How long, foolish ones, will you love ignorance? How long will you mockers enjoy mocking and you fools hate knowledge? Prov 1:22
Matthew 7 says you will know them by their fruits. Know them how? What fruit?
One reason the Proverbs challenge is so important, reading proverbs everyday by the date, is that it repeatedly explains how to recognise different types of people and their fruit. One type of person is the wise men, another is the fool. Because anybody can talk a good game, it's important to study the fruit, and differentiate between wise people and fools in your life. Fools need to change their game, or get kicked to the curb. Or they will bring you down. Wise people need to be cultivated in your life, spend time with them, learn their ways.
According to the verse above, one way to recognize person acting in foolishness, is to hear them engaging in scoffing, or mocking. To mock is to deride, make fun of, insult by copying a pattern of speech or action. It can also refer to something fake. When we mock or deride people or knowledge, we are mocking their Creator who set knowledge in motion.
Wise men of God never have a problem portraying their thoughts or opinions, and do not resort to mocking God's creation, other people.
The verse above shows that mocking comes from ignorance. When you're short on facts, you can always insult your adversary. If you don't understand something it's easier to make fun of it then to search it out. Asking someone who is wise in that area might reveal your ignorance, and so rather than ask and look foolish, mockers act foolish. They try to hide their ignorance and make themselves feel better by derision.
This is found all throughout the Proverbs. Psalm 1:1 says that we should not sit in the seat of scoffers. That's hard because our culture is made up on satire, derision, mocking, and scoffing. It takes true and careful conscious thought to change this habit.
You can't fix stupid! The good thing about ignorance is it can be fixed. We can stop ignoring the Word of God! As we read the Word of God it can wash over us and change us. As we read the definition of a foolish man, we can recognize behaviors that God does not approve of and change them. We can put scoffing and mocking far from us.
Combat mocking with information. Confront mockers and share the Word with them. We all fall into it occasionally, catch yourself and stop yourself. But most importantly, recognize that when you are led to mock something, it means that you do not have knowledge on the situation, and it's time to study it very closely, there may be a revelation awaiting you!
