Strike a scoffer, and the simple will learn prudence; reprove a man of understanding, and he will gain knowledge.
Learning from experience is not automatic. Learning is a matter of choice and decision, not merely impression; while we do develop aversions and trauma responses from experience (or addictions or good feelings), the fullness of learning from experience requires active investment and self-shaping. We can see in the world around us—and sometimes in ourselves—the consequences of just assuming experience equals learning from experience, people who make the same mistake over and over and over again, whether it’s in who they form relationships with, in what they eat, or in some other way. God calls us to a different path.
God calls us to have understanding (Ps. 111:10), and Proverbs 19:25 describes a characteristic of that understanding: the capacity to learn from experience, particularly discipline. Discipline is one of the less-congenial blessings of God adopting us (Heb. 12:5-6), hard to get used to. Part of our sanctification, however, is learning to learn from discipline.
The stiff-necked man (Ex. 33:3) will respond to discipline by stiffening his neck, by going on in his own way, offended by the reproof and angry that the Lord dares to check his pride; eventually, his neck will break, unless God by His grace gives him a heath of flesh (Eze. 35:26). We are called to foster that heart of flesh, a heart which receives discipline and finds wisdom in it. We are still a little stiff-necked, by habit rather than by nature (John 3:1-7), but God works us out of that, sometimes by kindness, sometimes by miracle, sometimes by a drubbing.
Of course, even the foolish have a capacity for learning from experience. Deuteronomy 13:11 proves that much. Pain is a disincentive, and disincentives work on men’s motives, on their willingness to act. When a fool gets smacked in the face, he often thinks a second time before repeating the attempt. He can choose to ignore the lesson, or he can choose to listen to it, at least superficially.
Such responsiveness does not, on its own, constitute ‘learning from experience,’ not in full. The fool takes the outer shell of the discipline to heart; he stops the particular behavior. He stops shouting obscenities; he stops causing infighting at work; he stops spreading gossip. But he does not, without God, mend the heart-condition or the desires that led to those sins. The desires remain, repressed by punishment, their outworking lessened. They still damn him, and they still leak forth, finding new egress. Pagan man can sweep out one demon, but it’ll return in the end, with seven worse than itself (Matt. 12:45). He has no permanent solution, and even his temporary solution is just smushing the dirt underneath the carpet, al a the Three Stooges.
The wise man, trusting in God for righteousness (Job 1:1, 19:25; Is. 26:12), chooses to listen to experience more thoroughly. He compares his life to the worldview, ethical and technical (how the world works), of Scripture (Acts 17:11; Ps. 119) and learns from the comparison, from seeing Scripture worked out in his life, from where he does not align with Scripture’s command and where he does. No, he doesn’t do it perfectly. I certainly do not, and if I say I do, smack me (1 John 1:8-10). But he does it better and better over his life in Christ, by the will of God, on a trajectory perhaps uneven but essentially guaranteed by God.
Now, this verse also hints at two points which make all this much less painful, if we will only heed them, essential points even.
First, we can learn from the experience of others. As I’ve argued elsewhere, this capacity is part of the point of stories, of narratives fictional and nonfictional. We can look at how other people live and take counsel from that: what works, how things work, and what went wrong. We can see how their temptations were fed or subdued; we can see how God worked for them or against them. Then we can apply this in our lives, experience-by-proxy, to our own great benefit—and then serve as a model in turn.
Second, we can learn from reproof, rather than pain. Discipline isn’t God’s first resort. His first resort is a gentler revelation: counsel, instruction, and correction. The most important source for this is Scripture, but others around us play their part by God’s grace (Rom. 8:28). When we listen to this good counsel, we save ourselves a world of trouble. But that requires humility, and sometimes we, me included, need to have that beaten into us a little more literally than we’d like. Regardless, God has not sent us into this fray unaided (John 14:16-17), so we should have faith, listen, and turn towards Him.
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.
