NOTES for Pro 27:1-27
In ordinary life, we generally try to hide our dislike and unkind feelings toward someone. But one part of today's reading alters our desire to be “pleasant in every respect” to everyone. Open rebuke seems to us a dreadful ordeal, not only when we are rebuked but also when we do the rebuking. It is impossible to imagine that anyone in their right mind would agree to such a thing. Yet the author of Proverbs tells us that open rebuke is better than hidden love. It is a strange paradox, but only an apparent contradiction, because each of us is afraid of the unknown and the uncertain—the turmoil of wondering: do they love or hate me, are they an enemy or a friend? Caught in this trap, sooner or later we would rather learn the truth than languish in uncertainty, even if what is revealed to us is a rebuke.