Cease to hear instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge.
If there’s one thing we humans love to hear, it’s ‘You ain’t gotta change nothing.’ Next best is, ‘You just change this thing you don’t mind changing or maybe even want to alter.’ But substantial, long-term instruction is outright repulsive to our self-idolization; it requires a constant submission and humility which grates on our desire to rule and control. It also requires a level of engagement and analysis, of choosing where to accept and where to reject (by Scripture’s advice, on many matters (Acts 17:11)), which makes it very hard to pretend we aren’t accountable for what goes wrong in the aftermath (1 John 1:10). God, however, is clear: we must keep listening, particularly to Him, and must keep searching for wisdom.
None of us are sufficient for everything in ourselves. On an economic level, that’s pretty clear; I couldn’t distribute this to you without the help of the computer I’m using, the computer you’re using, the billions of factors allowing those computers to exist and function. But it’s true on a spiritual level too. Without the aid of the Spirit (1 Cor. 2:12), we’d be walking blind; without Scripture, we’d be walking to Hell; without God and all He provides, we’d just not be at all.
One of the good gifts which God gives us is the gift of counsel and instruction. Across our lives, God gives us a variety of teachers, some more equipped than others, some in one area, some in another. Sometimes the teaching goes both ways; sometimes the only way we teach back is by being practice (toddlers teach their parents without the least intent to do so). Taking full advantage of His gift, as we must do (Heb. 12:1), requires us to engage with this teaching intentionally and properly.
The first step is listening and figuring out what is being said. That much accomplished, the next step is to compare it to a standard: God’s wisdom. Does this comport with reality? Where does it form better evidence than what we had before, so that we substitute its understanding of the world for our previous understanding? Does Scripture corroborate it or deny it? Sometimes, the instruction requires us to rework a part of our understanding, as it lines up better with God’s word and with the reality he gives us senses to perceive. Sometimes it reminds us of something we’d neglected or forgotten, something painful or perhaps pleasant. Sometimes, on inspection, the counsel proves unworthy of acceptance, as did the counsel of Job’s friends (Job 42:7).
This process means on the one hand acknowledging that other people can know better than we do and on the other hand taking the responsibility of deciding where the new stuff is good, and where it ain’t. This combination of humility and responsibility, typical of the Christian life, is plainly repulsive to the pagan, who wants to be his own god (Ps. 53:1), free of need to submit to another and free of need to answer for what he does. Worse, God requires us to engage in this listening, analyzing, and applying repeatedly, over and over, as we refine ourselves and are refined by God towards righteousness (Is. 26:12; Zech. 13:9).
The search for wisdom may not cease (Prov. 1, 8). The moment it ceased, we embark upon a search for foolishness. We are not perfect, on this earth (1 John 1:10), and even in the life to come we shall not ever comprehend Him in full, so that wisdom does not lie ahead. Our proper perfecting of righteousness does not mean ‘sit down and stop’ (Eph. 5:1). When we stop seeking wisdom, when we stop heeding instruction and advice from those who show themselves wise, we choose the path of foolishness (Ps. 1:1), with necessarily deleterious consequences.
And, above all, we may not ever cease to seek instruction from God, the perfection of wisdom (Prov. 8; John 1:1-3). God gave us His word (2 Tim. 3:16) and His Spirit (John 14:26) to guide us to faith (Matt. 28:20; Mark 1:15) and to holiness (Jam. 2:14-26). We may not slack from it. If we are in Him, moreover, we will not slack from it, not for more than a moment’s weakness of the flesh (Rom. 7:25), being driven on by love for Him (John 14:15) which overweens our pride and our fear of accountability.
God bless.
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
Colson Potter writes copious fiction and nonfiction, including a weekly Proverbs post and his blog at Creational Story.
