Anyone who rebukes a mocker will get an insult in return.
Anyone who corrects the wicked will get hurt.
So don’t bother correcting mockers;
they will only hate you.
But correct the wise,
and they will love you.Proverbs 09:7-8 New Living Translation
This is one basic lesson I have had to learn the hard way. It’s normal and natural for you to want to correct someone who is incorrect. It gives you a since of personal pride, look I know something that you do not. I use to be so bad that I basically lost some valuable relationships because I was trying to help too much and did not grasp how, or just was so in the forest that it was hard to see what was going on in the valley next door where my friend really was.
This deals more with the mindset or world view of the other person as opposed to the relationship, that would be the other part. There are people who the primary communication I receive from them is rebuke and I receive it not only because of my mindset, but also (and primarily) because of relationship with them. This is not to say that I view myself as wise, but in looking at this chapter (proverbs 9) and the past few, it really shows wisdom as an approach to life more so then the ability to practically apply knowledge to situation with discernment.
What if more people keep to themselves?
I am not sure this is really advocating keeping to yourself, or not correcting people, but more considering what their world view is & understand that if you correct or rebuke some people, you will have shots sent at you.
So, there are two things that could be changed form our current culture:
1. correcting people who wish not to be corrected
2. seeking wisdom and knowledge — or start with the idea “I/We don’t know everything”
If that happened we would have greater understanding, greater harmony, greater collaboration, higher standard of living, and a more balanced/active/intentional life.
Some people do live this way, but you don’t generally seeing those type of people telling others how to live, thus you might not see it.
Part of the Proverbs Challenge series
