Maybe it's because it’s not in my nature to mock or ridicule.
Or maybe it’s simply that in my realization of how far God has brought me… the ever widening canyon between who I was and who I am… yet all the while knowing there’s still so far to go… God in His mercy and grace emphasizes the evil that resides in the wasteland I am to never tread.
In a nation spiraling out of control and reeling from hatred and dissension, it is easy… so easy… to get stranded on desert island with no sustenance, no resources, and no possible way back to the mainland.
I would say the words to my husband just this weekend concerning the urgency of proclaiming the name of Jesus in such a place at such a time as this: “Sometimes it feels like I’m standing on top of a burning building screaming at the top of my lungs and no one is listening.”
And sometimes, as a Christian solider, it’s taking a position of deficiency, where fiery darts not aimed at me sting just as badly because they’re intentioned to strike at Jesus. Ahh… it’s true that there really is, “nothing new under the sun.” (Eccl 1:9) They hurt His heart then… and they are hurting His heart now.
And they don’t see it.
Insults hurled and hatred spewed by the proclaimed Jesus people grieve the Holy Spirit in ways so damaging we could never fully comprehend. (Eph 4:29, 30 (NIV/NLT) says it plainly and I cannot ignore the text, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption.”
And yet the fellow sojourners.. the ones traveling the same path… seek to correct the behavior of those misrepresenting the God we serve. Because not only does it destroy the reputation of the One who died, too, for the ones seeking to kill by vocal slander, it compromises my reputation and all I’ve worked so hard to overcome. It makes me “guilty by association”, and it’s heartbreaking. Oh dear fellow follower of Christ… you’ve set us back so far, and added to the already exhausting work of “picking up our cross daily and following Him.” (Mt 16:24)
It grieves me, why? Because it grieves Him.
But then a friend in her outrageous love sends me what I need to see in the middle of one of the most painful few days of my life, “Anyone who rebukes a mocker will get an insult in return. Anyone who corrects the wicked will get hurt. So don’t bother correcting mockers; they will only hate you.” (Prov 9:7)
And I see it differently come Monday morning.
Always the sunlight in darkness when eyes seek and find the truth in His precious Word.
Wisdom, as described in Proverbs 9 as a woman, “builds her house” (verse 1), “prepares a great banquet” (verse 2) and “invites everyone to come.” (verse 3)
She’s the finest of hostesses. Gracious, loving, kind.
And her offer to the godly and to the ungodly is the same.
“Come, eat my food, and drink the wine I have mixed.” (verse 5)
The invitation is the same, too.
“Leave your simple ways behind and begin to live; learn to use good judgement.” (verse 6)
But then almost as abruption we see the words leap forward, “Anyone who rebukes a mocker will get an insult in return. Anyone who corrects the wicked will get hurt. So don’t bother correcting mockers; they will only hate you.”
Because truth be told - there will be mockers. There will be scorners.
There will be those who hurt with words.
There will be those who shame you.
There will be those who not only deny you your opinion, but apply salt to the already irritated wound, by bitterness that outlives any physical attack you can endure.
But reproofing… correcting… pointing fingers… “screaming at the top of your lungs” in an attempt to incite attention and redirection… is useless and seeks never to benefit the hearer; but instead accomplishes only to bring a permanent stain to the innocent party.
And then I see it there in the commentary for verse 7. “Wisdom is to be addressed to the simple”… while, “she let’s the scorner pass by.”
My job as a Christ follower is not to convince you that you’re wrong.
It is not to convince you that I’m right.
And my job is never to shame, judge, or condemn your decision to live differently than me.
My job is to love Jesus.
To love His people.
And to plant seeds along the way.
But I have another responsibility as a lover of Jesus.
And that is… to let the scorner pass by.
“Speak not in the hearing of a fool; for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.” (Prov 23:9)
And so I build the house. I prepare the banquet. I invite all to be a guest.
But I choose well the ones I invest to reprove and lovingly correct.
And I gracefully, like Jesus, let the ones aimed at destruction only… to pass by.
“He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, He did not open his mouth.” (Isaiah 53:7)
Let the scorners and the mockers pass by.
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