“A mocker seeks wisdom and doesn’t find it, but knowledge comes easily to the perceptive. Stay away from a foolish person; you will gain no knowledge from his speech. The sensible person’s wisdom is to consider his way, but the stupidity of fools deceives them. Fools mock at making reparation, but there is goodwill among the upright. The heart knows its own bitterness, and no outsider shares in its joy.” (Proverbs‬ ‭14‬:‭6‬-‭10‬ ‭CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

Have you ever been around someone who loved to ask questions, but didn’t really want the answers. The questions they asked weren’t a means of gaining knowledge or understanding or wisdom, they were a tool for tearing down the beliefs of others. Such a person isn’t going to be able to find wisdom even if they are genuinely seeking it. Mocking can become such a habit like this that you start to miss even obvious chances to grow. This is the kind of person Solomon is talking about at the beginning of this next group of proverbs. Let’s join him as he goes.

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve sent my children to look for something and they couldn’t find it. The other night it was a TV remote. It was missing, so the TV couldn’t be turned off. I said, “Have you looked for it?” I was assured that it had been searched for thoroughly but to no avail. Three seconds later, I stuck my hand in the side of the chair from which that TV is normally watched, and lo and behold, there was the remote. I didn’t say out loud what I knew, and what I knew he knew that I knew: he hadn’t actually looked for it. I knew that because when I was that age I often looked for things without actually looking for them because I was lazy.

If you go looking for something without actually intending to find it, you probably won’t. If someone professes to be searching for wisdom but in their heart of hearts doesn’t really believe wisdom—especially godly wisdom—actually exists, they’re probably not going to find it. For someone who mocks the idea of God and scoffs at the ideas and truth claims of the Christian worldview, if they go looking for real wisdom on their own, they’ll never find it.

Real wisdom only comes from a single source: God. If you rule Him out from the get-go, you are effectively shooting yourself in the foot before setting out to run a marathon. Your likelihood of success drops to zero. On the other hand, for those who actually want to find it, the knowledge of God and with it the knowledge of how the world actually works and real wisdom is right there for the taking. You don’t really even have to work all that hard for it. The question is: do you actually want to find what you profess to be seeking?

“Stay away from a foolish person; you will gain no knowledge from his speech.” You probably know or even have in your life some of these people who mock the idea of God and aren’t interested in gaining any real knowledge or understanding. Spend as little time with these kinds of folks as you can manage. They will add no meaningful benefit to your life. They will likely be a net detraction from any real forward progress. Yes, it is worth at least an initial attempt to call them to a better mindset and a better path, but don’t waste too much time on this. Focus your efforts where they are more likely to be successful.

“The sensible person’s wisdom is to consider his way, but the stupidity of fools deceives them.” One of the great truths the Scriptures reveal to us over and over again is that we don’t know all the right ways to get through life on our own or by ourselves. This means that before we make a big decision—or any decision, really—we are wisest to stop and think. We should develop the practice of questioning ourselves a bit before moving forward. This should not be to the point of decision paralysis. The point here is not to stifle our decision-making capabilities. It is to learn to take a moment to consider the wisdom of our decision before jumping into it. Seek wise counsel. Study the Scriptures. Commit the decision to prayer. Don’t just blindly go forward, arrogantly assuming you are right out of the gate.

Solomon says that’s what foolish people do. They just always think they are right. There is a difference between godly, humble confidence and arrogance. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference from the outside, but if you look very long, a separation begins to emerge. For these folks who drift toward arrogance, their stupidity, Solomon says, deceives them into thinking they are on the right track when they are anything but that. Humility will help you avoid a lot of trouble.

“Fools mock at making reparation, but there is goodwill among the upright.” When you have injured a relationship with another person by committing some offense against them, you need to take the steps necessary to repair the breach. It won’t be easy, but if you want to be able to walk in righteousness before God, it’s work you’ve got to commit to doing. The first step in this process is to own your part of the separation. Maybe you weren’t the only guilty party in the damage that was done to the relationship. Perhaps the other person contributed more than their fair share of offense to the situation. You need to be ready to extend forgiveness to them for that, but I strongly suspect that if you are willing to be totally honest, you aren’t completely guiltless in the whole affair. Don’t be a fool: own your contribution and genuinely work to make reparations for that. When you do that with humility and sincerity, and when the other person is a good-willed individual, things will eventually be made right.

“The heart knows its own bitterness, and no outsider shares in its joy.” This is another of those proverbs that just describe the world as it is. You know how you are feeling and no one else does unless you share it with them. On the other side of that, you don’t really know how anyone else is feeling unless they share it. And even then, you only know as much as they tell you. What is actually in the heart is something no one else has access to. Treasure it, but know that you weren’t made to bear it alone. You need to share that with someone else. God is good, but He made people to be in our lives for a reason. There are things that no one will be able to touch or fully understand but Him, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t at least try. Life is better with people.