“7 Whoever corrects a mocker invites insults;
whoever rebukes the wicked incurs abuse.
8 Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you;
rebuke the wise and they will love you.
9 Instruct the wise and they will be wiser still;
teach the righteous and they will add to their learning.
”
I want to focus on these three verses of this Proverb, but before I get into this section there are a couple of other things to point out in this chapter. The most obvious is the reiteration of an ongoing theme in Proverbs; verse 10. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” As we saw yesterday in Proverbs 8, wisdom is found in Jesus Christ and it really is an understanding of, and respect for the ways of God.
The second thing that jumps out of this chapter to me is the similarity of verses 4 and 16. Both Wisdom and Folly cry out,“Let all who are simple come to my house!” Of course, you will notice the difference that wisdom is serving wine, while folly is serving stolen water – I know where I am going for dinner! The question nagging my mind all through these Proverbs and particularly in reading this comparison of wisdom and folly is this; why would anyone choose folly? Why would one choose stolen water over wine?
I believe verses 7-9 are particularly poignant is this age of social media and increasingly so during this time of social isolation when the consumption of social media is extreme. There are so many opinions being shared on the various social media platforms and so much folly being displayed! As I read through my different feeds I am shocked at the lack of coherence in so many of the posts.
Whether it is people arguing over the answer to “math” questions or engaging political views, vaccination perspectives or even the role God is playing in our current pandemic, the mockery and abuse is mind-blowing. So many of these posts are easily debunked with a simple fact check on some numbers or a rudimentary understanding of BEDMAS! I find it hard to believe so many people post the things they do.
Every now and then I am tempted to engage these posts and others to point out the hypocrisy or flawed reasoning but it would be pure folly! he wisdom of Proverbs tells us that to correct a mocker is to invite insults and to incur abuse. This is exactly what I see in most of the comments on these posts, very little rational debate around policies or facts and a whole lot of insults and abuse!
I have found much insight and learned so much when I instead engage these topics offline with those I consider wise. We mutually challenge one another to greater depth of understanding so that we might find what is right, was is just and what is fair!
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
How do you determine when and who to engage in debate and correction? How do you respond when others attempt to instruct you? Share your thoughts below.