Three For The Money

How long, O naïve ones, will you love being simple-minded?  And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing and fools hate knowledge?  Proverbs 1:22

Fools – The Bible describes three kinds of unbelieving people.  They are the simple (patayim), the scoffers (leshim) and the fools (kasilim).  They don’t behave the same way, but they all receive the same reward.  Until we know the difference, we will not understand how to speak to these people (or how not to).  Worse that than, we might not know just who is whom when it comes to foolish thinking.  One of these might even be us.

The simple are those who live outside of God’s will because of ignorance.  They just don’t know better.  What they lack is someone to tell them the truth.  Surprisingly (to us), they are still held accountable.  Ignorance is not an excuse under God’s law, probably because no one is truly ignorant (see Romans 1:18-20).  But this much is sure:  if you don’t speak up, these naïve ones are lost.  They may be willing to follow the Way; they just have no idea what it is.

The scoffers know the truth.  They’ve had instruction.  They just don’t do it.  They would much rather discard the words of the Lord than reorient their lives to His desires.  They are consumed with their plans.  These people are not ignorant of the Lord.  They just ignore Him.  They love their homes, their jobs, their toys, their vacations, their positions or whatever else they desire more than they love God’s purposes.  Scoffers can be very religious, but their hearts are far from submission.

Then there are the fools in this verse – the kasilim.  These are people who know the Way, refuse to follow it and encourage others to go astray with them.  These people are to be avoided.  In fact, the Bible says that you will waste your efforts if you attempt to correct them or offer them an alternative.  Not only do they not care, they actively encourage disobedience.  Only God can deal with these – and when He does, it is not a pretty site.  One of the reasons Proverbs is so adamant about the company you keep is that Solomon knows that accompanying kasilim is eternally dangerous.  This kind of folly rubs off.

For the patayim, there is instruction in God’s plan and purposes.  They need to hear the truth.  For the leshim, there is only one message: repent.  But for the kasilim, only those filled with the Spirit and called by God to the task dare to enter into their world. 

If you have been frustrated by your ineffective efforts to see someone else come to the truth, perhaps you were treating everyone in the same category.  Time for a check-up, and some pleading prayer.  Hopefully you did not discover any similarities between these three kinds of fools and your own actions.