Proverbs 12:1 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Proverbs 12:1

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The picture is no doubt once again that of the father instructing his sons on the farm. Of course, the instruction is not merely theoretical knowledge. He does not simply take them into a room and function rather like a lecturer in an Agricultural College. He puts them out to do various tasks, and to take charge of various tasks. They are growing sons, and he gives them increasing responsibility. The sons often make mistakes, and therefore they have to be reproved for those mistakes. Not necessarily in a hostile way, but they have to be put right, where they have gone wrong, that is the negative side. They have to do things they do not particularly like to do. They have to be urged out at 6 am in the morning, for example, to milk the cows, and if things are not done according to the right timetable, in the right way, the day will not work out.A child being trained by his father to take over the family business, or a young apprentice being taught to do his first job, will never make progress unless he or she is willing to receive instruction. He will get things wrong at first and will need to be shown how to do things properly. You may feel that ‘loveth’ is a strong word. Clearly what is in mind is respect, ‘loveth’ in that sense. He must go through the process of training just as his father did before him, and if he is not willing to be corrected and shown where he has gone wrong, then he will never learn. There must be a spirit of humility which is ready to see that training is necessary, that others know better than him how to do a task. This is not about defending an over-bearing father or employer, but about the normal process of learning.

Application

This process of training needed to learn a profession is made an illustration of a right attitude to the Christian life. Those who are not prepared to occupy the position of a learner and a beginner are never going to make any progress. One mark of true conversion is a new teachable spirit which is able to receive instruction and redirection without taking offence. This is possible because of a new more lowly and more realistic evaluation of self, which understands that it is completely to be expected that the Christian life involves learning many new things. The proud man also wants knowledge, but he only wants it in order to boast and to immediately make himself a teacher of others. The moment he has learnt some new truth, he wants to teach it, and the only joy for him in learning is that it supplies him with more knowledge to vaunt before others. A wise man welcomes instruction even when it is delivered inappropriately, perhaps unnecessarily harshly, or in the form of a rebuke. He searches his heart to see whether there is any lesson of value in the rebuke. But to hate reproof is, Solomon says, to be brutish, stupid, dull-headed, and unreceptive. The word comes from the old Hebrew verb, to consume. If they are not looked after properly, cattle just go on eating and eating, sometimes most undiscerningly, and will even eat things that will hurt them. And this is the idea here, brutish. Whoever does not like correction, instruction, is someone who is going through life just like a cow, eating up whatever they want. They do not know what is good for them, they do not know when to stop. Let us appreciate both sides of our Christian blessing, the corrective side from the word, as well as the great doctrines of the faith.

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Proverbs 12:1 Commentary and Bible Study