Corrections and counsel
I don’t often think of the Bible as the kind of book that would use the word stupid.
Oh, perhaps in an indirect sort of way with synonyms for stupid. I know the Gospels are full of parables about foolish builders who can’t keep a house standing, foolish bridesmaids who can’t keep their lamps lit, and foolish servants who can’t help being undone by their own schemes.
But … stupid?
So I was surprised when I came across this verse in Proverbs that seems surprisingly blunt:
“Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid.” (Proverbs 12:1)
The key thing here is that stupid is not a lack of knowledge – it’s an attitude. And it’s an attitude which stems from a lack of self-knowledge and a lack of desire to change that state. In other words … it’s less about what you know rather than what you do when you’re faced with the fact that you don’t actually know it all.
So… being stupid in this sense isn’t about intelligence at all. It’s an attitude of pride that scorns, resists and avoids opportunities to learn.
If you couldn’t handle being corrected, you’d never learn anything. Although we often think of learning as something that happens inside a classroom, the truth is every day is an opportunity to learn. We can learn from other people, learn from experience, learn from past mistakes. However the only way we can learn any of these things is if we recognise that there is something there for us to learn from.
Proverb 12:15 goes on to say – “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise.”
Wisdom is defined by listening and responding to a wisdom beyond ourselves, just as knowledge comes from instruction. If you never open your eyes to other perspectives, you’ll never see beyond your own line of sight.
