“Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.” (Prov. 9:6) The foolish are the lost, every single person that does not know Jesus Christ as Lord is foolish, from the housewife to the chief executive officer, they are foolish. They are simple minded, (Prov. 9:4) it matters not if they are capable of deductive reasoning skills on a massive level, whether they live in a tent city or a mansion, they may be wise in the world and the ways of it beyond the abilities of most, but they are simple minded, foolish people.
The ways of the world are quite easy to comprehend, the main focus needs only to be on self, self-improvement, and advancement, it has the possibility of allowing an individual to gain nearly all that the world has to offer, but past this life it offers nothing, all of its materialistic wealth will rust and fade away, all of the accomplishments that those who seek this path will in time be forgotten, we can gain the world quite easily, only to lose our souls. (Matt. 16:26)
Those who like to say that “Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it,” have never read and understood the Book of Ecclesiastes, they will not look within themselves to see the exact same repeating pattern that everyone on this planet that has died in their sins repeated before them. They see the path with blinders on, they will not look past the immediate, they have performed well, and death is a long way off. No man who has put his faith in Jesus Christ as his Savior is a fool, although many could still be considered simple, this is expected to a degree, the ways of the world are difficult to part from, its call is continuous, the never ending obligations pull at us for the purpose of keeping our minds occupied on anything but Christ, and soon, if one is not observant and in prayer for wisdom, all things in life will become the immediate, the eternal will never even be considered.
This is exactly what has occurred in the lives of many who truly do know Christ as Savior, the working as unto the Lord (Col. 3:23) is only observed in the material realm, the world and self we posses within it. The betterment of our place in the world becomes the path they trod upon, yet they proclaim it as growing closer to Christ, the promise of men, the perception they desire others to see, this is the goal, not a drawing away from the world and growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord. They are saved, but it is simple faith only, they will be casting no mountains into the sea, the faith of a mustard seed (Matt. 17:20) would be as an entire mountain range to them. These individuals are more than weak in their faith when in the presence of the lost, but see in themselves some form of great and abiding truth, they live a dual life, there is no boldness of speech within them about our Lord, yet they believe themselves useful to His cause.
We come to Christ with nothing, not one thing can add to His saving grace, not one thing can be added to what He did on the cross for all of mankind, it is that simple. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” (Eph. 2:8) Yet the majority of Christians stay in the simple minded mentality, when they are supposed to be growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord, (2 Peter 3:18) when they are supposed to be adhering to the commandments of Christ, but few do. Instead, they see the immediate as important, the eternal they will not search for, they hide His word in their hearts, but will not offer it to others, they attend church, but will not share Christ with a lost world.
Wisdom and understanding is offered to every child of God, the lost will never receive this opportunity, but for some reason neither will many of His children, they have decided to remain simple, there is no fire within them to reach the lost, the world is still so very important to them, their prayers are shallow and generally self-serving, they believe that God forgives disobedience. I know, I was once one such as they are.
A life committed to Christ is a crucified life, it never seeks its own, its only purpose in this life is to glorify God, all else is secondary, it is the only immediate concern that should be on our minds at all times.
