfort you is as absurd and as ineffective as the taking away from a man his garment in cold weather, and as giving to a thirsty man vinegar upon nitre to drink.

1. The injudicious comforter is one who presents incongruous subjects. Sometimes he will talk on worldly subjects, subjects of gain, fashion, and amusement, when the distressed mind is sorely agitated with serious thoughts.

2. The injudicious comforter is one who presents proper subjects in an incongruous spirit. He talks of the right things, but talks of them with a spirit unsympathetic, sometimes undevout, canting, cold, and dogmatic. Such a man’s comfort is indeed vinegar on nitre, conflicting, irritating, and painful. (D. Thomas, D.D.)