Proverbs 10:17 Commentary and Bible Study

This proverb is true as it applies to a child being brought up by its parents. It is also true in many other areas of life: in the apprentice undergoing training, or in the soldier learning to operate in the army. The new convert realises that much in the old life must go, and that the new life in Christ cannot be lived without accepting correction along the way, for we are not sanctified in an instant. God has accepted us as his children, but no true child is spared the rod, ‘for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth’ (Hebrews 12:6), and the readiness to receive correction is demonstrated by a new teachable spirit in every child of God, a willingness to be shown what is wrong and must change. But neither does the new convert rush to teach others before he has learnt himself, for he dare not say more than he knows. The ability to use the tongue to help others goes hand in hand with a willingness to receive correction ourselves first. We teach others out of the lessons which we ourselves have had to learn from God and with a deep sense of our own need to learn more, and if there is still pride in us that thinks we are above reproof, we are not yet ready to say anything to anyone else.