Stiff-necked or pliable

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

STIFF-NECKED OR PLIABLE

Prov 29:1

A man who remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed — without remedy.

NIV

Certainly this is speaking to those who have not and will not accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. We who believe are saved by faith, so that no one can boast about how much they did or how better they accepted correction then another. Although it is true the Lord may rebuke through his word for every scripture is God-breathe.

2 Tim 3:16-17

16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

NIV

However, we surely would respond to any of those areas of our life which we either need teaching, rebuking, correcting or training in righteousness. It would seem unconscionable for a believer to remain stiff-necked. However, maybe we are stiff-necked in some areas of our life. One of those might be in our interpretation of his word. We all have a tendency to remain steadfast in our ideas of what the scripture or Christianize terms mean. Maybe we confuse stiff-necked with steadfastness or maybe we should call it stubbornness. We should always remain open to the Spirit who leads us into all truth. Because there is only one God, one Father, one Son, and one Holy Spirit, it would seem right to believe there is only one truth. So then some of us who have differing opinions of the truth have to be wrong and are stiff-necked in our refusal to accept truth we believe is not truth. We have stuck ourselves in the pitfall of denominational doctrines or statements of faith. This, of course, does not and should not confine us from fellowshipping with believers who see the scriptures in a differing view.  But we should understand that we should always be ready to accept the Lord’s correction and/or his rebuking when we are in error. It may be most believers consider correcting and rebuking regarding some area of sin in their lives. Surely God desires us to live as righteous as we can, but then we cannot, for we have no righteousness. Although we should make no provisions for the body, the flesh, we have to admit we cannot stop from committing sin, we cannot be completely free of sin. That is why we needed to accept and remain in Christ, for in him we are holy and blameless in his sight. In Christ we are righteous already, although in the body we fail to achieve righteousness. But as far as the person who is truly the stiff-necked about accepting Jesus, that person will in fact come to destruction suddenly. When the day of judgement comes, which no one knows when, those who refused to accept Jesus will not inherit eternal life, but destruction, whatever that means, and it will be without remedy. That is, when the judgement is made, it is final, no second changes, no cure for their destruction. But we have the cure for both us and for them. We can refuse to be stiff-necked and remain open to the moving of the Spirit in our lives. We can share the gospel message with those who have not accepted Christ in hopes the Spirit will be able to break through their stiff-necked thoughts of humanism or down-right wrong thinking. But we must make sure we have not become so set in our ways, we are or have become stiff-necked in our theology. Let us always remain pliable in the hands of the potter, so that we can be formed and reshaped whenever needed and be used as the vessel he intends us to be.