HUMILITY SEEKS CORRECTION

Pr 19:27-29, “If you stop listening to correction, my son, you will stray from the words of knowledge.  A worthless witness mocks justice, and a wicked mouth swallows iniquity.  Judgments are prepared for mockers, and beatings for the backs of fools.” (HCSB)

One of the hardest things for us to do is admit that we are in need of correction.  Yet our unwillingness to even entertain correction or more likely, ignore correction leads to a self-deception that begins the unraveling of a person’s life that is portrayed in this passage.  The warning is “don’t stop listening to correction” because this is what will happen if you do follow that choice—you will stray from knowledge which is the ability to distinguish, to know good and evil.

This is no different than the airline pilot flying in instrument conditions and ignoring not only the compass but every instrument and every warning on his panel and choosing to just follow his senses.  It is similar to a child too young or immature to distinguish between what is beneficial and what is harmful—only able to follow their senses (without correction or knowledge.)  Neither situation ends well.

This lack of a moral compass is reflected in the mocking of truth and God’s justice on one hand and swallowing evil indiscriminately on the other hand—calling evil good and good evil.  There is no moral basis of influence in this person’s life.  Anything goes.  It’s a life lived with no apparent accountability.  However, as we see in the last verse, there is accountability, there is the certainty of judgment that the mocker will face.

So, back to the warning.  If there’s a warning for us, there’s a danger to us.  In today’s society, mocking has become the new national pastime.  You can’t watch a football game without the mocking taunts and the derision of their opponent.  And politics is even worse.  The belittling, the scorn, the mocking is constant.  It is difficult not to be affected by the new norms of behavior around us.  In fact, the assumption of this passage is that we will be affected.  Think how easy it is for us to laugh or agree with the mocking sentiment of those whose views we don’t agree with.  Or the sarcasm that so easily escapes our lips to belittle or mock and promote ourselves at someone else’s expense.

Proverbs is pretty clear on what a mocker looks like.  The mocker is contentious, “Drive out a mocker, and conflict goes too; then quarreling and dishonor will cease” (Pr 22:10).  Chaos and destruction follow the path of the mocker.  But he is also an overachiever when it comes to pride, “The proud and arrogant person, named ‘Mocker’, acts with excessive pride” (Pr 21:24).  It’s not enough to be proud of himself.  His excessive pride reaches out to put down those who are defenseless against him.  “The one who mocks the poor insults his Maker, and one who rejoices over calamity will not go unpunished” (Pr 17:5).

The certainty of the mocker’s outcome should give us pause. What was it that caused their downfall?  The picture of the mocker that we see in this passage is the fully developed mocker and since we don’t see ourselves that way, the danger is that we don’t pay attention to the warning.  But—if we consider how it all began with a single situation in which God’s instruction and correction were ignored, then that single act of disobedience takes on a new urgency because that is something that we all have done.

Repeatedly not listening resulted in the outcome of the person’s life that we see above.  Over time, the slow untethering from truth and straying from the words of knowledge became the “mocker.”  But Proverbs also presents a contrast and a different outcome in Pr 3:34, in which the Lord “mocks those who mock but gives grace to the humble.”  Humility is the key to accepting correction.  In fact, humility seeks correction.  Humility recognizes discipline and correction as a gift, as a grace of the Father’s love for His child, knowing that it produces the outcome He desires.

So the next time you’re tempted to bristle at correction, recognize that there is an arrogance that needs to be dealt with, even in your reaction.  Humbly submit to correction regardless of the means God uses--whether through His word, the Holy Spirit’s illumination, the correction of a fellow believer, or even a spouse!  He is faithful and just to forgive and to restore.

Ps 1:1, “How happy is the man who does not follow the advice of the wicked or take the path of sinners or join a group of mockers!”