Proverbs 22:10

The book of Proverbs is a collection of practical wisdom compiled over centuries in ancient Israel, much of it attributed to King Solomon. This proverb addresses community health in direct, almost blunt terms. A "mocker" in the biblical tradition isn't simply someone who jokes around or asks hard questions — it's a person who consistently scorns wisdom, dismisses accountability, and corrodes group life through contempt and cynicism. The proverb makes a striking diagnosis: the mocker isn't just one problematic voice among many — they are often the root source of ongoing conflict in a community. Remove the mocker, the verse says, and strife, quarrels, and insults tend to resolve themselves. It's a wisdom observation about how one corrosive personality can destabilize an entire group.

God, give me the courage to make hard calls about who shapes the community around me — and the honesty to ask whether I'm ever the one doing harm. Protect the people I love from contempt, including mine. Amen.

We've all been in a room where one person's energy changes everything. Not always loudly — sometimes it's the slow drip of sarcasm, the eye-roll, the person who meets every new idea with a barely disguised sneer. Proverbs calls this person a mocker — not a critic (critics can be invaluable) but someone whose fundamental posture is contempt. What's striking about this proverb is how surgical the solution is: remove them, and watch the conflict evaporate. It doesn't say "work harder at unity" or "be more patient." It says the mocker is the problem, and a boundary is the answer. This is not a comfortable verse if you're wired toward endless reconciliation — and that instinct is often right and good. But wisdom also knows that not every conflict is a communication problem. Sometimes the most loving thing for a community — a church, a team, a friendship group, a family dinner — is a clear limit. The harder question this verse raises isn't about the obvious mocker in someone else's life. It's this: are there spaces where you are the one bringing contempt, quiet dismissiveness, or eye-rolling cynicism? That's the more uncomfortable confrontation. And it might matter more than the one you were already thinking about.