Day 100, Year 1

Are You a Person of Knowledge or a Brute? 

“Whoever loves instruction and correction loves knowledge, But he who hates reproof is like a brute beast, stupid and indiscriminating.” (Proverbs 12:1 AMPC)

“Instruction and correction” in today’s verse, musar in Hebrew, also means “discipline, chastisement, rebuke, or warning.” When we are in a haze, we need guidance and direction. When danger is approaching, we need warnings. When we have made mistakes, we need correction. When our bad habits are difficult to change, we need rebuke. When we repeatedly make mistakes, we need chastisement. When we need to eradicate our deep-rooted bad habits, long-term discipline is necessary. If we can proactively correct our mistakes, we would most likely receive less chastisement from God.

The knowledge mentioned in today’s verse is not a kind of objective knowledge detached from humans, but about life. Some objective knowledge can change technology, our environment, etc., but knowledge about life could transform people, thereby keeping on changing society. Hence, the one who “loves knowledge” in today’s verse is the one who desperately wants to avoid danger, diligently corrects one’s problems and defects, strives to improve oneself, and is then able to help others. The knowledge of life directly tackles our deep-rooted flaws. It is human nature to hope that we can identify and subsequently correct our own mistakes. However, the “instruction and correction” mentioned in today’s verse are probably pointed out by others. Hence, the faith community’s mission is to correct ourselves and others. With a humble heart, we need to overcome the shame of having our problems or defects exposed, or even having our mistakes corrected by others. We need to believe that having our problems corrected is more important than our face, so as to love instruction. In a broader sense, this means having a heart that values the truth more than our face. In this way, today’s verse is talking not only about shaping a community that could improve believers’ lives, but also the need to correct each other within the community wisely.

In contrast, people who hate being rebuked by others might find correcting their own flaws difficult. They tend to seek solely their pleasure, and want to hear words that only flatter them. They might even value saving face. Moreover, these people often silence the voice of their conscience in pursuit of their own comfort. Thus they live like brute beasts, as mentioned in today’s verse. One possible approach to dealing with people like brute beasts is to point out the consequences of their mistakes, so they can be motivated to correct themselves to avoid disasters. Hopefully, one day they will abandon their beastly nature and reclaim their lovely humanity.

Reflection questions:

1) Do you love instruction and correction? Why?

2) Have you experienced being among those who “love instruction” or those who are “like brute beasts”? If so, how did you feel respectively?