Job 31:3

Here, at the close of his last speech, Job makes the most solemn and complete declaration of his innocence. He does not deny what he had already admitted about man's condition, his own included. But he flatly rejects the thought of serious wickedness hidden under a fair exterior, which God could now be at war with, as his friends had supposed. He points to his personal purity, again as a married man. He points to how he treated his servants, how he remembered the poor and the exposed, how he hated idolatry and greed, how he lived in generous and hospitable ways, and how he hated hypocrisy. He prays that, if he is lying, God may put him to utter shame.

By settled purpose he had shut his eyes — the door to the heart — with a "covenant" against even a look at what might stir up passion. In the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord had shown that real purity must lie in the heart, not just in outward restraint (Matthew 5:27-28). As Job asserts his purity, he points out that the fear of God moved him, for God would surely repay sin on the wicked. "How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" said Joseph when the temptress came at him (Gen. 39:9). In an hour of spiritual sloth, David had let his eyes wander, and had fallen (2 Sam. 11:2).

"I made a covenant with my eyes; why then should I think about a young woman? For what portion of God is there from above, and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?" None whatever for a corrupt man, who takes advantage of another. "Is not calamity for the unrighteous, and disaster for the workers of iniquity? Does He not see my ways" — he was a truly devout, believing man — "and count all my steps?" … He had a completely clear conscience, but that is not enough. There is the great principle of self-judgment. And there is the great principle of full submission to God, vindicating Him. He is right and wise in everything, not only in what He does, but in what He allows.

Now, God declares in Deuteronomy 7:10 that "He will not be slack to him that hates Him; He will repay him to his face." This truth is most solemn, and we ought to press it more on everyone it concerns. Men do not like to hear it. Many pretend and profess not to believe it. They would love to persuade themselves and others that God is too good, too kind, too merciful, too warm-hearted to judge His creatures sternly. They forget that God's ways in government are as perfect as His ways in grace.

Job was upright, but he began to make this his righteousness. That proves he had never really been in the presence of God… We also find in Job 29 that his heart had dwelt on his upright and kind way of life with satisfaction. He commended himself and fed his self-love with it. God was bringing him to say, "Now my eye sees You and I abhor myself." Job ends his speech with these chapters (Job 29, 30, 31), which express his good opinion of himself. He had told out his whole heart.