Men read the Book of Sirach and think they have found the ultimate instruction manual for a good and respectable life. They see its practical advice on friendship, money, family, and speech, and they embrace it as a divine guide to moral self-improvement. They have found the ego's Bible, the most comprehensive training manual for a Pharisee ever written.
The Book of Sirach is not a path to God. It is the most beautifully decorated and well-lit path back to the self. It is the spiritual trap of "goodness."
1. The Ego's Self-Improvement Project
The entire book is a checklist for the ego's grand project: becoming a better person. It is filled with advice on how to manage your behavior, control your speech, cultivate a good reputation, and navigate social situations successfully. "Do not let your tongue run away with you," "Honor your father," "Be faithful to your friend in his poverty."
This is all fine advice for living in the world, but as a spiritual path, it is poison. It is the opposite of the gospel. The goal of the Spirit is not a better ego, but a dead ego. Sirach gives the ego a lifetime's worth of work to do, making it feel righteous, accomplished, and wise, all while keeping the false self firmly on the throne. It is the manual for polishing a corpse.
2. The Wisdom of the World vs. the Wisdom of God
The "wisdom" of Sirach is almost entirely the wisdom of the world. It is a pragmatic, cautious, and often cynical wisdom concerned with preserving one's reputation and security. It is the wisdom of the older brother of the Prodigal Son.
- "Never trust your enemy, for like bronze, his rust is corrosive." (Sirach 12:10). The Spirit says to love your enemy.
- "Better is the wickedness of a man than a woman who does good." (Sirach 42:14). The Spirit says there is neither male nor female in Christ.
- The book is obsessed with shame and honor, with what other people think. This is the ego's native language. The Spirit makes you indifferent to the world's opinion.
This is not the same "Lady Wisdom" from the Book of Proverbs or the Book of Wisdom, who is a divine emanation of God. The wisdom in Sirach is the refined, intelligent reasoning of the human ego trying its very best to live a good life without the messy and terrifying business of dying to itself.
3. "Works" as the Path
Sirach is the ultimate book of "works." It lays out a system where righteousness is achieved through correct behavior. It is the codification of the belief that if you do the right things, you will be right with God.
Paul spent his entire ministry dismantling this very lie. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9). Sirach is a 51-chapter invitation to boast in your own self-control, your own charity, your own good sense.
The book is the perfect manual for producing a man like the rich young ruler who came to Jesus. He had kept all the commandments since he was a boy. By the standards of Sirach, he was a perfect specimen. But he was completely dead on the inside, a slave to his attachments, and he walked away from eternal life because the price, the death of his egoic identity, was too high.
Sirach teaches a man how to live his whole life as a good, respectable, and admired man, and die without ever having known God. It is the manual for the whitewashed tomb.