The Common Fool


The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 1:7 ESV
            Those who would reject the fear of the Lord as the foundation of their philosophy, and would dethrone theology from her rightful place as queen of all sciences are indeed foolish. The rest of the book of Proverbs will detail their folly, but to summarize they do themselves harm. They are fools not because they displease God, though they do, or because they miss the fullness of truth, again they do; but because they inevitability secure their loss and destruction they are fools. This second half of 1:7 is then both a true statement and a warning. Would you be a fool? Then receive wise instruction and fear the Lord.
            It is this fear of the Lord which humanity in its folly is prone to despise. Few if any like to be thought of as foolish or uneducated. Even those who claim to rejoice in such approbations do so because they understand it as implying exactly the opposite. The issue is not the wisdom, nor the knowledge; but rather the God who must be feared at the start. To fear God as we have seen is to humiliate one’s self. Our pride does not merely dislike reverencing God; it fully despises to do so.  Humanity would be wise and acquire knowledge, but they would do so from a different starting place. I posit that the favored starting place of the unnatural natural man has been and will ever be, till Christ returns, the self. As this is the common sense we as Christian must proclaim that the common sense is non-sense. The wording of the verse, and indeed the whole of orthodox Christian theology, demands that there is no path to knowledge which does not begin with reverence for God. The self cannot know anything for sure, it can only perceive of it is own perception, it is finite and its knowledge subjective. Science is hopeless without a God exactly matching the description of the God of the Bible for science can only operate in a meaningful way within a universe of perceptible order. Yet it should not surprise us, nor should it much upset us, when the common sense belittles the foundation of our knowledge, and proclaims most loudly that we lack any knowledge because of our foundation: for they despise such and it much seem as foolishness to them. We do not need the world to approve us as wise, though if we would leave off the pursuit of such praise and rather live according to true wisdom I think they must at some point concede the merit of God’s wisdom and knowledge.
            What good is it to be angry with fools? What profit is there in seeking their approval? We ought rather to pity the fool, and with patience continue to speak the truth in love. And let us recall that were it not for the amazing grace of God which taught our own hearts to fear we would continue in our foolishness to this day.
Prayer
            Father You have opened our eyes to the truth, and have set our hearts on the path of knowledge which we could not have found ourselves. Lord as You have had mercy on us, let us now show mercy to others. As You have been patient with us, let us be patient with others. Oh, Lord let us not seek to be counted among the common, or think of the common sense as a thing to be aspired to; but rather let us keep to the uncommon sense, and so prove to the commoner the virtue and value of the uncommon and the true sense. Let us not consider it anything when the world calls us fools, for they have first said it of our Lord and of His servants who came before us. Let Your approbation be the only we esteem. Keep us on the path, and set others on it as well Lord. We ask especially that You plant in the hearts of our leaders a reverence of You and of Your ways that we may lead peaceful lives in all wisdom and godliness. To You be all glory, in the name of Jesus the Christ we pray. Amen.
Song
God’s own fool by Michael card

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