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Proverbs 13:13 · World English Bible

Proverbs 13:13 Meaning Whoever Despises Instruction Will Pay for It

Whoever despises instruction will pay for it, but he who respects a command will be rewarded.

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What does Proverbs 13:13 mean?

To turn away from truth is not to be punished by it but to lose the only thing that keeps the mind whole, for the word is the memory of love, and a mind that scorns its own reality drifts into the ego's dream and calls that drifting destruction. Nothing outside strikes it down.

From the Christian Psychology reading below.

Proverbs 13:13 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY

Christian Psychology

To turn away from truth is not to be punished by it but to lose the only thing that keeps the mind whole, for the word is the memory of love, and a mind that scorns its own reality drifts into the ego's dream and calls that drifting destruction. Nothing outside strikes it down. It simply refuses the correction that would wake it and suffers the sleep it chose.

The reverence that honors truth is not dread of a judge but respect for what is real. A mind that holds the deeper law with care aligns itself with love, and the reward is not a prize handed down from above; it is the quiet return to sanity that following truth always brings.

Word: the memory of love and truth held within the mind, the reality that scorning it seems to lose. Commandment: the deeper law of love the mind can honor, whose reverence is not fear of a judge but respect for what is true.

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Christian Psychology lens

Live Proverbs 13:13 today

  1. There is something you already know you should do, the message you owe, the appointment you keep putting off. Do that one thing today without negotiating with yourself about it.
  2. When someone you trust tells you something true that stings, resist the quick defense and say you will think about it. Then actually think about it on the walk home.
  3. Under pressure, when cutting a corner would be easy and nobody would know, keep your own standard anyway. The point is not being caught, it is staying someone you recognize.

What do I already know that I keep finding reasons not to live by?

The same truth in other traditions

Stoicism · Epictetus

It is impossible to learn what you already think you know. The refusal to be taught is the whole of the loss.

Tao Te Ching 16

Go back to the root and you find stillness. Ignore the root and you are tossed around by every passing thing.

Buddhism · Dhammapada

Someone who knows the teaching but will not live it is like a cowherd counting another man's cattle. Nothing is withheld, nothing is received.

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