Proverbs 13:1

A wise son heareth his father’s instruction: but a scorner heareth not rebuke.

The heedless scorner

The first part of the sentence has been rendered, “is his father’s instruction”; i.e., a wise son embodies his father’s instruction. A wise man may point to his son and say, “This is the sum-total of my educational efforts.” The proverb is careful to define the quality of the son whose education embodies the purposes of his father. He is to be a “wise son”; one who can make the most of his opportunities, who understands the process through which he is passing. A scorner is profited by nothing; being a satirist himself, he turns everything into satire; he mocks the speaker of good things, he parodies the highest poetry, he resents the most delicate and spiritual approach. We should not be struck by the mere ability of satire; we should remember its moral disadvantages, for it debases and impoverishes whatever it touches that is meant for its good. We speak of the satire that takes the moral purpose out of every appeal, and turns to derision all the efforts that are directed towards the soul’s real education. Wisdom gathers everything; scorning gathers nothing. It is for each man to say that he will walk in the one spirit or in the other, but let him distinctly know what the consequences of each spirit must be. (J. Parker, D.D.)

The teachable and unteachable son

I. The teachable son. “A wise son heareth his father’s instruction.” Solomon, of course, supposes that the father is what a father ought to be. He who attends to the instruction of a father, Solomon says, is wise. He is wise--

1. Because he attends to the Divine condition of human improvement. The Creator has ordained that the rising generation should get its wisdom from the teachings of its parents. It is by generations learning of predecessors that the race advances.

2. Because he gratifies the heart of his best earthly friend.

II. The unteachable son. “A scorner heareth not rebuke.” Some persons justly merit derision; some things merit contempt. A son who scorns either the person or the counsels of his father is not in a state of mind to hear rebuke--he is unteachable. (D. Thomas, D.D.)