Proverbs
13:20 (NLT)
He who walks
with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.
Kenneth was a 6th grader, fun to be around, always bragging
about his muscles that made his classmates laugh with him. We wanted Kenneth to hang around with us,
play on the football team, but Kenneth had another group of friends who were
troublemakers and he preferred being with them.
Some years later, the headlines one morning reported of the robbery and
murder of a cab driver. The murderer
turned out to be Kenneth. He is in
prison for life.
Whenever I come across I Corinthians 15:33 (bad company corrupts good
morals) I think of my grade school friend, Kenneth. He was a good kid, but was adversely
influenced by the wrong crowd and ended up being a murderer. Had he chosen to hang out with my group of
friends, he would not have murdered that cab driver.
The Hebrew word
used for “fools” in this verse literally means “stupid ones”. It can also be translated as
“arrogance”. A fool can be defined as a person who knows the difference between right and wrong and does not
care.
It is clear in
the Scriptures that there are plenty of fools in this world----
- Psalm 14:1—Those who believe/say that there is
no God.
- Luke 24:25—Those who do not believe in what the
prophets said
- Proverbs 14:9—Those who mock at sin
- Ecclesiastes 7:9—Those who are quick-tempered
- Matthew 7:26—Those who build their lives
(including marriage) on the sand
- Ephesians 5:15-16—Those who do not redeem the
time
- Luke 12:20—Those who don’t share with others
- Proverbs 1:7—Those who despise wisdom and
instruction
- Proverbs 28:26—Those who trust their own hearts
- II Samuel 3:33—Those who die outside the city of refuge, i.e. those who die without hope, without Christ in their lives.
Do you know people like these? Are they amongst your best friends? To be a companion of these kinds of people
will produce harm in your life. You will
suffer if you choose to associate with fools.
Contrast this warning with the promise that
if you choose to walk with wise people, you too will become wise. There’s an obscure verse in Job (28:28) that
defines wisdom—“Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom”. Wisdom is simply to reverence or to respect
whom God is. To hang out, to associate,
to have fellowship with people who reverence the Lord will enable you to grow
in wisdom and be far removed from anything resembling what is foolishness.
So, who are your friends, who are those in
your life with whom you associate? Are
they wise or are they fools? And, who
are you in the lives of others? Are you
a representative of wisdom to them or are you a fool? Assess yourself and your friends against the
standards of Scripture. You have
opportunity to change, either with whom you associate or your own standard of
living. The Lord will enable you to
change.
He who knows not and knows not that he
knows not, is a fool……shun him.
He who knows not and knows that he knows
not, is a child……teach him.
He who knows and knows not that he knows,
is asleep….wake him.
He who knows and knows that he knows is wise….follow
him. – Ancient Arabic Proverb
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