IBS Application for Proverbs 9:9

“Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.”

To the righteous and the wise, further instruction and teaching is not a bad thing. According to this Proverb, it is a very good thing for them. The wise become wiser, and the righteous increase in learning. To Christians, who are called to exercise both wisdom and righteousness in our daily walk with God, this truth seems to me like it would be essential for our growth.

We ought not to hate the idea of being taught or of studying the Word. It all serves to make us wiser and to increase our knowledge about who God is. I feel that it is too often that a believer finds the idea of learning more about Scripture a pointless pursuit to them specifically, because they think that the knowledge and wisdom they’ve already gained is a sufficient understanding of who God is, or worse yet, that they believe that they know all there is to know about God.

Needless to say, there is some degree of vanity to be associated with either of these views. It doesn’t matter if it’s a more mild vanity, as in the former, or if it is in the extreme like the latter; both are vain. They are vain because they are ultimately neglecting their relationship with God when they do so.

Being in relationship with the Lord ought to mean that we are constantly seeking to learn more about Him, to gain the same kind of understanding of Him that He has of us; to know Him as He knows us. To cease this pursuit seems to me to be a lack of response to Him and His love for us. Ultimately, I believe that one could say that at least for some people, not continuing the pursuit of God is a sin of omission. This isn’t to say that anyone who has received salvation will lose their salvation, but it will be hard for such a person to not walk in darkness at that point. They’ve taken their eyes off of God and consider that they have already attained the goal. But the truth is, no one has who still dwells on the earth.

To better understand God, we need to be in the Word consistently. It is by being in prayer and contemplation of the Lord’s words that we come to learn new things about Him. And it can happen at any time. In fact, during my time here in training, I’ve learned quite a bit more about God from my teachers here than I have in a very long time. And most of that learning came from the examination of Scriptures that I’ve already read a dozen times before. Therefore, I don’t believe that it would be too much of a stretch to say that the reexamination of Scripture could be helpful for anyone to learn more about God, especially under the tutelage of someone with more experience and knowledge of God than we may have. With all that to say, we ought to never cease to be students of the Word.

My application for this one will be to reexamine some parts of Scripture that I’ve already read several times before and pray that God might reveal more of Himself to me through it. If I cannot glean anything new from it on my own, I will seek help in discerning it from my teachers here. I will try to do this with at least one passage each day until I leave for my one week back home.