Stop arguing with unbelievers! Proverbs 9 | A Proverb A Day Challenge

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi everyone, welcome back to the Amani Talks podcast.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
You're here with your host Amani on.

Speaker 1 (00:04):
The podcast where we discuss our Christian based topics and
deepening our relationship with the Lord. And we are continuing
on in our Proverb a Day series, we highlight a
key verse, we talk about a portion of scripture that
really resonates with us. And yeah, that's how we're going
to get through the Book of Proverbs so that we
can say we have read a chapter or a book
of the Bible. So let's get into chapter nine, all right,

(00:28):
let's read. Wisdom has built her house, She has honed
out her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her meat, she
has mixed her wine. She has also furnished her table.
She has sent out her maidens. She cries out from
the highest places of the city. Whoever is simple, let
him turn in here. As for him who lacks understanding,

(00:48):
she says to him, come, eat of my bread and
drink of the wine I have mixed. Forsake foolishness, and
live and go in the way of understanding. He who
corrects a scoffer gets shamed for him, And he who
rebukes a wicked man only harms himself. Do not correct
a scoffer lest he hates you. Rebuke a wise man
and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man,

(01:11):
and he will be still wiser. Teach a just man,
and he will increase in learning. The fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of
the Holy One is understanding.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
For by me your days will be multiplied, and years
of your life will be added to you. If you
are wise, you are wise for yourself. And if you scoff,
you will bear it alone.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
A foolish woman is clamorous. She is simple and knows nothing.
For she sits by the door of her house, on
a seat by the highest places of the city, to
call to those who pass by, who go straight on
their way. Whoever is simple, let him turn in here.
And as for him who lacks understanding, she says to him,
stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.

(01:52):
But he does not know that the debtor there, that
her guests are in the depths of hell. Proverbs nine,
Ladies and gentlemen. So I was reading through Proverbs nine before,
because of course I read, and I try to get
my points and try to understand before I come on
and we talk about it in the morning. And let's
just get straight into it, because I have a lot
to say about a few verses of Proverbs nine, specifically

(02:15):
verses seven through nine. So let's go ahead and reread that,
and then I'm going to really expand on it. So
seven through nine, Proverbs nine says, he who corrects a
scoffer gets shame for himself, and he who rebukes a
wicked man only harms himself. Do not correct a scoffer
lest he hates you. Rebuke a wise man and he

(02:36):
will love you. Give instruction to a wise man and
he will still be wiser. Teach a just man, and
he will increase in learning. So I specifically wanted to
talk about those verses because my mom and I were
just having this conversation last week about it makes no
sense to try to constantly drill common sense, to try
to drill what you would consider like this is just

(03:01):
basic logic, this is just basic understanding. Sorry, y'all, my
cats are running around. You are quite literally wasting your
breath when you try to reason with people of the world.
We as Christians, that's not our place to do. It's
not our place to try to change someone's mind. And
when I used to do the podcast before God turned

(03:22):
it around, and you know, now we talk about the
Bible and we talk about God and everything like that,
when I was still talking about relationships and I would
have men come on and they would say the most
diabolical things and you would look at them.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Like, are you are you slow? Like I what you know?

Speaker 1 (03:39):
People would say the most like cringey things that just
one percent did not make sense, and you look at
them like, is it a mental illness or is it drugs?
Because that's the only thing that would explain why you're
so ignorant. And even when I would talk to women
on my social media, when I would make videos about

(03:59):
stuff trying and going out of your way to be
a baby mother, it does not benefit you. And there
are women that would be in the comments saying that
they want it to be a baby mother, They wanted
to struggle. They are purposefully going to give a man
a baby outside of marriage because oh, well, okay, so

(04:19):
we are dealing with very slow people here, and that's
what I would think, like, man, a lot of people
are just very slow. But then you read Proverbs nine
and you see where the Bible is clearly telling you
it is not your job to try to give correction
to worldly people. That's not our job. When Jesus left

(04:40):
the earth the Great Commission, the last thing he told
his disciples was to go out and make other disciples
by preaching the gospel. He never said go out and
try to convince anyone. He never said go out and
try to debate anyone. He never said any of that.
It is quite literally not our job. And you are
wasting your breath. And not only are you wasting your breath,

(05:01):
you're doing more harm than good because verse seven says
he who rebukes a wicked man only harms himself, and
then verse eight says, do not correct a scoffer lest
he hates you. I think a lot of times we
as Christians, we take for granted the fact that there
was probably somebody in your life, especially as an African American,

(05:23):
because African American culture is really based on Christianity.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
It really is. So even if your parents didn't make
you go.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
To church, you had a praying grandma that was always
like Lord will in it, praying over you when she
was always playing gospel. That's the only reason that you
know gospel songs today is because of your grandmother, or
you had an aunt and an uncle who didn't play.
We had somebody that was close in our immediate family
that was leaning on God even if we weren't right.
A lot of Christians take for granted the fact that

(05:53):
we grew up in the church like I did, so
there was a lot that I just ought to Like
I was saved at a young age. I grew up
in church, so I was already reading the Bible. Whether
or not I decided to actually live it out is one.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
Thing, but I knew it.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
And so getting older, and it seemed like people just
didn't know very basic common decency, like basic courtesy things
that I learned as a toddler because I grew up
in church. You look at them like men, you are
really off like what It's almost astonishing. But we take
for granted the fact that, like I said, especially as

(06:28):
Black Americans, that we had somebody in our family taking
us to church, teaching us that, because a new generation
doesn't have that at all. When I was coming up,
if you were living in your parents' house, you went
to church. It was not an option, Like you couldn't
opt out of church. Just like you couldn't opt out
of school, you were going to church every Sunday. Now
parents don't make their kids go to church anymore. So

(06:49):
it's very easy for us to grow up with this
sense of understanding because at least we've heard it right,
and to look at other people like why do you
not have like what's the disconnect here? Why do you
not have the same type of background or knowledge things
that we think are easy peasy because we heard it
in Sunday School. When we get older and we start

(07:12):
to see the differences in how people were raised, and
we realize, man, yeah, y'all didn't go to Sunday school.
Y'all wasn't singing. Father Abraham has many sons, many sons
as like y'all wasn't singing the Sunday school songs.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
So that's why it's not clicking for y'all. It's we're different.

Speaker 1 (07:30):
So it's like you almost can't blame people because it's
not their fault that they don't have what we would
consider very common sense, common courtesy, common decency. Because sin
has blinded the world, they are literally walking around the blind,
leading the blind. The Holy Spirit gives us sight. The
Holy Spirit is the light in the dark world. The
only reason why we have understanding on what we would

(07:53):
consider very basic principal life lessons is because of the
Word and the Holy Spirit that gives us the understanding
to interpret the world the Word. Sorry, but the world
does not have that understanding, and it made me. It
reminded me of a few verses. First Corinthians two fourteen.
But the natural man does not receive the things of
the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him,

(08:14):
nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Second Corinthians four to four. But even if our gospel
is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,
whose minds the God of this age has blinded, who
do not believe, lest the light of the Gospel of
the glory of Christ, who is the image of God,
should shine on them. John twelve forty says, He has
blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they should

(08:37):
see with their eyes, lest they should understand with their hearts,
in turn, so that I should heal them. Second Corinthians
four to six says, for it is the God who
commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shwn
in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
So these four verses are telling us the world does
not understand us because they are blinded. They are blinded

(08:59):
still in their s, like I said in second Corinthians
four to four, whose minds the God of this age
has blinded?

Speaker 2 (09:05):
Who is the god of this age? The devil.

Speaker 1 (09:08):
The devil is the prince of the cities. The devil
is the one that is prowling around the earth, walking
to and fro seeking whom he may devour. The devil
has a lot of dominion on this earth. It used
to be us when Adam and Eve were made in
the image of God, the Lord himself said that man
has dominion over the earth. But when sin entered them,

(09:28):
they no longer had that dominion. They lost that power
over the earth. Now the Prince of the a A rules,
the gods of darkness rules, and those gods are the
gods that blind these people, worldly people, people who are
just walking around in darkness. And the only reason that
we have light second Corinthians for success, for it is
the God who commanded the light to shine out of
darkness who has shown in our hearts to give the

(09:50):
light of the knowledge of the glory of God and the.

Speaker 2 (09:52):
Face of Jesus Christ.

Speaker 1 (09:53):
So even our understanding, you know, it's easy for us
to kind of boast on it and be like men.
You know, Christians got the ch We talked about that
a few episodes back, and yeah, we do, but we
only have the cheek code because of the Holy Spirit.
It was a gift, and that gift is not given
to everybody. They're either not saved yet or they will
never be saved, they will never receive godly knowledge and

(10:15):
godly wisdom. So it is absolutely futile for us as
Christians to try to argue with non believers, to try
to debate them, to try to convince them that is
not your place. And like the Bible says, all they're
going to do is hate you for it. All you're
going to do is harm yourself when you try to
debate these worldly people. And that reminds me of this

(10:36):
girl on TikTok. I forgot what her name is, but
she claims that she's a Christian, and she said that
she was going to debate this woman on TikTok who
goes by like Jasmine the Witch or something like that.
But she is a witch, y'all. Like she is a witch.
She is a self proclaimed witch. And my whole thing
is I knew off the bat. You should not be
doing that because someone who is a self proclaimed witch,

(10:57):
they're not looking to talk to a Christian because they're
curious about the things of God. No, they're just looking
to have that back and forth debate. And Christians should
never debate. First of all, we should never argue. We
should never try to convince. We should never debate, because
the whole point of a debate is what so that
one person's argument prevails over the other persons, so that

(11:18):
there is a winner and a loser. But that's not
the point. When the Lord told us to go out
and make disciples and to preach the gospel, he never
said debate the gospel. He never said argue the gospel.
He never said try to convince people of the gospel.
All he said is to spread the gospel, spread that seed,
plant the seed. That is the only responsibility we have
when it comes to us going out and spreading the gospel.

(11:40):
You try to debate somebody and then somebody comes out
a winner, and somebody comes out a loser. What happens
in that situation? Somebody comes out full of resentment? I
guarantee you, because let's say that you're a Christian debating
a witch and you do end up winning the argument,
even though I don't know what the argument it is,
because what are you arguing about? The love of Jesus
Christ is not an argument? Right, So even if you

(12:02):
do come out the winner, what's gonna happen to the loser?
Are they going to leave a conversation with a Christian
feeling empowered?

Speaker 2 (12:08):
No, they're gonna feel defeated.

Speaker 1 (12:10):
And why should someone leave a conversation or an interaction
with God's people feeling defeated, feeling angry because they lost,
feeling resentful. They should leave feeling the opposite. They should
leave feeling like, hmmm, I'm interested in what they got
going on because I see that they love a certain way,
not dang I lost this round. Let me try to

(12:32):
like that's what That's not what the dynamic should ever be.
So when we as Christians are going out and we
are trying to spread the gospel, we're trying to make disciples,
and we encounter someone that is very clearly trying to
be argumentative. We should be backing away from that, because
what did the Lord tell his disciples before or after? No,
it was before he gave his disciples the power to
cast out demons, and he was like, go and you know, do.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
The work or whatever. What did he tell them?

Speaker 1 (12:56):
If there is a city that does not receive you,
you shake the sind off your sind and you keep
it moving. If you go and give someone good news,
the Gospel, the love of Jesus and they do not
accept it, at that point, you're free of your obligation.
I mean, you've already fulfilled your obligation to just spread
the gospel. Anything further than that you have to let

(13:16):
the Holy Spirit work. And I feel like a lot
of times when we as Christians try to debate worldly people,
there's a certain ego in that transaction because you feel
like I can convince them, I can change their mind. No, baby,
you're not, because people who are literally spiritually dead are
not awakened by you. They're awakened by the Holy Spirit.
And the Holy Spirit God himself told us to not

(13:40):
try to convince people. Do not try to rebuke a scoffer,
Do not try to rebuke a wicked man. And I
love that Proverbs nine gives us this tidbit of information
because it just confirms once again that there is a
weight taking off the shoulder of Christians when it comes
to our responsibility about what we should be doing and

(14:00):
how we should be moving.

Speaker 2 (14:01):
If it was up to us.

Speaker 1 (14:03):
To convince a world full of darkness that Jesus is good, baby,
you could talk to your blue in the face. You
would probably get nowhere. If that was truly our jobs,
we would die without that job getting accomplished.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
Thank God.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
It's not our job to convince anyone that God is good.
It is our job to tell people that, not to
convince you. If I look up in the sky and
I tell you that the sky is blue and you
say nods green, baby, conversation's over.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (14:30):
Now, the Bible does tell us that we need to
be able to defend our faith. The Bible does say
that you need to be able to give an account
about what you believe. So if someone comes to you
and they ask you about why do you believe this?
Or how do I become a Christian? How do I
get saved? You, as a Christian better have that spel
in your head to give an account. Have those certain

(14:51):
verses that you always pull from that you reference. You
need to have an account for your faith. Yes, you
need to be able to defend your faith, yes, but
a arguing your faith absolutely not. It does more harm
than good. The Bible is telling us that. So our
job as Christians and the only job that we have, well,

(15:12):
the number one job I guess is to go out
in the world and love and preach the Gospel using
the spiritual gifts that the Lord has given us. Anything
more than that, we leave it in God's hands. We
leave it in the Holy Spirit's hands.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
Amen.

Speaker 1 (15:25):
So Proverbs nine seven through nine gives a lot of
wisdom when it comes to Christians and how we should
deal with unbelievers. But on the flip side, Proverbs nine
seven through nine also tells us how to deal with
people that claim to be children of God as well,
because in this day and age, a Christian could literally
be calling out a plain as day's sin that is

(15:48):
right in front of them, And what would these soul
called Christians say? What is the first thing that people
love to say?

Speaker 2 (15:55):
Now?

Speaker 1 (15:55):
What is their first go to rebuttal anytime plain as
day's sin is called out. Oh, judgment, you're judging. You're
being judgmental, holier than now? Doesn't the Bible say that
do not condemn, hon I'm not condemning you. I'm literally
just telling you that you're sinning. Wouldn't you prefer for
a brother or sister in Christ to call you out

(16:16):
on your sin before it eats you alive? Proverbs nine
seven through nine is also the instruction about how you're
able to differentiate people who are truly living in Christ
and people who are just living in their own pride
and ego. So let's say you take a sister in
Christ off to the side and you tell her, hasis
I know you well enough to know that there is
something going on in your life that should not be there.

(16:37):
Do you want to talk about it? Do you need prayer?
But we need to get this monkey off your back,
you know, like, I want to see you thrive in
this life, and I see this sin in your life.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
It could go either of two ways.

Speaker 1 (16:48):
That person could immediately take offense and automatically go into
defense mode and say you can't judge me, worry about
your own life, worry about your.

Speaker 2 (16:56):
Own business, stay out of my business. You don't know
what's going on. You know.

Speaker 1 (17:01):
That's the way a lot of people respond if they
were to be confronted with sin in their lives. And
that's if they are already cognizant of the sin in
their life, like they know that they're sinning, but when
someone calls them out about it, and all of a sudden,
it's stay in your own lane, mind your business. Let's
say that it hadn't risen to the point of consciousness
with them yet, you know, because a lot of stuff

(17:21):
that we do, other people can peep and we don't
even know what's going on because it could be rooted
in pride and we haven't clocked it for ourselves yet.

Speaker 2 (17:29):
So that's why a sister in Christ has to clock
it for us.

Speaker 1 (17:32):
And it hasn't even gained consciousness yet. And you say, okay,
let me take this back to the Lord and let
me pray on it. And then you pray on it,
and maybe it is true that person should be able
to come back and thank you and say thank you
for correcting me, because I brought it to the Lord
and he actually confirmed.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
Yeah, I do struggle with that.

Speaker 1 (17:50):
Thank you for saving me from making a bigger mistake
letting that sin grow. Thank you for correcting me. Now
I've repented and I feel like a is off my shoulders.
I feel good with God again. Thank you for bringing
that up with me. Just like verse eight says, rebuke
a wise man and he will love you. See, the
world will always take offense to correction. The world does

(18:13):
not want instruction. The world does not want correction. Why
because the world is blinded by the gods.

Speaker 2 (18:18):
Of this age.

Speaker 1 (18:19):
They are spiritually blinded. They have zero spiritual insight. They
don't know who God is. Because if they knew who
God is, they would have godly wisdom, they would have
godly instruction, they would take in godly rebuke. But the
world runs to a fence. The world will say that
you're judging, when all you're doing is pointing out is

(18:40):
sin for their benefit. And then what gets me is
the world will say only God can judge me. Because
here's the thing. Even if people are not living in Christ,
they know who Jesus is, they know who God is,
and they will say only God can judge me. Baby,
I'm trying to save you so that it doesn't get
to that point you say only God can judge you
like that's what you prefer. Oh baby, you don't want

(19:02):
it to get there. I'm trying to save you from
that judgment before God judges you.

Speaker 2 (19:06):
For that sin.

Speaker 1 (19:07):
Repent for that sin right now, because if you die
in that sin, if you die without being saved, if
you die without ever being able to take any kind
of godly correction, godly rebuke, because you are blinded by
your sin, it won't look too good for you. And
that's why the Bible says a wise man accepts correction

(19:29):
and loves you when you rebuke them in the name
of the Lord, because they know that you're trying to
save them from something. But worldly people that are still
living in sin, they don't know any better. So to them,
everything is judgment. Everything should be taken offensively. Everything is
don't condemn me. Not all of sudden. You know your Bible.
Oh okay, now, all of a sudden you want to

(19:50):
quote scripture. But when someone is coming to you lovingly
and telling you, nah, that ain't it sis, you want
to run to a fence. And that's why I really
appreciated Proverbs ND, specifically that portion of Scripture. So as
you can see, this is Obviously my portion of the
chapter that really resonated with me because I'm just like
man that is so spot on. You cannot argue with

(20:14):
the world. You cannot convince them. It is not your
job to debate them. The world will hate you when
you try to lead them the right way. They will
hate you when you try to correct their sin. But
God's people should not operate in that way. God's people
should accept instruction with humility. They should accept rebuke knowing
that the sister or brother in Christ who gave them

(20:36):
that rebuke only has their best interest in mind. They
should take it to the Lord and really ask the
Lord to search their heart. That's what God's people do.
So whenever you are out in the world and you
were met with defensiveness, you were met with your being judgmental,
just understand these people just don't get it yet, and

(20:57):
all you have to do is plant that seed, pray
for them, shake the sand off your sandals, and move
it on.

Speaker 2 (21:04):
Keep it moving.

Speaker 1 (21:05):
Move on to the next city, move on to the
next person, move on to the next person that the
Holy Spirit is telling you to talk to. And that's it. Man,
I feel like I really went in with just those
three verses. I'm telling y'all, like the Bible just reveals
so much about the things that you go through every
single day. And Proverbs, this book of wisdom. I love
when we get into the practical application of it. I

(21:28):
love when I can pull from it. And I'm just like, man,
like this is so true, Like I'm dealing with this
right now. These are things that we as Christians will
deal with. And the wisdom that Proverbs gives that we
are able to apply to our lives will keep us,
will save us from bad situations, will increase us. And

(21:49):
that's what the entire word does. The entire book of
the Bible is only for our benefit. I'm telling y'all, it.

Speaker 2 (21:55):
Is our cheat code. So I hope that you guys.
My cats are going crazy.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
I don't know where they got this sudden burst of energy,
but I hope that you guys have enjoyed Proverbs nine.
We will be back with Proverbs ten tomorrow morning, and
I will talk to you guys then bye.