Walking with the Wise #59: The Brutal Teacher

“The wise lay up knowledge,
but the mouth of a fool brings ruin near.”
—Proverbs 10:14

C.S. Lewis once wrote, “Experience is a brutal teacher, but you learn. My God, do you learn.” We, unfortunately, learn by experience. We have a tendency to ignore the counsel of others to our detriment. Like a child warned by a parent that the stove is hot, we choose to touch it and experience the pain of it, rather than listen to their wise counsel. For those who are wise, and who have learned over time the pain of experience and the validity of the Word of God in relation to their experience, there is stored up knowledge. Much like a medical doctor who has seen patients for years—there is much knowledge that has been gained—various patients, illnesses, diagnoses, and prescriptions enables the doctor to have encyclopedic knowledge. The wise doctor learns from others and uses that to help others. The wise people of God do the same thing. They learn what the Word of God says and continually apply it to their lives, and they make sure to share that knowledge with others.

The fool is found throughout the Proverbs as the prototype of one who chooses to live their life apart from God. Rather than use their mouth to help others (as does the wise who has stored up their knowledge), the fool brings ruin to their life and to the lives of others. The fool does not live according to the truth of God’s Word, but upon wives tales, clichés, fallen philosophies, or alternative worldviews that are popular at the time. Such views, whose adherents and proponents are legion, will discover the futility of their thoughts—either in this life or the next. Only the truth of Christ is worthy to last beyond the crises of circumstance (cf. Luke 6:46-49), because it is the only truth that will last beyond this world (cf. Matthew 24:35).

What is the foundation of your life? What have you built it upon? Anything that is not from the foundation of God’s Word will fail miserably. No one who has truly tasted the truth and blessedness of Christ and lived according to the truth of God’s Word will suffer regret in the end. Build your life upon the foundation of God’s Word and you will discover joy, peace, blessedness and a life that can weather the most difficult and painful of storms. Amen.