DEVOTION
PROVERBS
ROOMING WITH
THE WISE
Prov 15:31
31 He who
listens to a life-giving rebuke will be at home among the wise.
NIV
It is easy
to get stuck in doing things our own way and wanting to keep it like that, but
this seems to put a monkey wrench in that kind of thinking. There are times when
what we are doing is not the best way or the best thing to be doing for our
spiritual well-being and someone has to come along and rebuke, chastise or
correct us, as the original language implies. It is then we must decide if we
are going to be home among the wise, or by extension, home among the fools.
Having said that, it is not easy to listen to someone come along with
correction, telling us that we are wrong in our thoughts, words or deeds. But
this brings us to another point which is that we all as believers have a responsibility
to give life-giving rebuke. The focus of rebuke or correction must be
life-giving and not simply to prove another person wrong thus making us right. This
correction must come in the form of love and compassion, sprinkled with
gentleness and goodness, mixed with patience and understanding and humility. There
can be not one single ounce of pride or self-righteousness at all, in the one
voicing correction. Yet the point of this saying is pointed straight at the
listener of this life-giving rebuke and we need to be aware to receive it for
what it is thus rooming among the wise.
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