Monday, July 23, 2018

Sunday Reflection: Vast Degrees of Teachability In Each Person


MINI-SERMON---BESETTING SINS:  MAKE WAR ON YOUR URGE TO SULK

I CONTINUE TO BE BLESSED AND HUMBLED BY TIM AND KATHY KELLER'S BOOK OF DAILY DEVOTIONALS ON THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.  It shows me how far I've come in some areas yet how far I have to go in others.  Take this devotional of July 18th about degrees of learning:

A  rebuke impresses a discerning person more than a hundred lashes a fool....Flog a mocker, and the simple will learn prudence, rebuke the discerning, and they will gain knowledge....When a mocker is punished, the simple gain wisdom; by paying attention to the wise they get knowledge.  (17:10, 19:25,21:11)

DEGREES OF TEACHABILITY.

In ancient times forty lashes was the punishment for the worst crimes.  A hundred lashes, then, is hyperbole to make a point.  Even the worst possible consequences cannot change the character of some people. (17:10)  The more often they lose jobs, are expelled from school, are fined or punished, the more they blame others and become entrenched in their ways.  At the other end of the spectrum is a discerning person who learns from a single rebuke what others must suffer devastating losses to understand.

In the middle of the spectrum of teachability are the simple (19:25)---a group we have met before. They are not as quick to learn as the discerning, and yet they are not as set in their ways either. They will have to see some disaster or punishment hitting  someone---as when a mocker is punished---but then they may learn prudence and change their ways.

The point of these sayings is that there are degrees of teachability.  You must learn to assess how teachable people are before you hire, join or in some other way throw your lot in with them.  And you must honestly assess yourself.

When have you learned something important from watching someone else's life?  Where are you on the teachability spectrum?

Prayer: Lord,  between the discerning person who learns through a single, wise rebuke and the fool who never learns from anything,  I am firmly in the  middle.  I conofess you must send me messages multiple times before I read them.  Forgive me and work on my heart until I hear you the first time.  Amen. ----

God's Wisdom for Navigating Life, page 199
Timothy Keller with Kathy Keller

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