Thoughts From Proverbs 15

Proverbs 15:5, 10 12, 31, 32

⁵ A fool rejects his father’s discipline, but he who regards reproof is sensible.

Five times in this chapter the writer instructs in the use of “reproof”.  The necessary takeaways are:

A.    The one who ignores reproof is a fool, cf 12:1.

B.     To ignore reproof is to guarantee your own destruction.

C.     The wise person waits upon and looks for reproof for instruction.

Proverb 15: 16-17

¹⁶ Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and turmoil with it.
¹⁷ Better is a dish of vegetables where love is than a fattened ox served with hatred.

 The Scriptures from beginning to the end teach plainly the message of these two verses. But the same Scriptures are a history of them being ignored. Greed and the sins that derive from it are part and parcel of human history. Christians are aware of this but we go on thinking joy is ours by things.  There is Bible replete with instructions, warning against this failure, but listen to Paul in Philippians 3:7-11; 4:11, 18.

⁷ But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, ⁹ and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, ¹⁰ that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; ¹¹ in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

The person who has everything is one who does not want. The person who has no contentment is the one who has no point of satisfaction, cf Psalm 23:1.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.