Reprove not a scoffer, lest he hate you: rebuke a wise man, and he will love you.
All Commentaries on Proverbs 9:8 Go To Proverbs 9
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
It happens regularly and it happens often that a man is cast down for a short time while he is being reproved, that he resists and fights back. But afterwards he reflects in solitude where there is no one but God and himself, and where he does not fear the displeasure of others by being corrected, but does fear the displeasure of God by refusing correction. Thereafter, he does not repeat the act which was justly censured but now loves the brother, whom he sees as the enemy of his sin, as much as he hates the sin itself.
