Both wisdom and folly invite us to follow them. Wisdom makes her call loud and clear to all. In particular she calls the simple and those with no sense to come to her and learn. Now we should not interpret "simple" in purely academic terms. Wisdom here is not defined as an academic subject. Rather it is better to look at it in terms of Jesus calling sinners to repentance. Jesus calls all of us to repent and follow Him, to learn from Him. Our current state of righteousness (or rather lack of it) is no obstacle to that, for His blood has paid for our justification. If we continue in our folly we will die, if we instead turn to Him we will live.
Jesus gave a saying about not giving pearls to pigs. Here we have similar advice on the risks of seeking to correct mockers. There are those who are are so stubborn, so lost in their sin, that they will not respond in any sensible way to reasoned argument or correction.
Conversely the wise man will respond well to correction. They will learn from it and so enhance their lives. The sign of a wise person is not how much they know, but how prepared they are to learn more.
Again we get the refrain of Proverbs that the fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom. There are many supposedly clever people who deny God, they will in the end bring only suffering upon themselves, and their so-called wisdom becomes increasingly foolish.
Just as wisdom calls out, so does folly. She claims to offer sweet delicacies, but anyone who takes of her wares will receive only death.
No comments:
Post a Comment