Do not rebuke mockers, or they will hate you; rebuke the wise, and they will love you.
Proverbs 9:8
I worked once with a lady who thought all men were pigs. She had a very rough experience with a couple of her husbands (she has had a few) and decided to put all males into the pig’s category. No matter how I tried to change her mind, there was no convincing her. She considered all men unable to do anything good.
The funny thing is that the Bible considers some “humans” as having the same capacity for sound judgment as pigs do. In Matthew 7:6, Jesus tells us not to throw our pearls to pigs, who may trample them under their feet. In other words, Jesus told us not to share our wisdom with foolish people, for they will not value it.
In Proverbs 9, Solomon shares Jesus’s opinion and takes it up a notch. He instructs us not to rebuke mockers because they will hate us if we do. Have you ever tried to help someone by giving them sound advice just for them to turn around offended and hurt, thinking you judged them unfairly? Some people do not want correction, no matter how messy their lives get.
On the other hand, King Solomon tells us that if we correct the wise, they will love us for it. Wise people accept correction and use it to change the errors in their ways. Wise people will show gratitude when, through your correction, you protect their blindside and show them something they can’t see. They love to avoid mistakes.
Today, I want you to consider two thoughts. First, we should not waste good counsel and precious time on people who do not want to change. Some people want to be heard but do not want to do anything to correct their ways. Unless they are paying you to listen to them, stop rebuking mockers.
The second thought we should consider is to evaluate our reaction when wise people rebuke us. Are we mockers who get angry when people with good intentions correct us, or are we wise? I hope we are wise and love correction. The last thing we need is to be a pig in someone’s life.
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