A Biblical Suggestion for Conducting Ourselves in the Cesspool of Social Media
Audio article narrated by the author
The book of Proverbs is known for its pithy wisdom—its snark (if you will). A single verse can pack enough punch to stop you in your tracks, and enough depth to leave you pondering for days.
If there were a book of the Bible tailor-made for the age of Tweets and TikTok, Proverbs is it.
The book seems well aware of the realities of life in a time when it’s easy to lead with the mouth, and only occasionally follow-up with the mind.
It also has a good bit to say about fools, their dangers, habits, and behaviors; as well as how to avoid becoming one, and the best way to interact with one.
Proverbs is also poetry. It loves to play with words and meanings. Occasionally, it rewards the researcher with increasing levels of insight the further he digs. It offers that punchy one-liner that keeps punching the more you try to figure it out.
This verse (Prov. 9:7) falls into both these categories, a quick gut-check for the social media age, that keeps hitting that sore spot the deeper you probe it. The NIV translates, “Whoever corrects a mocker invites insults; whoever rebukes the wicked incurs abuse.” That’s a concept well-worth pondering.
Wading into the endless sludge of online argument, or responding to an emotional jab, which doesn’t engage the content of what was said, with an emotional jab of your own voluntarily opens yourself up to insult and abuse.
Wisdom would indicate it is unwise to do so. But this proverb offers even more.
The NIV translation is missing some of the gravity of the Hebrew. Instead of a verb-noun combo, like the English “incurs abuse,” Hebrew uses a single word: מום, mum. Actually, the pronunciation is probably closer to moom, but that would ruin my fancy title.
The straightforward translation of mum is “blemish” or “defect.”[1]
In Proverbs 9:7, mum receives suffix, indicating the recipient of the action. In this case, the suffix is himself. “Whoever corrects a mocker invites insult; whoever rebukes the wicked blemishes himself.”
That’s another level of meaning to ponder. Engaging in foolish arguments, the cheap-shot emotional salvo of internet back and forth doesn’t invite abuse from others, it isn’t a risk proposition where you open yourself to harm; you actively harm yourself by engaging in the activity.
That’s a lesson to take to heart. Yet this proverb goes further still.
The word mum occurs only 21 times in the entire Old Testament. Eight of those appearances are in Leviticus chapters 21-22, listing restrictions for priests and animals participating in sacrifices in the Tabernacle.
“No man of the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a blemish (mum) shall come near to offer the Lord's food offerings; since he has a blemish (mum), he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God (Lev. 21:21 ESV).”
Carrying mum, a blemish, was a disqualifying condition for approaching God’s holy places. Taking this idea back to Proverbs 9:7, when we engage with fools, we not only invite scorn on ourselves, we not only damage ourselves, but we blemish ourselves in a way that disqualifies one to serve in the most holy places.
To paraphrase, “He who corrects a scoffer invites shame, and he who rebukes the wicked disqualifies himself.” The priests in Leviticus 21 carried no fault for their blemishes, because they had no control over them. How much more are we disqualified if we choose the blemish in order to score quick rhetorical points in the public square?
I want to be careful here, because we do not live under the old covenant. There is no class of priest beyond the believer which has special access to God’s holy places. There is no physical blemish a person can carry which makes her any more or less acceptable in God’s eyes (John 9:3, 41).
Christ has functioned as our priest so that we may enjoy access to the throne with confidence (Heb. 4:14-16), a privilege not enjoyed by the Israelites, priest or not.
At the same time, I also want to take seriously the following: (1) Christ’s warning that to call a brother a fool is to risk the fires of hell (Matt. 5:22); (2) Paul’s exhortation that we should not allow the shallow teachings and ideas of others to disqualify us from our own spiritual walk (Gal. 5:7-8; Col. 2:18); and (3) James’ warning that those who strive to teach will be held to a higher standard and that the words we produce have great power (James 3:1-12).
I also want to be careful because there is a place in the Christian life for correction and rebuke. There is also a place for healthy, and even robust disagreement.
However, Scripture indicates that activity should be done in gentleness, love, and with the goal of a restored relationship (Gal. 6:1; Matt. 18:15-17). Those are not the conversations I have in mind here, but rather the disagreements which stray from the heart of the matter into a more personal back and forth.
The idea that engaging in petty banter online blemishes our relationship with God might be a large step, but it isn’t so large that we should pass over it without pause.
What is more certain is that engaging in cheap back-and-forth in public spaces damages our relationships with others and also damages ourselves.
From my personal experience, because I am far from innocent in this regard, the intent of engaging in this behavior is feeling superior, as if we command the intellectual high-ground and/or are more “in the know” with important truths regarding the ways of the world.
Proverbs warns that the outcome is the opposite. It does not improve your status in the eyes of others. Rather than becoming someone with valuable insight for life, you disqualify yourself by arguing with fools.
Mum’s the word to remember in these type of arguments. It is better to be silent than to be blemished.
NOTES
[1]. F. Brown, S. Driver, and Briggs C., The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (18; Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2018), 548.
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