Ecclesiastes 7:15-29

15In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing. 16Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? 17Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool.

Why should you die before your time? 18It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them.
Ecclesiastes 7:15-18

15In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing.
Ecclesiastes 7:15

16Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? 17Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time?
Ecclesiastes 7:16-17

20Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.
Ecclesiastes 7:20

21Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. 22Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others.
Ecclesiastes 7:21-22

“I once conceived the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection... But I soon found I had undertaken a task of more difficulty than I had imagined.

While my care was employed in guarding against one fault, I was often surprised by another; habit took the advantage of inattention; inclination was sometimes too strong for reason.”
—Benjamin Franklin

18It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them.
Ecclesiastes 7:18

23All this I have tested by wisdom. I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me. 24That which has been is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out?
Ecclesiastes 7:23-24

25I turned my heart to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know the wickedness of folly and the foolishness that is madness. 26And I find something more bitter than death: the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters.

He who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her. 27Behold, this is what I found, says the Preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things— 28which my soul has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I found,

but a woman among all these I have not found. 29See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.
Ecclesiastes 7:25-29

1. The Powerful Pull of Sin

26And I find something more bitter than death: the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her.
Ecclesiastes 7:26

2. Uprightness is Extremely Rare!

27Behold, this is what I found, says the Preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things— 28which my soul has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found.
Ecclesiastes 7:27-28

3. None of This is God’s Fault!

29See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.
Ecclesiastes 7:29