How is the plowing of the wicked, sin?

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(George Lawson, "A Practical Exposition of the Book of Proverbs" 1821)

"The plowing of the wicked is sin." Proverbs 21:4

How is the plowing of the wicked, sin--when they are commanded to plow, and severely reproved for the neglect of that work by which they ought to support themselves and their families?

Whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do--we are required to do all to the glory of God. But the wicked man neither eats nor drinks, nor plows, nor sows, to the glory of God--and therefore he lives in a course of sin, even when he is employed in those actions which are most innocent or necessary.

His soul is infected deeply with the venom of sin, which spreads itself over all his life. For to the unbelieving and impure, there is nothing holy. They are corrupt trees--and no fruit that grows upon them can be good. Their hands are defiled with sin, and their fingers with iniquity--and, therefore, everything they touch must be defiled by their impurity!

What then must the wicked do? Must they leave off all work, lest they should sin in doing it? By no means. Their business is to get free of that plague of sin which spreads infection to everything they meddle with. Let them have recourse, like the leper, to Christ--that He may make them clean--and then being pure, everything will become pure to them.

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