The Allergic Scoffer Text: Proverbs 15:12
Introduction: The Diagnostic Proverb
The book of Proverbs is a book of spiritual diagnosis. It doesn't just describe behaviors; it reveals heart conditions. It lays out the foundational antithesis of reality: the way of the wise and the way of the fool. And within the category of the fool, there is a special, terminal case. He is the scoffer, the scorner, the mocker. He is the man who has become so pickled in his own arrogance that he is allergic to the very medicine that could save him.
This proverb is a sharp, diagnostic tool. It gives us two clear symptoms of a man in the advanced stages of folly. First, he hates the person who points out his error. Second, he actively avoids the company of those who could teach him anything. This isn't just a personality quirk. This is a spiritual pathology. It is a soul that has slammed its doors, locked its windows, and has declared that no outside light will be permitted to enter. The scoffer is the man who is determined to be his own god, and as a result, he must be his own savior, which means he is in a world of trouble.
We live in an age of the celebrated scoffer. Our culture elevates the cynic, the mocker, the deconstructionist who stands on the sidelines and sneers at every attempt to build, to define, or to declare truth. The scoffer believes his mockery makes him sophisticated, but the Bible tells us it makes him a fool of the highest order. He thinks he is above it all, but in reality, he is trapped in a prison of his own making, a sterile echo chamber where the only voice he hears is his own. This proverb is a warning to us, not to become such a man, and a guide for us, on how to identify him.
The Text
A scoffer does not love one who reproves him,
He will not go to the wise.
(Proverbs 15:12 LSB)
Hostility to Correction
We begin with the first clause:
"A scoffer does not love one who reproves him," (Proverbs 15:12a)
The key to understanding the scoffer is his relationship to rebuke. It is not one of mere disagreement or dislike. The text says he does not "love" the one who reproves him. This is covenantal language. The opposite of this love is hatred. The scoffer hates the reprover. Why? Because the reproof is a direct assault on his central idol, which is his own ego, his own autonomy. To the scoffer, a rebuke is not a kindness; it is an act of war.
Think of King Ahab's reaction to the prophet Micaiah. When Jehoshaphat suggested they inquire of the Lord, Ahab said, "There is yet one man... but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but always evil" (2 Chronicles 18:7). Ahab didn't hate Micaiah for lying; he hated him for telling the truth. The truth exposed Ahab's rebellion and pricked his pride. The scoffer's problem is not intellectual; it is moral. He loves his sin, and therefore he must hate the light that exposes it. As the Lord Jesus said, "everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed" (John 3:20).
This is a critical distinction for us to grasp. The wise man, when corrected, understands that "faithful are the wounds of a friend" (Proverbs 27:6). He can separate the critique from his identity. He knows he is a creature, a sinner in need of grace and correction. The scoffer cannot do this. His identity is fused with his performance and his opinions. Therefore, to challenge his opinion is to challenge his very being. The rebuke feels like an assassination attempt. This is why Proverbs tells us elsewhere, "Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you" (Proverbs 9:8). You are not just wasting your breath; you are making a bitter enemy.
The scoffer's reaction is a spiritual immune response. When the truth of a rebuke enters his system, all the antibodies of his pride rush to attack it as a foreign invader. His heart is so conditioned to self-worship that it cannot process the suggestion that he might be wrong. This is the man who, when you point out a smudge on his face, accuses you of assaulting him.
Avoidance of Wisdom
The second clause is the logical and necessary consequence of the first.
"He will not go to the wise." (Proverbs 15:12b)
This is not complicated. If you have an allergy to medicine, you stay away from doctors. If you are a scoffer who hates correction, you stay away from the wise, because you know what they are going to give you. The wise are dispensers of truth, correction, and instruction. The scoffer wants none of it. He would rather remain in his folly than endure the discomfort of having it exposed.
This avoidance is an active strategy. The scoffer curates his environment to protect his pride. He surrounds himself with fools, flatterers, and fellow scoffers who will reinforce his delusions. He creates an echo chamber where his own foolishness is amplified back to him as wisdom. He will not read the books, listen to the sermons, or seek the counsel of those who might challenge him. He knows, instinctively, that the wise are dangerous to his self-constructed world.
This is the tragedy of the scoffer. He cuts himself off from the very source of life and healing. Wisdom cries aloud in the street, but the scoffer puts in his earplugs and walks the other way. He is perishing from a disease for which there is a readily available cure, but he despises the cure more than the disease itself. His condition is self-imposed and self-perpetuating. His hatred of reproof leads him to avoid the wise, and his avoidance of the wise ensures that he will never be corrected, thus cementing him ever more deeply in his folly.
This is why the first Psalm begins with a negative. "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers" (Psalm 1:1). The path to blessing begins by refusing to go where the scoffer goes, which is anywhere but to the wise.
The Gospel for Scoffers
Is there any hope for such a man? Left to himself, absolutely not. The scoffer is in a spiritual death spiral. His pride is a fortress, seemingly impenetrable. But this is where the gospel crashes in with glorious, unexpected power.
The ultimate act of reproof in all of history was the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross is God's final, definitive statement about the depth of our sin. It declares that our condition is so utterly hopeless, so terminally foolish, that it required the death of the Son of God to remedy it. There is no greater rebuke to human pride than the cross.
And what is the natural man's reaction to this rebuke? He scoffs. "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing" (1 Corinthians 1:18). At the foot of the cross, the scoffers gathered to mock. "He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him" (Matthew 27:42). They demanded that God conform to their definition of wisdom and power, and when He refused, they sneered.
Every one of us, by nature, is a scoffer. We do not love God's reproof, and we will not go to the Wise One, Jesus Christ, for help. We are Ahabs, hating the prophet. We are Athenians, mocking Paul on Mars Hill. Our hearts are just as allergic to the ultimate rebuke of the cross as anyone's.
But God, in His mercy, does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. He performs a divine heart transplant. He takes out the sclerotic, pride-filled heart of the scoffer and replaces it with a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). The Holy Spirit opens our blind eyes to see the cross not as the ultimate folly, but as "the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Corinthians 1:24). He makes us see that the ultimate reproof is also the ultimate act of love.
The Christian is a former scoffer who has been humbled by grace. And because we have been humbled, we can now receive correction. We can now love the one who reproves us, because we know our standing is not in our own performance, but in the perfect performance of Christ. We can now go to the wise, and supremely, to Christ Himself, the very Wisdom of God, because we are no longer terrified of what we will find. We know we will find not just rebuke, but mercy. We will find not just correction, but grace upon grace.
Therefore, if you see the scoffer's pattern in your own heart, a rising anger at correction, a reflexive avoidance of wise counsel, do not despair. See it for the sin it is, and run to the cross. The cross is the place where God rebukes scoffers and saves them in the very same act.