Ecclesiastes 7:15-22--Avoiding Extremes

Ecclesiastes 7:15-22
Christian Standard Bible

Avoiding Extremes
15 In my futile life I have seen everything: someone righteous perishes in spite of his righteousness, and someone wicked lives long in spite of his evil. 16 Don’t be excessively righteous, and don’t be overly wise. Why should you destroy yourself? 17 Don’t be excessively wicked, and don’t be foolish. Why should you die before your time? 18 It is good that you grasp the one and do not let the other slip from your hand. For the one who fears God will end up with both of them.

19 Wisdom makes the wise person stronger
than ten rulers of a city.
20 There is certainly no one righteous on the earth
who does good and never sins.

​21 Don’t pay attention to everything people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you, 22 for in your heart you know that many times you yourself have cursed others.

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Solomon tells us to not assume that just because the LORD promises blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience that the righteous will have long and be health and wealthy in this life and the wicked must die early and be utterly destitute.  We also can't make the assumption that any poor person is a wicked person and that any rich person is a righteous person.  The Pharisees made these errors as well as Job's friends.

We'll have to start at the end of this next argument and work our way backwards for it to make sense.  Solomon says in verse 18 that those who fear the LORD will still not be perfected in this life and should not spend too much time and effort on trying to perfect themselves, nor should they throw up their hands and say that if they can't be perfectly good, they might as well try to be perfectly wicked and never do anything good.  It is good to fear the LORD and obey him, but we should do so with the understanding that we will mess up.  Jesus was the only exception to this.  We should pursue righteousness, but not to the point of thinking that we will never do anything foolish.  Yet, the fact that we will something do something foolish doesn't mean that we should just try to be foolish all the time.  We should avoid these extremes, but we know it is better to be righteous than wicked, and it is better to be wise than foolish.  Nothing said here contradicts that.

In fact, look at the next verses that tell us that being wise is preferable to being strong.  However, no matter how wise you are or how righteous you are, you will not be perfect, so stop striving for perfection.  You can never achieve that until the LORD perfects you when He makes all things new.

Realize that people will say some stupid things--especially when they get angry.  Acts like you didn't hear things that were spoken in a moment of weakness.  Do not feel the need to punish your servant for being angry with you and saying something in the moment you know they don't mean because you know that you have been guilty of the same thing.  Forgive with the same measure with which you want to be forgiven.