12 Wisdom will save you from evil people, from those whose words are twisted. 13-15 These men turn from the right way to walk down dark paths. They take pleasure in doing wrong, and they enjoy the twisted ways of evil. Their actions are crooked, and their ways are wrong.

16-17 Wisdom will save you from the immoral woman, from the seductive words of the promiscuous woman. She has abandoned her husband and ignores the covenant she made before God. 18-19 Entering her house leads to death; it is the road to the grave. The man who visits her is doomed. He will never reach the paths of life.

20-22 So follow the steps of the good, and stay on the paths of the righteous. For only the godly will live in the land, and those with integrity will remain in it. But the wicked will be removed from the land, and the treacherous will be uprooted. Proverbs 2:12-22 New Living Translation.

While a big theme of the Bible is that men and women can be saved from the 'consequences' of sin, it also teaches that the wisdom God's word gives will save us from 'those who would lead us into sin'. (vs 12). Remember that Proverbs is parents teaching their children so as to prepare them for the world. And they don't want them to be naive about the fact that they will encounter people with twisted minds and twisted morals along the way. Verses 13-15 describe what an evil man's mind is like.

This explains why we see so much depravity in the world. Violence, crime and the drug market, gangsters, pornography, political hatred, racism – all these are the outcome of people who've 'turned from the right way to walk down dark paths'. And, tragically, such people often have a big impression and influence on young minds.

And perversity in the world destroys families too. (vs 16-17). Sadly, the sort of scene described here is often glamorised in the films and books of the world and taken for granted in much of society. But what does the writer say in vs 18-19 that such a lifestyle leads to?

Sadly, all this sort of evil may seem to be prospering well in the world now. But what do verses 20-22 say will be the final outcome?

That's a bit surprising because we often think of Christians being taken to heaven away from the presence of sinners. But Jesus told a parable of a farmer who sowed good seed on some land, but an enemy came and sowed weeds in the same field. And this is what Jesus said the parable meant: “The Son of Man is the farmer who plants the good seed. The field is the world - and the good seed represents the people of the Kingdom. The weeds are the people who belong to the evil one. The enemy who planted the weeds among the wheat is the devil. The harvest is the end of the world, and the harvesters are the angels. Just as the weeds are sorted out and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the world. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will remove from his Kingdom everything that causes sin, and all who do evil. And the angels will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 13:37-42.

Yes, evil may be flourishing, but the final outcome will be very different. That's why Proverbs urges us to “follow the steps of the good, and stay on the paths of the righteous. For only the godly will live in the land.” Keep the wisdom of God’s word alive in your heart - and it will keep you from the deceptions and temptations that the wicked set before you. Jesus said it is the meek who will inherit the earth (not the aggressive and amoral).