Learning Wisdom and Righteousness

Proverbs 13:1-9

1 A wise son heeds his father's instruction,
But a scoffer does not listen to rebuke.

2 A man shall eat well by the fruit of his mouth,
But the soul of the unfaithful feeds on violence.

3 He who guards his mouth preserves his life,
But he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction.

4 The soul of a lazy man desires, and has nothing;
But the soul of the diligent shall be made rich.

5 A righteous man hates lying,
But a wicked man is loathsome and comes to shame.

6 Righteousness guards him whose way is blameless,
But wickedness overthrows the sinner.

7 There is one who makes himself rich, yet has nothing;
And one who makes himself poor, yet has great riches.
8 The ransom of a man's life is his riches,
But the poor does not hear rebuke.

9 The light of the righteous rejoices,
But the lamp of the wicked will be put out.

Learning wisdom and righteousness begin with being teachable; only scoffers ignore correction and are therefore not understanding or wise due to lack of knowledge which they could have from God’s word.  We eat of our words and the fruit which they bear, either in faithfulness to the truth or in violent resistance of unfaithfulness against what knowledge and understanding that God offers to the humble who are willing to hear and learn.  We must therefore guard our mouth and the words which originate in our hearts by God’s work in us (Psalm 141:3, Matthew 15:16-18) as we learn to become wise.  Guarding our words keeps us, while lack of control in our speech only brings ruin to the speaker and sometimes the hearers.  Diligent oversight is required in our words to find the riches of living, while the lazy are unguarded and gain nothing by letting the corrupt speech come out unfiltered and without the restraint of self control for the sake of righteousness as God-pleasers.  This is why a righteous man or woman hates lying, but why the wicked make it a sport as they make themselves hated and bring shame on themselves and their reputation among all.  If we walk in the direction of righteousness to learn and become wise in living out that knowledge with understanding, we are blameless before God (assuming we keep on repenting as we sin less).  If we instead live without understanding and righteousness, that sin will eventually overthrow us, so why not instead turn and live (Ezekiel 33:11)?  To be truly rich then is in our poverty of material possessions and the heart strings tied to them, knowing that knowledge of God and His word through willing obedience is lasting wealth.  The poor in heart, the humble and God-reliant, these are rich in heavenly treasure (Matthew 5:8); it is His Word which ransoms our souls from death and judgment.  Yes, our light in Christ’s righteousness gives us exceedingly great joy that the unwise and evil person cannot enjoy unless they come to that Light of the world, the one with wisdom greater than Solomon who penned these wise words.  May we all learn wisdom and understanding for righteousness through and in Him!