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Proverbs Purpose #4: To Transform People

October 4, 2024 By Peter Krol

To give prudence to the simple,
Knowledge and discretion to the youth –
Let the wise hear and increase in learning,
And the one who understands obtain guidance (Prov 1:4-5, ESV).

A Push in the Right Direction

We’ve already seen that Solomon wrote Proverbs so we might know wisdom (partly by recognizing those who speak it) and live wisely. Solomon’s third purpose for writing is found in verses 4 and 5. He desires nothing less than the transformation of the simple person (“the youth”) into a wise person (who has “prudence”), and of a wise person (“one who understands”) into a wiser person (one who will “increase in learning”).

Remember that the simple person is the one at the crossroads. This person has not yet decided which fork in the road to take: the one moving toward the Lord (wisdom), or the one moving away from the Lord (folly). Solomon here offers a push in the right direction. His proverbs will help us to move toward wisdom.

Remember also that the wise person is not someone who has achieved enlightenment or some sort of spiritual heightening. Rather, the wise person is simply moving in the right direction. If you are moving closer and closer to the Lord, you are wise. Solomon’s proverbs will inject supplements into your tank so the fuel can burn cleaner, last longer, and move you down the road more quickly.

How to Respond

Some people should be comforted by this third purpose. It means you can start where you are and just move forward from here. It’s okay if you’re not as far down the road as that other person. What matters is that you get moving in the right direction. You shouldn’t sit still, lamenting the fact that you’re not as wise or mature in Christ as you should be or would like to be. You should just do something. Anything. If this description connects with you, then Proverbs 4:18 can be your theme verse: “the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until the full day.” You haven’t hit the sunrise yet, so just keep moving down the path.

Other people need to be rebuked by this third purpose. It means that you have tried to get by with being “simple” for far too long. You’ve been a Christian for 10, 20, 30 years or more, and you’re still content to have minimal involvement, minimal influence, and minimal responsibility. You’re happy to receive the church’s resources, investment, service, and instruction; but you’re unwilling to be a part of giving resources, investment, service, or instruction for the good of others. This attitude is simply unacceptable for a Christian called to wisdom.

It should be assumed that different people have different capacities and rates of acceleration in their growth in wisdom. That fact is not in question here. Rather, the chief question is are you accelerating at all or just sitting still in your walk with Christ? You can only remain simple for so long before you become a fool; but the proverbs extend much hope that it doesn’t have to be that way. So let’s add this new component to our definition.

Wisdom is:

Knowing the right thing to do in any particular situation.
Recognizing those who promote the right thing to do.
Doing it.
Always improving at both knowing and doing.

This post was first published in 2012.

Proverbs: Three Kinds of People

August 23, 2024 By Peter Krol

We looked at the broad audience of Proverbs last week, but today let’s examine more specifically what types of people Solomon expects to be present in the community.

Various authors in Scripture view people through different frameworks. The author of Hebrews sees people as either immature or mature. From one angle, the apostle Paul divides people into Jew or Gentile; from another he considers them to be justified or condemned. Jesus often distinguishes people as having faith or not, being for him or against him, sheep or goats or wolves.

These differing frameworks are not mutually exclusive; they merely represent different perspectives or intentions on the part of the particular author.

In Proverbs, Solomon organizes people into three main categories: the wise, the foolish, and the simple. These categories are not dependent on age, class, race, gender, or socio-economic status. Rather, they are determined by one’s direction in reference to the Lord.

woman in blue denim jeans standing beside brown wooden counter — Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

1. Those who are moving toward the Lord are called wise. These are not perfect or intelligent people, but rather people who will gain understanding and change their lives based on what they hear in Scripture (Prov 1:5).

2. Those who are moving away from the Lord are called foolish. These are not ignorant or uneducated people, but rather people who don’t want to change anymore. They think they’re doing just fine on their own and don’t need any more help, especially not from the Lord (Prov 1:7).

3. Those who are not moving at all with respect to the Lord, on account of age, inexperience, or incapacity of some sort are called simple. These are not unreligious or immoral people (at least not yet), but rather children or child-like people who are only starting out on the path of life and thus are about to decide whether to move toward the Lord or away from him (Prov 1:4).

The crossroads are before you; which fork will you take? We must understand, however, that we cannot remain simple forever. It’s okay for a baby to smear spaghetti in her hair, but by the time she turns 30, more will generally be expected of her. Or, more elegantly, “one does not stay still: a man who is emptyheaded will end up wrongheaded.”^[1]

^[1]Kidner, Proverbs: An Introduction & Commentary (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1964), p.13. (Affiliate link)

This post was first published in 2012.

The End of Wisdom

October 6, 2014 By Peter Krol

Teti-Tots (2010), Creative Commons

This is my last post about Proverbs 1-9, and I end where Solomon ends—with a warning. Though folly looks a lot like wisdom, don’t let it deceive you. It will flatter you, trick you, and end you.

The woman Folly is loud;
she is seductive and knows nothing.
She sits at the door of her house;
she takes a seat on the highest places of the town,
calling to those who pass by,
who are going straight on their way.
“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!”
And to him who lacks sense she says,
“Stolen water is sweet,
and bread eaten in secret in pleasant.”
But he does not know that the dead are there,
that her guests are in the depths of Sheol. (Prov 9:13-18, ESV)

I’ve listed extensive comparisons and contrasts between the feasts of wisdom and folly. In this post, I simply want to warn you of 4 things that look like wisdom but are not. They have ensnared many in our day.

Materialism

Some find their life and security in their abundance of possessions. Others react and find their life and security in their lack of possessions. Both are fools, though they often think themselves wise. Money is neither a god to be worshiped nor a demon to be exorcised. It is a tool useful for building God’s kingdom. It makes friends; it persuades kings. But God can give it or take it away as he pleases, and the wise will bow to him alone.

Sensuality

Some think sex will make them happy. Others react and treat it as something unfit to be discussed in Bible study. Both are fools, though they often think themselves wise. Sex is neither the chief end of man nor the fruit of the fall. The wise won’t ignore the temptation common to man, to abuse this gift. And the wise won’t wield the subject like a taser, merely for its shock value. But…what can I say? The wise husband loves his wife’s breasts (Prov 5:19). And the wise wife will find things about her husband that are equally intoxicating (Song 1:2).

Autonomy

“If you are wise, you are wise for yourself” (Prov 9:12). But that doesn’t mean you can be wise by yourself. Nor that you get to decide what is wise (Gen 3:6). Wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord, and it ends when instruction goes despised and unheeded. Those who have their act together may have an appearance of wisdom, but they deny wisdom’s true power to change and guide anyone (Prov 1:5).

Authoritarianism

Some fools believe their role or authority gives them value and power over people. Those who support such folly are fools themselves. A sanitized version of this folly exists in our churches when leaders are willing to tell their people what to do without being expected to show their people how to do it.

Now I’m not without guilt here. I drink these four poisons, and a thousand more, daily. The point of Proverbs is not to consign us to our folly but to expose the counterfeits so we might crave something more sumptuous.

Let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Heb 12:1-2)

Proverbs 6, Structure, and Careful Observation All in One

June 4, 2014 By Peter Krol

You’ve gotta check out this blog post by Dan Phillips at Pyromaniacs. He walks through Proverbs 6:1-19, showing how his understanding of the text unfolded as he observed more and more carefully. He noticed the structure, and the way the passage hangs together around the three progressively bad kinds of fool.

And his careful observation leads him to many of the same conclusions I drew about this text and these three kinds of fool.

I highly recommend it, if you’re up for a fun journey. Check it out!