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And welcome back. I’m Bill English, the publisher here at Bible and Business. Today is the 9th episode of a 30 part series from my book biblical Wisdom for Business Leaders 30 Saints from Proverbs. Today we’re going to be talking about why we as Christians in business, should have minimal contact with the fool. This teaching is going to come from Proverbs 23, verse nine, and also Proverbs 24, verse seven.
But before we get started, I just like to remind you that you can purchase this book at any of these online retailers. You can get the paperback and the hardback edition at Amazon and all of these other online retailers will have the electronic version as well as Amazon. It’s interesting to read a book and then hear the author talk about that book on his or her YouTube channel. So you might want to pick up a copy of my book and then work your way through it listening to these videos as well as reading the chapters and learning what God has for you from these 30 sayings in Proverbs. So let’s go ahead and get started.
Proverbs 23 nine says, in the ears of a fool, do not speak, for he will despise the wisdom of your words. And again, Proverbs 24/7 says, wisdom is too high for fools. In the assembly at the gate, they must not open their mouths. Now, these two verses combine really mean that we should have minimal contact with a fool and that when they do open their mouths and talk, we probably shouldn’t be paying attention to them. If you were to look throughout Proverbs, you would see that the characteristics of a fool are all of these things here.
They despise wisdom and instruction, they hate knowledge, they’re complacent, they’re always talking and slanderous. They lack common sense, they love evil and they find evil humorous. That’s an interesting one right there. They think they’re right when they’re clearly wrong. They lack control over their anger, they flaunt and teach folly, and they leave a lot of human suffering in their wake.
They mock at making amends, they’re reckless and careless. And their talking, their incessant talking, brings them to ruin. They love to quarrel, they love to fight, and they really refuse to be taught anything. We have learned in the last lesson that we could waste our words through careless compliments. Now we discover in these two sayings here, we discover that our words can be scorned and despised fools.
When you give them Godly wisdom, they’re going to scorn and despise those words. The phrase for he will despise the wisdom of your words is one of the core characteristics of a fool. He’ll respond to Godly wisdom, to Biblical wisdom, with scorn and with contempt. And that will signal to you that that person perhaps is a fool. Coming back to the characteristics of a fool for just a moment, I think we need to understand that all of us will display these characteristics, or at least one or two of them at one time or another, but a fool will have the majority of these characteristics as a pattern of life.
It’s not that we might be reckless or careless on occasion, it’s that they are going to be reckless and careless as part of a pattern of life. We might actually end up quarreling and fighting from time to time, but it doesn’t mean that that’s a pattern of our life before a fool. They’re going to love to quarrel, they’re going to love to fight, they’re going to love to talk, and they’re going to hate Godly wisdom. They’re going to despise wisdom and instruction, and they’re going to get angry when they don’t get their way, or they might just get angry to become angry. You really can’t teach them anything as a pattern of life.
And so I just wanted to make a note there that these characteristics are really a pattern of life, even though all of us will at one time or another display one or two of these characteristics. The fools today in our current society today really lack any understanding or any sense of understanding about the Bible, but they’re going to purport to be experts. You’re going to find these people are argumentative. They’re stubborn and they’re arrogant and they’re really not intent on finding the truth. They just like to win debates and they’re kind of like that ever ready bunny.
I don’t know if you remember that old ever ready battery bunny that just kept banging on the drum. They’re like an ever ready bunny. They have an endless supply of energy to argue and debate various biblical topics and passages. They really don’t have any interest in finding God, even if they believe he exists. You’ll find that oftentimes they have a visceral disdain for Christians.
And again, these are some of the characteristics of people that we as Christians in business should really try to avoid and have minimal contact with. So don’t get confused, fools are not stupid. They’re not inept, they’re not wacky, they’re not incompetent. This gal, I chose this picture because she kind of looks like a little fool here, right? And that’s kind of how we stereotype fools.
But don’t get confused, fools are actually very talented, smart people, okay? Some of the most foolish in our society are also some of the most intelligent, most talented individuals that you could ever meet. I mean, look at the people who wrote these books. Bertrand Russell, an incredibly smart guy, wrote a book on mathematics that not a whole lot of people could understand. You look at Charles Templeton who preached with Billy Graham in the early days and over the years just came to reject the Christian faith.
He’s no slouch, he’s no dummy. You look at some of these other authors out there, they are well reasoned, smart, talented people. They are well respected, thought leaders. They’re gifted, communicators, they’re oftentimes innovative, people, and they can be leaders in all sorts of areas like politics and academia, entertainment, journalism and so forth. But the thing is, they lead millions away from God, and they claim that God doesn’t exist.
Or even if they claim that he exists, they claim other things that are not true. And when you present them with truth, they get angry, they get scornful, and it usually becomes personal. They actually try to destroy you personally. So do not deceive yourselves. Paul writes in one corinthians, if any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise.
Why? Because the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. Just like the fool finds God’s wisdom to be foolish. I want us to recognize that God finds the wisdom of the fool to be foolish as well. Both sides think the other is foolish, but that doesn’t make it a non sequitur.
What it really does, it says that God understands the wisdom of this world, and it’s very foolish in his eyes, and we need to remember that. So what’s our conclusion here? Well, as followers of Yahweh, we willingly trade the world’s wisdom for God’s foolishness. Let’s be fools for God, because his foolishness is much wiser than anything this world has to offer. The world views Godly wisdom as foolishness.
I think in the long run, we’re going to have to choose between the two. You’re either going to end up choosing worldly wisdom or Godly wisdom. And God may let you go for a period of time, maybe a few weeks, months, maybe even a decade or two, but eventually you’re going to have to choose between the two. As business owners and business leaders, I would suggest that we try to avoid hiring fools. Let’s not hire them and put them on our staff if at all possible.
And let’s not spend a lot of time with fools because we don’t want to absorb their thinking or their way of life. Now, one more thing here. Proverbs 26 five says, answer a fool according to his folly, or else he will be wise in his own eyes. That’s the Lexim English Bible there. Lexim is the imprint of Logos Bible software.
So this verse, I think, instructs us to give a reasoned answer to a fool because we represent the Lord, because we are stewards of truth, right? And we don’t want his wisdom just to go unanswered, right? So the wise has to expose the folly of the foolish wisdom. But at the same time, we have to understand that when we do that, we’re going to invite scorn and contempt. But we take the first step to defend wisdom and truth.
And then after the fool answers according to his folly, we just let him go. But at least we’ve engaged. At least we have given a reasoned answer. At least we have worked with this fool a little bit a quote from a commentator, Dr. Garrett, who wrote a commentary.
He’s down at Southern Theological Seminary in Louisville. He wrote a commentary on Proverbs. This is what he said about this verse. Proverbs 26 five. One should not waste sound teaching on the stubbornly unresponsive, and I have to say that I agree with that.
Now, in the next episode, we’re going to be looking at Proverbs 23, verse twelve. And in contrast to today’s lesson about looking at fools and having minimal contact with a fool, the sage is going to come along and say, you need to become a lifelong learner. If you’re going to be wise in God’s eyes, if you’re going to be a steward of all that God has given you, you need to become a lifelong learner. So that’s what we’re going to look at in the next episode. I want to thank you for joining me today.
It’s been a privilege to have you along. If you do want to get a hold of me, you can just email me. Bill@bibleandbusiness.com, I’d love to hear from you. A number of you have reached out to me with problems in your business, and I love just kind of talking it through with you on the phone and paying it forward. So if I can be of any help to you, don’t hesitate to reach out.
So until we see each other again, thank you for joining me today, and I hope you’ll join me next time. Take care.