ON THE VANGUARD

JUST PLAIN STUPID
“Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid.”
Proverbs 12:1

Don’t worry, I have no intention of embarrassing you, but raise your hand if you have ever done anything stupid. Wow, that is a bunch of hands raised up. And look, mine is being raised up right along with yours. There was the time that in showing off my white boy dance moves I broke my leg. There was the time when I was playing kick back with my little brother that I kicked the ball over his head and through the window. And there was the time as a kid I played chicken on my bike through traffic while crossing the busiest street in town. All three of those events, and so many more, were just plain stupid on my behalf. I sometimes wonder how many overtime hours the angels have had to work just to keep up with my stupidity.
When I think about it all, it wasn’t that I didn’t know right for wrong. I knew that I probably should not be showing off my dancing skills as pride comes before the fall. I was corrected many times prior by my mom and dad to never kick the ball toward the house for that exact reason. And I had been told the rules of bike riding and when, where, and how to cross the street with my bike. Yet I continued to make decisions that were not the smartest and put me, and sometimes others, in danger. If Proverbs 12:1 is correct, then why was it that I continued to pick stupidity instead of knowledge and discipline?
With this thought in mind, let us look up a couple keys words in this verse. First I want to look at the word ‘love’. As we see in the Bible, there are many types of love. In the Greek alone we can count four different meanings for this one word. In this verse, however, the word is the Hebrew word ‘AHAB, meaning a human love for, or an appetite for. It is the one who has an appetite for discipline who then has an appetite for knowledge. These two words are pretty much translated correctly, with ‘discipline’ translated as MUWCAR, correction, and ‘knowledge’ translated as DA’ATH, discernment or wisdom. The second portion of the scripture is just as important to look at, though. The one who hates correction is stupid. Translating ‘hate’ in the Hebrew is the word SANE’, which means literally to hate, but also to purposefully become the enemy of. If we fail to have an appetite for the good things, then we choose willing to embrace the dark side of hate. The end result, other than perhaps the red lightsaber passed to us from Darth Vader, is that we become the fool.
As children we all probably did some stupid things. As adults I pray we are not still doing the same stupid things. But wherever we find ourselves on this measuring stick of stupid, we have wisdom in this verse. If we release this hatred and alliance with the foolish ways we once purposefully embraced, and instead have an appetite for correction and wisdom, then we will be walking the way that Solomon encourages, and more so the way that God desires us to walk in. How about it? Are we willing to love discipline and knowledge? In the end it just may save our lives more than we know.