Proverbs 15:2 Commentary and Bible Study

This proverb continues the theme of learning acceptable behaviour, and now considers the subject of discretion. Even true knowledge may be mishandled, for when knowledge comes to a fool he is quite capable of misusing it, seeing it as a way of hurting others, of getting revenge, or of boosting himself at the expense of others. He cannot contain himself but immediately divulges what ought to remain hidden. Here is someone who has fallen in the past and now wishes to recover himself, but he cannot do so because the fool keeps rehearsing the past and will not let anyone forget it. This leaves no room for the Lord’s healing since the wound is continually reopened, but God is sanctifying all of us and he is able to forget when he puts our transgressions far away from him, as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). Here is another man who has recently learnt some new truth, perhaps some new doctrine. He immediately wishes to give the church the benefit of his learning, but because it is only partial knowledge and he has not yet understood how to live by it, he is likely to do more harm than good. Others who understand these things much better are more reserved and ready to credit their fellow believer with more knowledge than themselves. We may have a great deal of knowledge, but it needs to be mixed with wisdom, with kindness, with love, otherwise it floods out without control and becomes only a means of boasting.The tongue of the wise however knows when to speak and when not to speak. The mere possession of knowledge is not enough. The man of knowledge should hold back in situations where his motivation for speaking is wrong, where he ought to cover over rather than to expose, where a failing has already been confessed, repented of, forgiven, and left behind.