Proverbs 26:4-5 (NASB) Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will also be like him. Answer a fool as his folly deserves, that he not be wise in his own eyes.
What appears to be contradictory in these verses is not.
Verse four admonishes us that sometimes it is best not to answer a question whose foundation is foolishness: silence is golden for the question that was not asked not to learn, but only for selfish purposes. Leaders often face foolish questions: a good question in return, aimed at the real crux of the foolish question, is needed. You know – the way Jesus handled the religious elite of that day.
But there is a time to answer the foolishness of this world: and that time is when the truth is at stake. In this instance, to not be ready with an answer might lead the foolish person to swallow their own foolishness and contaminate others, leading them to believe that the fool’s words were unanswerable. Humans causing global warming might be a good example: the science demonstrates that the correlation between sunspot activity and temperature changes. Not humans. Are you prepared with the science - not the politically motivated speculation? (see http://www.icr.org/article/does-carbon-dioxide-drive-global-warming/ )
This is why Believers are admonished to “Work hard so God can approve you. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth.”
Are you working hard – armed with Biblical Wisdom and by those who uphold a Christian Worldview?
Copyright © 2009 by P. Griffith Lindell
Thursday, February 26, 2009
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