Honorable people avoid strife. Foolish people are quick to quarrel.
Proverbs 20:3 in four different translations:
It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife, but every fool will be quarreling. ESV
It is to a man’s honor to avoid strife, but every fool is quick to quarrel. NIV
It is an honor for a person to cease from strife, but every fool quarrels. The NET Bible.
Keeping away from strife is an honor for a man, But any fool will quarrel. NASB
John Frame offers one explanation of why we are sometimes critical and quick to quarrel, even though wisdom counsels against it:
Because we want glory for ourselves, we seek to find fault in others. Contentious people are constantly looking for something to argue about, some way to start controversy and disrupt the peace.” John Frame*
*Quoted in Jim Belcher, Deep Church, page 66, originally found in Evangelical Reunion (Baker, 1991).
Quarreling also robs us of our happiness and belies our identity as God’s own.
“Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.”
“Proverbs 20:3 in four different translations….”
Well, three translations, and the NIV.
:^P
Wait — was that quarrelsome?
Foolish people tend to think that quarreling is a form of love because you are interacting with them and they desire attention.
Such a shame.