Learn to Love Instruction
Or "How to not be a grazing cow"
“Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is brutish. A good man obtains favor from the Lord, but a man of wicked intentions He will condemn. A man is not established by wickedness, but the root of the righteous shall not be moved.” – Proverbs 12:1-3
Few people enjoy correction. When I first started teaching, I remember being corrected by my boss in front of my colleagues and students – it was quite embarrassing. But the embarrassment stuck with me and I purposed to not make that particular mistake again. While I made mistakes in other areas, I took that lesson to heart.
Receiving correction is rarely fun. It’s easy to slip into the thinking that says, “I don’t really need correction in ________ area anymore.” Then we slip up again. Thankfully, God loves us too much than to let us go on in our foolishness. He sends wisdom through the Scriptures as well as the mouths of others. But we often neglect it, being too calloused in our own views to receive the nudges and guidance that are His gifts. We wouldn’t say that we “hate” correction, but that we don’t need it as much as some think we do.
Solomon uses an interesting word for the one who hates correction. The Hebrew word translated “brutish” is ba’ar, and it means “one who is without reason,” or “who grazes like an animal”. If you ever had the privilege of trying to get a contented, grazing cow to move from the pasture into the barn, you understand it is a difficult prospect. You can talk, cajole, yell, and shout, but your wise words will not make much of a difference to the cow. It is too busy eating and lacks the ability to understand what you say.
We probably can think of a few people who demonstrate similar qualities. No matter what you say to them, they don’t change their ways. While we can’t make someone else grow in wisdom, we can demonstrate what it looks like to grow in wisdom ourselves. The answer is to learn to love instruction.
It would be nice if wisdom were just reading books and thinking big thoughts. As the teenagers of a previous era used to say in a scolding tone, “Yeah, right.” Wisdom comes from receiving the instruction God sends, often through imperfect vessels. It is not always spoken in a loving way, but our Heavenly Father knows that we, like so many politicians, often don’t see the light until we feel the heat. One key, then, to receiving instruction is to distinguish the effervescence of someone’s correction from the truth it contains.
When someone complains about something you do, ask yourself, “Is there any truth to what he or she is saying?” If there is truth there, we should then ask, “What can I learn from this? What – if anything – do I need to change?” This is how we grow.
We can learn from the example of Peter. There was a time when he was publicly corrected by his fellow apostle, Paul. Though it was a seemingly insignificant matter to us (Peter wouldn’t sit with the Gentile Christians at a meal when a contingent of Jewish Christians arrived at the church at Antioch), Paul openly rebuked him for it. From what we know in church history Peter epitomized Proverbs 12:1 and received Paul’s correction well. Such a formerly boisterous apostle could have split the early church, but he responded with humility and went a long way towards healing the Jew/Gentile division.
May we all learn from Solomon’s words and be a people who love and receive instruction.
The Lord be with you all this week,
Matt