Being a Wise Guy

Continuing with the Proverbs theme, two of my favorites are a pair of proverbs found back-to-back in chapter 26. At first glance they can be a bit confusing.

Proverbs 26:4
Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself.

Proverbs 26:5
Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.

Hmmm ... is this a contradiction in the Bible? Did the compiler of Proverbs begin to jot down verse five, immediately forgetting what verse four said? How do we handle these two competing pieces of advice?

The key is in the understanding of wisdom itself. The person who has wisdom is not simply one that has knowledge. Wisdom means someone who is skilled at life. It is one who recognizes the proper application of the knowledge that they have.

So here we see that sometimes the wise thing to do is to ignore the fool and say nothing. Other times it is wise to address the fool directly. The key of wisdom is knowing which time is which! It's kind of like being an offensive coordinator. There are many plays in the playbook, but a skilled coach knows which play is best to call in a given situation.

This requires thinking and insight, which is where I think we get in trouble. It would be much easier to just have a list of rules to follow that covers any and every situation. But life is not a simple mathematical formula. If it's a formula at all, it's one with a large number of variables!

Proverbs tells us that "the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom." While this phrase is worthy of several blog posts on its own, I will say here that it is pretty much always tied to submission and obedience to God. Only as we lay aside our best thoughts and learn to see things the way God does and follow His ways will we understand true wisdom and begin to live a skilled life.

And as that happens, we will certainly know better than to call a fake field goal and expect to gain ten yards with our 250 pound kicker.