Pastor Bell's Words To Live By

Do not reprove a scoffer or he will hate you, reprove a wise man and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man and he will be still wiser, teach a righteous man and he will increase his learning. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 10:8-10 NASB).

discipline is a way of life

Today we are encouraged to act after we have been reproved. Reprove is an old Latin word that has its genesis in the reproved being in disagreement with what the one being reproved is doing. In essence we are being encouraged to listen to wisdom and modify our behaviour accordingly.

He tells us that a scoffer, someone who is cynical and self-opinionated, will hold you in contempt. The contemptuous are wise in their own eyes, they always do their own things and only repent when they find their mouths in the trough beside the pigs.

Our sage tells us that rebuke, reprove, correction, chastisement, castigation and criticism are all for the good of the one being chastened. Indeed the writer of Hebrews tells us that the father who loves his son will chasten him, although when chastening is taken place, the son does not like or may not even fully understand it (Heb 12:8). And this chastening, although painful at the time will reap a harvest of righteousness. Some translations use the word discipline instead of reprove. Discipline actually means training or teaching rather than the classical Victorian colonial understanding of beating. Once we develop a methodology of learning through discipline we will then fear the Lord and in his eyes become wise.

Read Proverbs 10