The Proverbs can be pretty blunt sometimes. For instance look at Prov 12:21:
"Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid."
It's almost comical in its bluntness but also painfully true at times. I find that the times when I make the dumbest decisions are when I fail to heed correction. By and large I tend to be too proud to listen or ask for help. I thought to myself recently, what is the root of my groundless and injurious pride? Proverbs seems to shed some light on this. We see the phrase 'the fool' used alongside 'the wise' quite a bit in the Proverbs. We usually think of a fool as one who is stubborn or has a lack of common sense or knowledge. Surely the root of the problem for most people who can't seem to stay out of trouble is their lack of knowledge, their own obstinacy or a dearth of guidance from others. But the Bible puts a little bit of a different spin on the concept of foolishness. If you look at the footnote by the word 'fool' you'll read
The Hebrew words rendered fool in Proverbs, and often elsewhere in the Old Testament, denote one who is morally deficient.
One consequence of us being cut off from the Creator due to sin is stupidity. We make some really dumb decisions simply because we are far from God. In our state of moral corruptness we almost always follow our desires for pleasure, pride and power. These pursuits ensnare us to all kinds of idols. As Tim Keller pointed out, idols are not practical in the long run; they end up causing us more harm than good, usually until we're destroyed by our pursuit of them. Think about how greed, lust, hatred, jealousy and the like simply rip us up or dismantle us from the inside out at some point down the road. When our moral faculties are affected by sin, we become extremely near-sighted and we often miss the more important aspects of living, such as love, forgiveness, community, generosity, nobility and the like. Sin makes us inward focused and the result is that we end up destroying ourselves from the inside out. Hatred leads to bitterness and mistrust. This in turn pollutes our hearts to the point that these sentiments flow over into other relationships thus marring their quality. Sin has ripple effects that we cannot even begin to see down the road. Nabal, whose name means 'fool' by the way, is a prime example of this. In his sinful pride he dealt harshly with his servants. This attitude affected how he dealt with king David and his men. His foolish behavior almost led them to slaughter him were it not for his oppositely wise wife, Abigail. He ended up dying of a heart attack after he was informed that he just narrowly escaped death. Eventually, his own sin was his undoing. Moral deficiency is a fruit of disobedience to God's law and it results in us doing some pretty foolish and ultimately damning things. So what is our remedy? Thank God that he has provided us with wisdom from above:
28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not —to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness,holiness and redemption. - 1 Cor 1:28-30
Christ has forgiven our foolish acts, past, present and future. Moreover, through the redeeming power of Christ, we are day by day being renewed in heart and mind. We realize our moral deficiency before God and we come to him with humility and reverence so that we may learn from. This results in our mental, emotional and spiritual growth. Christ, our wisdom from God saves us from a life of stupid, morally deficient decisions which would otherwise eternally sever us from God. Thank God that he provides us wisdom that we may no longer be fools.
"Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid."
It's almost comical in its bluntness but also painfully true at times. I find that the times when I make the dumbest decisions are when I fail to heed correction. By and large I tend to be too proud to listen or ask for help. I thought to myself recently, what is the root of my groundless and injurious pride? Proverbs seems to shed some light on this. We see the phrase 'the fool' used alongside 'the wise' quite a bit in the Proverbs. We usually think of a fool as one who is stubborn or has a lack of common sense or knowledge. Surely the root of the problem for most people who can't seem to stay out of trouble is their lack of knowledge, their own obstinacy or a dearth of guidance from others. But the Bible puts a little bit of a different spin on the concept of foolishness. If you look at the footnote by the word 'fool' you'll read
The Hebrew words rendered fool in Proverbs, and often elsewhere in the Old Testament, denote one who is morally deficient.
One consequence of us being cut off from the Creator due to sin is stupidity. We make some really dumb decisions simply because we are far from God. In our state of moral corruptness we almost always follow our desires for pleasure, pride and power. These pursuits ensnare us to all kinds of idols. As Tim Keller pointed out, idols are not practical in the long run; they end up causing us more harm than good, usually until we're destroyed by our pursuit of them. Think about how greed, lust, hatred, jealousy and the like simply rip us up or dismantle us from the inside out at some point down the road. When our moral faculties are affected by sin, we become extremely near-sighted and we often miss the more important aspects of living, such as love, forgiveness, community, generosity, nobility and the like. Sin makes us inward focused and the result is that we end up destroying ourselves from the inside out. Hatred leads to bitterness and mistrust. This in turn pollutes our hearts to the point that these sentiments flow over into other relationships thus marring their quality. Sin has ripple effects that we cannot even begin to see down the road. Nabal, whose name means 'fool' by the way, is a prime example of this. In his sinful pride he dealt harshly with his servants. This attitude affected how he dealt with king David and his men. His foolish behavior almost led them to slaughter him were it not for his oppositely wise wife, Abigail. He ended up dying of a heart attack after he was informed that he just narrowly escaped death. Eventually, his own sin was his undoing. Moral deficiency is a fruit of disobedience to God's law and it results in us doing some pretty foolish and ultimately damning things. So what is our remedy? Thank God that he has provided us with wisdom from above:
28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not —to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness,holiness and redemption. - 1 Cor 1:28-30
Christ has forgiven our foolish acts, past, present and future. Moreover, through the redeeming power of Christ, we are day by day being renewed in heart and mind. We realize our moral deficiency before God and we come to him with humility and reverence so that we may learn from. This results in our mental, emotional and spiritual growth. Christ, our wisdom from God saves us from a life of stupid, morally deficient decisions which would otherwise eternally sever us from God. Thank God that he provides us wisdom that we may no longer be fools.
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