7 Anyone who rebukes a mocker will get an insult in return. Anyone who corrects the wicked will get hurt. 8 So don’t bother correcting mockers; they will only hate you. But correct the wise, and they will love you. 9 Instruct the wise, and they will be even wiser. Teach the righteous, and they will learn even more. ~ Proverbs 9:7-9NLT
Having a predominately online Church, I’ve had to learn this teaching the hard way. See, when we first started, I would respond to everyone who commented because I didn’t want to be rude. It quickly became apparent that there are some people you shouldn’t respond to. Sometimes, it’s still hard to see who to and who not to respond to.
They’ll start off nice, the conversation is pleasant, and then as soon as you point out the flaw in their beliefs, they become rude, insulting, demeaning, and aggressive. They’ll then accuse you of all of the things they’ve done. Why? Pride.
There’s a proverb that states that there’s more hope for a fool (one who says in his heart there is no God) than for one who is wise in his own mind. What a frightening verse.
Pride will cause you to lash out when confronted and corrected. It’ll cause you to insult instead of defending your own beliefs. It’ll cause you to accuse others of attacking you when all they’ve done is show you your errors. Pride is one of the biggest separators between God and man because pride won’t allow correction to help you grow and fix flaws within yourself and your own beliefs.
Here’s what I’ve learned over the years. If you want to see a change in a prideful person, you don’t respond to them. You pray for them. You lift their name before the LORD daily as you pray against the Spirit of Pride holding them captive. No amount of true statements or verses will open the eyes of the prideful. Only the fervent righteous prayers can get the attention of God to intervene in their life.
Peace. Love. Go Forth and Be Silent, But Pray.
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