[This is the prepared text for a sermonette given to the Portland congregation of the United Church of God on Sabbath, September 7, 2019.]

When we read the book of Proverbs, we can find dozens of bad things that the book has to say about fools.  I would like to quote some of those negative comments.   Proverbs 1:32 tells us:  “For the turning away of the simple will slay them, And the complacency of fools will destroy them.”  Proverbs 9:32 says:  “A foolish woman is clamorous; She is simple, and knows nothing.”  Proverbs 13:20 instructs us:  “He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will be destroyed.”  Proverbs 14:16 says:  “A wise man fears and departs from evil, But a fool rages and is self-confident.”  Proverbs 17:10 tells us:  “Rebuke is more effective for a wise man than a hundred blows on a fool.”  And on and on it goes.  There are dozens of references to fools and their folly in the book of Proverbs, enough that going over them in detail is a subject that could take multiple sermon messages, and we don’t have that much time.

No matter where we turn, we live in an age that celebrates folly.  Whether we turn on the television and watch reality television shows or watch what is labeled as comedy in movies or turn on our computers and look at our smart phones at social media, foolishness is all around us.  It is tempting for us to look with contempt at the folly we see.  But God does not grade on a curve.  It does not help us if we are less foolish than the world around us if we are still foolish ourselves by the standards of the Bible.  And this begs the question:  how does the book of Proverbs diagnose someone as a fool?  After all, if by the standards of the book of Proverbs we are fools, then all of the bad things that the book has to say about fools is being said about us.  And that is not a place we want to be.  Let us now turn to see what symptoms allow us, by the definition of the book of Proverbs, to determine if we are fools.

The first quality of fools that is diagnosed in the book of Proverbs is their hatred of knowledge.  Before we finish the first chapter of the book of Proverbs, this quality is discussed twice.  Let us first look at Proverbs 1:7.  Proverbs 1:7 tells us:  “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction.”  In this same chapter, dropping down to verse 22, we read the following:  ““How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? For scorners delight in their scorning, And fools hate knowledge.”  Twice, at the beginning of the book of Proverbs, Solomon felt it necessary to remind the reader that one of the most obvious aspects of folly was the hatred that fools have for knowledge.  This knowledge comes about at first because of a fear of the Eternal and a desire to know what pleases Him, and requires a respect for authorities, including one’s teachers, whether they teach in person or through their writings.  To be wise, one must seek out scriptural knowledge as well as knowledge about history and understanding about God’s creation as well as that of people and their doings.  To make fun of and to belittle and disregard learning and education and those who have put forth the effort to become learned and wise and knowledgeable is to be a fool as the Bible defines it.  Are we fools by this standard?

The second quality that the Bible uses to diagnose fools is their love of evil.  Proverbs 13:19 gives us the most general description of this particular phenomenon.  Proverbs 13:19 tells us:  “A desire accomplished is sweet to the soul, But it is an abomination to fools to depart from evil.”  Instead of it being an abomination to fools to commit evil, as such a thing is in the eyes of God, it is viewed as being abominable for a fool to depart evil and to do what is righteous.  It is a natural consequence of hating knowledge and wisdom that one would want to live in a way that was contrary to God’s ways.  One does not hate godly knowledge out of ignorance, but out of rebellion.  Not too far from this general statement, Solomon gives us two further elaborations of the attachment of fools to wickedness, in Proverbs 14:8-9, where he tells us:  “The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way, But the folly of fools is deceit.  Fools mock at sin, But among the upright there is favor.”  While the Bible states that the righteous find favor with God and often with others, and have self-knowledge and an understanding of how they live, fools instead mock sin and do not take it seriously, and are particularly attached to deceit.  Just as truth is fundamental to being wise, so too deceit and lying are at the basis of folly, for fools lie to themselves about the moral foundation of their lives and behaviors as well as the likely outcome of their foolish and wicked endeavors.  Again, in looking at this matter we must ask ourselves, are we fools by the standard that Proverbs provides us?  Are our lives filled with integrity and self-knowledge and honesty about ourselves or are they filled with deceit and an attachment to wickedness?

The third quality I would like to discuss today by which the Bible defines someone as a fool is their attitude to instruction and correction.  Proverbs 15:5 tells us about this particular quality.  Proverbs 15:5 says:  “A fool despises his father’s instruction, But he who receives correction is prudent.”  Correction is not something that any of us particularly enjoys receiving from others, but learning from it thereby is ultimately beneficial to us, and the wise person will be willing to endure present suffering and annoyance and correction for the future benefits that come from becoming better through that instruction.  Later on, Proverbs 17:10 elaborates on this, telling us:  “Rebuke is more effective for a wise man Than a hundred blows on a fool.”  And Proverbs 19:29 colorfully tells us:  “Judgments are prepared for scoffers, And beatings for the backs of fools.”  All of these verses tell us that the hatred of a fool for correction paradoxically means that fools receive a lot more correction than they would otherwise receive if they were wise and discerning.  This is not hard to understand.  A fool persists in doing what is wrong and rejects instruction in right ways, and as a result the fool continually is corrected and rebuked and punished over and over and over again despite knowing that that what they do is wrong and that it will be punished.  Are we fools by this definition?  Do we persist in doing and saying the wrong things despite the fact that we are repeatedly punished for it?

When one looks at these three particular qualities by which Solomon defines someone as a fool, one can see that these three qualities are relate to each other.  The fool hates knowledge and is complacent in his or her ignorance, is attached to sin, and hates correction.  Having a love of knowledge, specifically as it related to how to live one’s life, would not be combined with complacency, and would indicate that one was not attached to evil and hostile to God’s ways, and that one would therefore be amenable to correction.  The more obstinate one is in holding on to wickedness, the more painful self-knowledge and correction, and the more hostile one is going to be to them.  And again, we must ask ourselves whether this describes us.  To be sure, there are likely to be places in our lives where we are more wise and discerning than most of the people around us, but there are likely to be areas in our lives where we do not do so well.  And it does not matter if we are surrounded by fools if we are fools ourselves, for we will fall under the same judgment.

What does this mean for us, though?  The apostle Paul gives us a solemn warning about how spiritual conditions will be like in the end times.  In 2 Timothy 4:1-5, at the end of his life, Paul understood that conditions in the end times would be difficult for those who sought to teach and instruct others according to God’s ways.  2 Timothy 4:1-5 reads:  “I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.  For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.  But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”  As we have seen, the conditions that Paul is warning about here as a problem are precisely those things that make someone foolish according to the book of Proverbs, turning away from the truth to believe in fables and not being able to endure sound doctrine that comes with rebuke and correction.  We live in such times, and we can see all around us what happens to a society that is not willing to accept correction.  Are we fools?  Does what is said by Solomon in Proverbs about fools and by Paul in 2 Timothy apply to us?  Let us all examine ourselves.