My first Bible#9: Proverbs 12:1

 

Any who love knowledge want to be told when they are wrong. It is stupid to hate being corrected.

(Proverbs 12:1 GNB)

Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge,
but whoever hates correction is stupid.

(Proverbs 12:1 NIV)



At first glance, this one seems so obvious it's difficult to know what to say about it. And yet, how many of us can really say that we don't dislike being corrected?  And that is the sticking point here - it's hard to hear because we had being wrong.

At first glance, translations such as the GNB seem like one of the verses that those who like to criticise us so-called 'conservative' Christians (particularly 'conservative evangelicals') have in their arsenal.  "You insist that you are right and that everyone else is wrong".  Of course, an assumption that one is right and everyone else is wrong is, of course, false and needs to be challenged (as we can see - this verse attests to that).  But this criticism is often underlined by a belief  (or a desire for a belief) that it doesn't matter about being 'correct' in matters of 'knowledge'.  

Of course, there is more to 'correction' and 'discipline' than just being told that you are wrong (the element that the GNB draws out).  However, this emphasis on knowledge suggests that the suggestion of being corrected on matters of belief, doctrine or wisdom (applying knowledge to real life situations) is a relevant one.

My knowledge of Hebrew is insufficient to look into whether it is the love of knowledge that triggers as a desire to want to be told when they are wrong (as the GNB puts it) or that the two go hand in hand.  Judging by the methodology and principles behind each translation (and the ESV, which uses a similar structure to the NIV), its likely that the latter is more accurate to the words actually written.  However, the GNB's rendering is, I think, a very succinct application.  We can interpret the more literal translations as saying that the loving of discipline is a fruit that heralds an underlying love of knowledge.  

We need to approach our quest for knowledge about and of God, our study of the Bible and of life, with a deep humility.  Carefully examining each thought and assumption, listening to others who may illuminate our blind spots, and ultimately submitting ourselves to God's word in scripture.  My belief is that scripture is all-sufficient, infallible, and trustworthy.  However, I also believe that as a receptor, interpreter and applier of those words, I am infallible - both in my ability to interpret, and my ability to apply into life.  There are therefore times when I may be wrong - and when the Holy Spirit, working through others or through my own reading, may convict me, and when I should listen - humbly again testing the challenge through scripture.

But this is not just about approaches to theology (although, as I hope I've implied, this is a wide area that concerns more than doctrine), but also about life as a whole.  Its about that daily act of repentance and surrender that should characterise the Christian life.  John writes:

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us. (1 John 8-10)

This is the great irony: if you think you are always in the right, then you are wrong.  We make God out to be a liar and the truth is not in us.  But the first step to real knowledge and real truth is the acknowledgement that we are wrong.  This is when the scales fall from our eyes and we see clearly.  One cannot grasp Christian doctrine without knowing one is in need of a saviour.  We cannot be corrected by the Bible's teachings on devotional life if we do not know where we are lacking.  And our engagement with 'knowledge' in the sense I think this Psalm is implying (contrary to the narrower understanding we might have of the word) is not only the learning of God's will, but the taking it in and applying it, living it out, making it our truth.  However 'correct' my theology and biblical interpretation may be, I am not 'right' unless I have taken that truth into my heart and let it guide my every step.

The summer I was 17 years old I read my Bible cover to cover for the first time.  I was captivated and completed the whole thing in 4 months.  Although I clearly read it at quite a pace, I still jotted down passages that sprang out to me in my still relatively new faith.  I still have that Bible, and the scraps of paper are still there, bookmarking each verse.  So I decided to go through, 18 years later, and visit each of them.  They are from the Good News Bible.