Don’t rebuke a mocker, or he will hate you; rebuke the wise, and he will love you. Instruct the wise, and he will be wiser still; teach the righteous, and he will learn more. (9:8-9)
As one who has been preaching for over half his life, I never cease to be amazed at the truth that is contained in these verses. I can’t tell you how many times I have preached a message that went over the heads of the ones who “really needed to hear it” but brought even greater conviction in those who were already walking with the Lord. On more than one occasion I have been in the middle of sermon thinking “Man, I hope so and so is listening because he needs to hear this,” only to watch the word practically bounce off of the hardened shell of his heart. Then, to my amazement, when I am feeling like a failure at the end of it all have some sweet little old lady come up and tell me how God changed her life through that sermon.
Why is that? Well, there are probably a lot of reasons. For starters, none of us actually knows what is in a person’s heart, and perhaps the people I think “need to hear” are doing better than I think and the Spirit has led me to preach that message for a completely different reason of which I am unaware. However, one of the chief reasons this happens is tucked away inside the verse. Those who are already “wise,” tend to recognize more wisdom for what it is, and those who are already “righteous” understand how unworthy they are and tend to be even more sensitive to their shortcomings. Paul put it like this, “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.” 1 Cor. 2:14 NASB
In short, the one who already has the Spirit in control of his life is more sensitive to the things of the Spirit. The one who is in control of his own life tends to rationalize his behavior and reject that he could ever be the problem. It is sad, really, because so many people who need to hear and receive the truth are blind and deaf to it. That is why those who already believe the gospel tend to love it the most, and why it takes the intervention of God to turn the light on in a lost person’s heart. No matter how much I think someone needs to “hear something,” only God can break through the shell and get the truth down into their heart. That is the flaw with twitter; “shouting louder” or “better logic” never changed a stubborn person’s mind, only God can do that.
