At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)
“Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction: But he that regardeth reproof shall be honoured” (Proverbs 13:18).
There is no one alive who never needs to be reproved or admonished or warned. We all stumble in many ways, as James puts it (Jas. 3:2). And as Solomon put it elsewhere, there is no one who does not sin (1 Kings 8:46). The only person who never sinned was the Lord Jesus. As for the rest of us, if God were to mark iniquities, who could stand (Ps. 130:3)?
The thing that distinguishes the wise from the foolish, therefore, is how we respond when admonished. Our proverb tells us how it goes.
The person who stiffens his neck, who makes his forehead like bronze, and doubles down on his folly, he is the one who is refusing instruction. He doesn’t want to hear it. It looks like it might interfere with his plans. And so he willfully sets his mind to continue on with his previously selected course. But the course he set was a course that leads straight to “poverty and shame.” He has made a series of decisions that will result in his own abject failure, and he refused to listen to those who loved him enough to try to warn him.
By way of contrast, the one who is on the path to honor is not the person who never needs reproof. He needs reproof just as the fool does. We all need reproof from time to time. The wise person receives it.
“Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness: And let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head . . .” (Psalm 141:5a).
The striking thing here is that a person who embraces the reproof (which assumes that he did something wrong in some way) is a person who shall be honored. This means that in this fallen world honor is not the result of having an unblemished record, but is rather a willingness to have blemishes pointed out.
