“Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but one who hates correction is stupid. One who is good obtains favor from the Lord, but he condemns a person who schemes. No one can be made secure by wickedness, but the root of the righteous is immovable. A wife of noble character is her husband’s crown, but a wife who causes shame is like rottenness in his bones. The thoughts of the righteous are just, but guidance from the wicked is deceitful. The words of the wicked are a deadly ambush, but the speech of the upright rescues them. The wicked are overthrown and perish, but the house of the righteous will stand.” (Proverbs‬ ‭12‬:‭1‬-‭7‬ ‭CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

I was watching a new Batman cartoon the other day. In the episode, a crime boss was being threatened by a man he had ruined publicly and psychologically. The crime boss lived in a huge mansion guarded by more than a dozen well-armed and well-paid men. He scoffed at a warning call he received to take cover because he believed himself to be secure. He wasn’t. If he had listened to Solomon here, he might have been okay. His perceived security was all rooted in his wickedness, yet wickedness provided no real security at all. Let’s talk about this and the other proverbs in this first set from Proverbs 12.

I remember taking AP Chemistry in my junior year of high school. My teacher was Mrs. Kernes. She was wonderful, and one of the best teachers I ever had, but the class was also the hardest I had ever taken. I spent hours and hours studying that year. I had a notebook in which I meticulously read and summarized the textbook chapter by chapter. I held onto that notebook for a long time, and even loaned it out to a college student or two who was taking college chemistry when I was a pastor. I’m not sure where that is anymore. The work eventually paid off and when the final exam came, I aced it, allowing me to sip two semesters of chemistry once I got to college.

Getting through that class took an enormous amount of discipline, but I came away with a great deal of knowledge that served me well for a very long time. Of course, I’ve forgotten pretty much all of it now from disuse, but that’s another message for another time. Throughout that year I had to be willing not only to work hard, but also to let Mrs. Kernes point out when and where I was wrong. She was the expert, not me. Not receive what she had to say about my work would have been foolish in the extreme. Solomon here even gives that kind of refusal to accept correction the label “stupid.”

If you want to increase what you know about pretty much anything, you are going to have to be prepared to work hard for it. Pridefully refusing correction because you already know it all is just stupid. Or at least, that’s Solomon’s opinion. And his opinion got recorded and preserved in the Scriptures, so I guess we should probably take that into pretty serious consideration before walking that foolish path.

“One who is good obtains favor from the Lord, but he condemns a person who schemes.” Jesus once told a man looking to butter Him up with a bit of flattery that only God is good. Paul echoed that sentiment, quoting from David. If we want to be good, the only way we are going to achieve that mark is by reflecting the character of our God who is good by His fundamental nature. If you are committed to reflecting His character, you can count on His favor and His help. But if you are looking to use Him to achieve your own personal aims, you’d better think again. The same goes if you are planning on using anyone else to the same ends. He will stand in your way and make things far more difficult for you than you’re planning on them being.

“No one can be made secure by wickedness, but the root of the righteous is immovable.” My mind here goes to the totalitarian dictators around the world like Putin or Jinping. Folks like that have the appearance of having all the power in the world, and yet they constantly seem paranoid about others taking it. Their security is only as good as the people around them are willing to make it. And that will only last as long as the money they can provide keeps flowing. I can’t imagine those kinds of folks get many good, sound, restorative nights of sleep. Embracing a path of evil will leave you always wondering when things are going to fall apart on you.

But when you walk a path of righteousness, you will rest securely knowing that God has your back. And even if that doesn’t seem to play out in this life, you’re not playing for this life alone. You’re playing for the life to come in God’s kingdom where you truly won’t have anything to worry about ever again. Either way, when your life is rooted in Christ, that foundation is more secure than anything you could imagine.

“A wife of noble character is her husband’s crown, but a wife who causes shame is like rottenness in his bones.” My own wife has her last day tomorrow at the place she has worked for the last seven years (she’s on year number eight). She has been the secretary at our local school. She has done a profoundly good job in that work, and has built a reputation of incredible competence and character and is beloved by staff, students, and parents alike beyond what I think she often realizes. When I tell people that I’m her husband, that gives me an immediate bump in their estimation of me. Not because of anything I’ve done, but because of who she is and what she has done. She is indeed the thing that makes others think better of me and respect me more. I didn’t have anything to do with that except to ask her to marry me. She is the jewel. I’m just the one who gets to show her off.

I can’t imagine what it would be like if things were different than they are. I wouldn’t want to. I’ve known guys whose wives were hard to love for them and for everybody else. It made their lives harder than they could have been. I’ve known women who husbands were just as bad, and although everybody liked them, their husbands were an anchor pulling them down. Whether you are a husband or a wife, make sure you are living in such a way as to make people think better of your spouse.

“The thoughts of the righteous are just, but guidance from the wicked is deceitful.” Somebody committed to the path of Christ is going to have a lot of good wisdom to bring to bear in a given situation. This won’t be because they are necessarily so smart or wise themselves, but because they are tapped into the wisdom of God in the Scriptures and through the Spirit. But somebody who isn’t walking that path is generally only ever going to be looking out for themselves. They’ll give advice, and that advice may seem good, but it’s really going to be about helping them to advance one of their interests. Be careful in taking such advice. You could easily wind up holding the bag while they drive off with the loot.

“The words of the wicked are a deadly ambush, but the speech of the upright rescues them.” There is a tendency in our culture these days to “tell it like it is.” I mostly blame social media. The digital confidence given by the illusion of anonymity or of at least not having to say something hard while looking the other person in the eye has left the screen and migrated out into the world. We used to just vent our spleens online, but more and more people are willing to let their sin-fueled tongues stay in the driver’s seat everywhere they go. Be careful running into someone like that. You never know when they are going to turn their bile in your direction.

But those whose tongues are submitted properly to the Lord, who are willing to think before they speak, who listen to the Spirit’s voice before projecting theirs, they will find themselves avoiding trouble more often than they get into it. There are plenty of other proverbs we will yet talk about that explain why. I think about one of my favorites here: A gentle answer turns away wrath. When our words are primarily shaped by the character of Christ, we will be saved from all kinds of chaos.

“The wicked are overthrown and perish, but the house of the righteous will stand.” As you read the Old Testament narratives of the various kings of Judah, the southern kingdom, while more of the kings of that nation lived in line with the Lord’s command than the northern kingdom of Israel, there were still a bunch of bad apples. But even the ones who rejected God in favor of various pagan gods had their lineage continued by the Lord because of their connection to David. God had promised that he would always have someone on the throne of Israel, and He stuck to that promise even when the one sitting on the throne was not fit for the task. The House of David stood because of his righteousness. But in Israel to the north which had no such tradition of righteousness, one wicked king after another was deposed and replaced. Only a handful of dynasties lasted for more than a few generations.

If you want to establish your own house firmly and forever, the path of righteousness in Christ is the way to go. When you faithfully seek the Lord throughout your life, that will not only bless your life, it will create a kind of umbrella of grace that covers your family for a very long time. The kind of reputation you build for yourself will be extended to them long after you are gone. The family of Mae Brooks is going to be respected and honored in my church for a very long time. If her great-grandchildren come visit, they are going to be warmly received because they carry her name with them. And, in the end, those who are a part of the household of faith will stand forever in God’s kingdom. Seeking the Lord faithfully is always better than the alternatives.