(Further reflection on “The Naive”—Sunday 4-June-2023)
There are, in the Book of Proverbs, three types of people. The Simple (Naive), the Fool, and the Wise. The first one needs to be taught and trained. If they resist, they will eventually become the Fool/Wicked who want to be wise in their own eyes. The Wise/Prudent are those who have the fear of the Lord as they heed the instructions carefully and live wisely.
No one was born wise due to the Fall (Genesis 3). Everyone was born with traits of the Naive. This is why children need to be trained by godly parents who fear the Lord and follow His teachings on many subjects regarding to faith (what to believe) and life (how to live).
Open-mindedness is promoted by the Fool, who tends to be open to anything since they want to be wise in their own eyes—how they see, feel, and define things. They are ‘deconstructs’. They want to deconstruct the fundamental, universal, godly truth, that is, “There is a God who created the world.” By removing God out of their mind, they will open to many ungodly things which will eventually destroy them. For example, today, the Fool generally argues for gender equality and neutrality. They don’t know what they are asking for. Well, they knew that they wanted to be wise in their own eyes. Gender equality is basically asking for removing the role of the God-created order of male and female. Gender neutrality specifically demands others to call people based on their preferred gender pronouns, i.e. he, she, it, whatever, which is not based on God-created biology but on (fallen) human-created and defined feelings, i.e. “I feel I’m a woman, you must call me ‘she’ regardless of the existence of the male organ.” The absurdity we are seeing today is due to the “open-mindedness” of the Fool who, by default, is ungodly and wicked in nature.
The unrepentant Fool has no hope because they are wise in their own eyes. So they become wicked, and they need to be purged. It seems that the Book of Proverbs spends a great deal of time to train the Naive/Simple, lovingly preventing them from becoming the Fool. Because sadly, once you are a fool, the path is self-destruction and God won’t intervene (cf. Romans 1:18-32) and would let them complete their foolish course to rottenness.
The Wise are arguably the Naive who is trained up in the way they should go and grow in God’s word. They learn to have the fear of the Lord in their life and begin practicing God’s word, integrating His wisdom in every aspect of their life. And the path of the Wise will be righteous by faith in the One whom they trust and obey, which is God’s law. And they know they cannot fulfill the requirements of the Law, so they learn to receive, believe, and follow Jesus—the one and only who fulfilled God’s law and the Wisest King who ever lived on earth (much wiser/greater than the king Solomon; cf. Luke 11:31).
Alright. But how do I know I am among the Wise? Good and right question to ask. First, make sure we don’t want to be wise in our own eyes, so that we won’t become the Fool. Second, be honest and examine our life to see if we have one or all of these traits of the Naive. Though it’s sobering, it gives us hope that we can be trained by God’s word to become the Wise. Here are the seven traits of the Naive (cf. Proverbs 7:6-21)
#1. "Open to anything" is foolish. "Open to only God’s word" is wise.
#2. Lacking sense is default so we should be willing to be taught, rebuked, and trained by God’s world (cf. 2 Timothy 3:16).
#3. “Wander-lust.” Do not wander into places that you know that the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh will be activated. It’s foolish to watch pornography and self-deceive yourself, saying, “It’ll be alright. I’ll be fine. It won’t affect me. I’m in control.” No, you don’t. Don’t be naive!
#4. The Simple are prone to think that if I can do things in the name of love, it should be fine and good. As long as they love each other, they can get married even they are the same sex/gender. Who am I to tell them not, too. I want to be viewed as a loving Christian. After all, love is love, right? No, it isn’t the Naive. God is love. Without God, there is no love. It only has lust and corrupted version of love. And it’s always ungodly/unholy. Love with God is self-destructive.
#5. The Naive are prone to be invited to taste “stolen water” or “bread eaten in secret” (cf. Prov 9:17). They usually, “Can I do this [fill the blank] and still be a Christian?” The [blank] can be filled with any open-minded wild things under the sun. There will be no limit to foolishness.
#6. The Naive are easily being fooled by “honey trap”— smooth/seductive talks since they lack (godly) sense. They are like senseless and blind creatures who head to the ’slaughter’ house without knowing it. Wake them up. Sound an alarm. Warn them. Teach them. Train them. But respect their freewill. This will show if they are just the Naive or the Fool. The former accepts teaching/correction/training. The latter likely resists all godly teaching as they already wanted to be wise in their own eyes.
#7. Last but not least, the Simple demonstrates their desires openly and unchecked. They express it and want it to be met. Naturally and openly, they express it and want it to be met without asking some simple questions, e.g. Is this beneficial even if it is permissible? Is this honoring/glorifying the Lord? Is this a godly example for others? The Naive usually don’t bother to think and ask those questions, because they are basically selfish. They tend to have one question, “How can I be happy?” and the people around me better be making me happy.
Our responses to the above will tell us which type of people we are in the light of God’s word. Of course, we all have the freedom of choice (being the Naive; the Fool; and the Wise) but there will be no freedom from consequences.
Lord, have mercy on us who were all once the Naive (and likely Fool who have repented). Lord, help us to have the fear of the Lord in our life. Amen.
—
Pastor Lap
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