Proverbs 15:14 ESV
The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge, but the mouths of fools feed on folly.
[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+15%3A14&version=ESV]
When it comes to wisdom, what you have, you want more of. Wise people want more wisdom; foolish people want more foolishness. Why? Why shouldn’t a foolish person want wisdom or a wise person foolishness? Depend on how we define things, that’s certainly possible- but rare. Wisdom makes use want wisdom; foolishness keeps us from wanting wisdom (and therefore leads to use desiring foolishness). We can see this too in individual decisions. When a wise man is challenged on his choices, he reacts differently from a foolish man. Wisdom and its inverse, foolishness, has a self-reinforcing effect by their very nature, as we’ll see.
What is wisdom? What is foolishness? A wise man is a man who has shaped his character, his actions, and his soul according to the image of God. He strives therefore to follow the law of God; he loves the law of God. A foolish man is one who eschews the way of righteousness, who indulges his vices, who turns away from God.
Wisdom leads man to want more wisdom. Why? The simple (and possibly unhelpful) answer is that it’s wise to want wisdom. More clearly, wisdom is a desirable and Godly goal. Proverbs 16:16 emphasizes this point: “How much better to get wisdom than gold! To get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.” Wisdom, therefore, urges us to seek wisdom. Proverbs 4:7 (and so many other verses in that book) makes this clear: “The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight.” It is wise to seek wisdom- which makes sense, because if you aren’t trying to find wisdom, you aren’t going to get it in the first place.
Foolishness is a little less direct in its self-propagation. Foolish people don’t explicitly seek foolishness the same way wise people seek wisdom. No, foolishness propagates itself by parts. I indulge a vice once, twice, thrice, and each time it’s easier, less affecting my conscience. I am angry there, lustful there, greedy there, impatient there. Foolishness, being wisdom’s negation rather than its own entity, grows through the neglect of virtue which is foolishness’s essence. If I don’t seek God and His law, I will turn farther and farther from Him.
One area where we can see these diverging (mirrored) tendencies is in how we respond to reproof. A wise person and a foolish one have very different responses to being told they’re in the wrong. Now, we all have a native impulse when we’re told we’re wrong- usually ‘no’. We see this in toddlers. Tell a toddler he shouldn’t have gotten out the talcum powder, spread it around the house, and played in it. He won’t be interested in the logic; he’s pretty sure he’s in the right. This is our native impulse: self-justification.
When we grow up, we start to realize that ‘nu-uh’ isn’t going to cut it as our answer anymore. If I tell I boss ‘nu-uh’ when he asks why the task he asked me to do isn’t done…. I better have another job offer lined up, because that’s not a long-term pro-employment strategy. So instead I come up with a justification or excuse. The computer was slow, I had a bad day, it was too much work, etc. Here, of course, I’ve included the implicit assumption that I’m in the wrong. Possibly I’m not. Maybe the task was really impossible to finish in the time allotted. I don’t care how diligent you are, loading a semi truck by hand takes longer than five minutes. Regardless of my rectitude, though, the impulse is the same: self-vindication. I want to prove myself right, both to the other guy and to myself, and frankly I’m offended that anybody thinks I’m capable of being wrong (we all have egos buried down there somewhere).
Foolishness is the natural impulse of mankind. The foolish man looks at something and refuses to believe he could be in the wrong. To give an extreme example, the foolish man will hear his father reprove him for committing adultery, and the foolish man will respond by blaming his father and his wife for his sin. Perhaps they had sins of their own, but that does not obviate the sin of adultery the fool committed.
Further, we, fools that we are, often try to use emotional reasoning (even manipulation) to justify ourselves. If I punch my brother in the face because I want his slice of pizza, there’s a temptation for me to assemble a narrative which makes me look better. I tell myself he was asking for it, that the pizza really should have been mine, that he was making a face at me, mocking me for his triumph. I tell everybody else that the punch was really accidental, that I didn’t think he’d really feel it, that I really need that slice of pizza because I have had a hard day. In other words, I find any excuse I can to justify my sinful act of punching my brother over a slice of pizza. It’s not a very coherent narrative. As an author, I can tell you no novel with that plot is going to get good reviews (except possibly as a study of psychology). It’s a narrative, though, which allows me to sideline the truth in favor of my desires, and that’s what matters to me in this circumstance, as a fool.
The wise man, in contrast, loves reproof. Proverbs repeatedly extols the man who heeds reproof, as in 13:18 and 15:32. Why? Because when we’re wrong, we need to listen to the people telling us we’re wrong. Scripture itself is explicitly designated as a means of reproof by Paul in 2 Timothy, where he says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness…” (3:16). We are very often wrong, and we need to be told that, and we need to listen when we’re told.
Not all reproof is good reproof, to be clear. When the Marxist chastises you for owning private property or the ‘Christian’ attacks you for believing that God’s word, the Bible, is actually true, that’s not reproof worth heeding. Hear it, recognize its falsity, and turn away from it. The ultimate standard of reproof, as ever, is God’s word.
The wise man, therefore, responds to reproof thus: he considers it, compares it to Scripture, and seeks the truth. He does not cease inquiry because the final result might condemn him. He chooses rather to pursue that inquiry which might condemn him; he knows that to be condemned and repent is better than to avoid reproof and perish. The wise man loves reproof because it enables him, when it condemns, to turn towards God, because should it be unjustified, it assures him of the rightness of his course. The foolish man is not so. He despises reproof because it threatens his vice. He justifies himself not because he is truly just but because he refuses to admit anything which could condemn him.
These two types of persons are not unmixed on this earth. Generally speaking, even the most foolish is capable of heeding reproof on at least one matter, by the mercy of God. In this life, man is not yet devoid of the image of God which urges him towards wisdom, though without God’s grace man will never choose that which truly pleases Him (Heb. 11:6). Universally, even the wises among men sin (1 John 1:10). We can therefore be sure that even the wisest is liable to respond foolishly on occasion. The slip from foolishness to foolishness is natural mankind, easy to fall back upon even for the wisest in this flesh (Rom. 7:15). The righteous, though, have this assurance from God: those whom He justifies, He also sanctifies, makes holy, brings to true wisdom (1 Thess. 5:23). God alone raises man from his fallen foolishness, and those He raises He will make wise, first imperfectly upon this earth and at last to perfection in the new heavens and new earth (Is. 65:17; Rev. 22:3).
God bless.
Written by Colson Potter
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
