Wisdom and folly

“Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be just like him” (Prov. 26:4). “Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes” (Prov. 26:5).

These back-to-back proverbs contradict each other. My wife and I joke that she tends more toward the latter proverb, and I the former. Which is right? Which is one to follow? Ah, that is wisdom.

Wisdom

Wisdom is knowledge and experience put into practice. Wisdom is contextual. What fits this given situation? Wisdom is relational. What fits the people in this time and place? Wisdom is not law. There is not one rule or practice that applies to all situations or people. Wisdom is advice for what usually is best. It is not a promise that it will always work. This is what the contradictory proverbs highlight.

Wisdom invites one to participate in the complexities of life. It does not command or force. Eastern traditions often picture the wise guru on the mountain top, removed from everyday living. Biblical tradition enters the messiness of a beautifully created, but broken world. “Song of Songs” celebrates the joy of human love along with its dangers and fears. Ecclesiastes gives wisdom while wrestling with the limitation of human knowledge amidst life’s confusions. Job struggles to understand suffering. Proverbs give memorable pithy counsels, with maximum meaning, with minimum words. Wisdom simplifies the complicated and complicates the simple.

Scripture includes great wisdom, but wisdom is not limited to Scripture. The Biblical writers borrowed from other wisdom traditions. We should still learn wisdom from other traditions and sources. Wisdom is a gift of God to his entire world as the structuring principles of his whole creation.

Fittingness

Wisdom, like beauty, has to do with fittingness. What best fits a given situation? This is what all of Proverbs 26:1-12 explores. How does one know? Well, there is knowledge involved. There is knowledge of God and his ways as they are revealed in Scripture. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Prov. 1:6) – the beginning, but not the end. There is knowledge of self, one’s strengths, weaknesses and dangerous proclivities. There is knowledge of those factors in others. This can be general psychological or sociological knowledge or specific knowledge of an individual. Actions become foolish when any of these factors are ignored or violated. When the general ignores the specific, there is folly. The holy fool does not suffer fools. They know where to poke fun, how and when to disrupt the general to expose specific folly.

Folly

Folly is wisdom’s antithesis. Folly applies general laws without looking at the specific situation. Folly ignores scientific knowledge. Folly is arrogant and thinks their views are God’s. Folly is often simplistic in a complex and broken world. The world and the church have experienced too much folly. We pray for wisdom.

Warning

I write and hope you read this with this Scriptural warning that calls us all to humble wisdom, “Do you see a person wise in their own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for them” (Prov. 26:12).