Stay away from a foolish man; you will gain no knowledge from his speech. Prov. 14:7  (CSB)

One of the issues you should consider in choosing friends is what sort of truth you will gain from the choice. It may seem wise to befriend a foolish person for various other reasons (his wealth, his notoriety, etc., etc.) but here is one of the most important criteria to consider in making the choice: what will be his influence upon you?

His speech, the proverb infers, will influence you—but if he is a fool (by God’s standards) what you learn from him will not be “knowledge.”  That is to say, knowledge of what it is important, good and uplifting.  He will not be a source that you can trust to enhance your love and knowledge of God!

Check out your friends, and evaluate them according to this biblical injunction.  How do they fare? What are you learning from your associations with them?

“I’m not being influenced wrongly by them,” you say. Wrong!

All associations are influential: You either influence another or are influenced by him. If you are unaware of his influence—either positive or negative—it is probably of the latter sort.  Do some checking: has your friend led you closer to God’s holiness or away from it?  Are you more enlightened about His will because of his friendship—or not? It may be one of the most important questions you have to consider.  Failure to do so almost surely will end up badly.

Check out our online courses, including, Introduction to Nouthetic Counseling and  The Use of Scripture in Counseling, taught by Jay Adams!

Books related to counseling others:

1. Competent to Counsel by Jay Adams
2. The Christian Counselor’s Manual by Jay Adams
3. How to Help People Change by Jay Adams
4. Check out our Bookstore for all the best counseling books!

The Christian Counselor’s New Testament and Proverbs, translated by Jay Adams

Visit our online bookstore for all your biblical counseling resource needs.
For more biblical counseling training, check out our list of INS Online Courses.

Follow INS on Social Media:
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The righteous person giving way to the wicked is like a polluted spring and a ruined fountain.
(Proverbs 25:26)

This powerful proverb is one for the conservative church today. Too often, by not speaking up, by failure to avow the truth, and in dozens of other ways, it is demonstrated to be true.

In Palestine, with many areas in which water was at a premium, a spring was a valuable item. To pollute it was a horrible act—a crime that meant the possible death of many who depended on it for the water of life. So, the words to an American today, who has no such vital need, may seem inconsequential. They were not to those in biblical times.

What the proverb is saying to us today is that for a believer to back off from confronting the errors of the wicked is like the act of polluting the source of water upon which people are dependant. Under the guise of charity, love–or what not—the failure to speak up, to expose, and to confute error when it appears in the church is to pollute God’s message. People who drink from a polluted fountain—and there are many today who do—will be infected by it. It carries the danger of sickness and death.

False teachers are nothing new to the church; they have always been a threat. Compromise with evil teaching by God’s people, sadly, has likewise been a problem. In these days, when so much is at stake, the conservative church cannot afford to back off or, as the proverb puts it “give way to the wicked.” Get a backbone; stand for the truth. God bless you when you do!

Check out our online courses, including, Introduction to Nouthetic Counseling and  The Use of Scripture in Counseling, taught by Jay Adams!

Books related to counseling others:

1. Competent to Counsel by Jay Adams
2. The Christian Counselor’s Manual by Jay Adams
3. How to Help People Change by Jay Adams
4. Check out our Bookstore for all the best counseling books!

The Christian Counselor’s New Testament and Proverbs, translated by Jay Adams

Visit our online bookstore for all your biblical counseling resource needs.
For more biblical counseling training, check out our list of INS Online Courses.

Follow INS on Social Media:
– Facebook: noutheticstudies
– Twitter: @noutheticstud
– Instagram: @noutheticstudies

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“Yes. Is that because they never were Christians in the first place?”

Sometimes, but not always.

“How else does it happen?”

Listen to one common way mentioned in Proverbs 19:27:

My son, stop listening to discipline and you will wander from the ways of knowledge.

One of the words that in Proverbs and Psalm 119 (and elsewhere) refer to Scripture is “discipline.” This designation comes from the fact that it is God’s truth that structures our lives in a disciplined way. Anyone who stops studying the Bible and attending the preaching of the Word will soon begin to think erroneously. We all need the regular nourishment that comes from an ever-increasing understanding and application of Scripture. Moreover, those who fail to be disciplined by God’s truth will “wander from the way” of God.

“I see.”

When a problem or decision arises, unless he knows what God has to say about it, he is almost certain to think wrongly and make bad decisions.

“So the answer is to continue becoming more and more disciplined in those ways?”

Exactly.

For more on the importance of discipline, we recommend “Godliness through Discipline” by Jay Adams.

Interested in biblical counseling training? Check out our online course offerings!

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A soft answer turns away wrath.
But a foolish word stirs up anger.
Proverbs 15:1

Every time I read that Proverb, I think of Ping Pong.

“How’s that?”

Oh . . . it just seems to illustrate the principle in the proverb so well!

“Don’t get it.”

You see, many Proverbs are pictured principles of portable truth.

“What about Ping Pong?”

Oh! Here’s what I meant. One player slams a ball as hard as he can. What happens after that?

“Dunno.”

The other guy has to move away in order to receive it. It drives them farther apart.

“Yeah? And……?”

And if he slams one back just as hard, or harder, that separates them all the more.

“Sure.”

But if he simply answers the slam with a gentle return by merely holding his paddle still in receiving it, the ball barely goes back over the net and . . .

“and that draws them closer together.”

Right! So what’s the principle in the picture?

“Don’t slam people?”

I give up.

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When there are many words, sin is unavoidable.
Proverbs 10:19

Most of Proverbs is filled with wise observations given in FYI form (as in this one).  That is to say, they are not in the form of commands, but of information that a wise person, wishing to be wiser, will pay attention to. He will apply them as he sees need to do so.

These proverbs don’t promise anything when setting forth truth in this form—they merely tell you what is happening (generally) in God’s world—in relation to Him and others. The wise will wisely apply what he learns from such observations.

The proverb that you are examining is plain enough—but don’t stop with it. Instead, use the understanding that we have reached about many of the Proverbs from chapter 10 on, and begin to learn how to live wisely as a result.

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Where there are no oxen, the feeding trough is empty; But an abundant harvest comes through the strength of an ox.—Proverbs 14:2 (HCSB)

The easy way is to avoid responsibility is to take on as few obligations as possible. Having an ox to help with the plowing also means taking responsibility for his upkeep—filling the trough with food.  Supplying it; hauling it, having it there when needed at the right time, etc. It’s easier to avoid all of this by having an empty (lit., “clean”) trough.

But to fail to assume responsibility means that one fails to reap the benefits that come through it. This principle can be applied widely to all sorts of work that requires added responsibility to receive additional benefits.

But there are lazy people who make no effort to assume responsibilities beyond what a minimum of effort requires. Are you one of them? A Christian ought not be. You should endeavor to do all that God has enabled you by strength and opportunity to do to live a thoroughly responsible life.

Why? There are a number of answers to that question; I’ll mention one:  so that from the abundance which you receive you will be able to help others who, because of their lack of such endowments, cannot keep up on their own. We’re not speaking of helping other lazy persons, but those who truly are in need.
Is your oxen’s trough full—or clean?

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Wisdom is the focus of the perceptive; But a fool’s eyes turn to the ends of the earth –Prov. 17:24 (HCSB)

What do the words in the second line mean?

There is no focus in your life if you are looking first at one thing then at another—never able to settle on any one thing above others. There are lots of people like that today: whether it is in determining what sort of work God has suited them for, what their goals for life are, etc. They are at sixes and sevens.

Focus—that’s the key to success, the Proverb suggests.

So, how about it? What is the focus of your life? First, it ought to be upon God and how you can please Him.  This focus develops as you contemplate His goodness to you.  But that larger focus must then be narrowed to what ways you may specifically honor Him the most. Of these, perhaps you will discover one or two matters (probably related to one another) that will be your major, fulltime focus.

So, what do you focus upon? Think hard. If here is nothing—you have the sort of life that briefly focuses everywhere and really focuses nowhere. And that’s the kind of life that God—in this Proverb—deplores!

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