Scripture and Discernment

"He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed" (Prov. 13:20). This may be one of the most significant and overlooked scriptures in the entire Bible. It's been said that a person cannot rise above what their associations are. Nothing could be more true, or more important to understand. The main reason this Bible verse is so overlooked and not seen as significant as it really is, is that not a whole lot of folks actually know who is wise and who is foolish. One of the main reasons for that lack of knowledge is that not many people care to be around someone who is both wise enough, and fearless enough in love, to reprove them for their faulty ways. Yet this attribute of the righteous is chronicled throughout the entire Bible, in terms of being able to reprove, and being able to receive reproof. One verse that really stands out says this: "Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom" (Prov. 13:10). It's really easy to just read right past that scripture without actually getting what's there. What is there is that people who are able to BE advised end up being wise, whereas those who cannot be advised or reproved, end up being contentious. So the former in that verse is who we want to be, and the latter is who we want to avoid being. Another beautiful verse tells us something integral about those who are able to be advised or reproved: "The ear that heareth the reproof of life abideth among the wise" (Prov. 15:31). People who are able to be corrected, advised, reproved, etc, end up being those who 'walk with wise men.' There is simply no such thing as someone who is resistant to being reproved or advised, eventually becoming wise. It doesn't happen. The only way that can happen is if they eventually become more willing to hear and to be reproved. I've been in Christ for a good while, and have experienced and observed many things. One thing I've observed is that we all establish patterns in our lives, and when we go far enough in the journey with our patterns being a certain way, we most likely are not going to change them. Therefore it is of vital importance that we establish the right kind of patterns as soon as possible, and stick with them. It is a Biblical fact that those who do NOT do so eventually lose sight of the fact that they have the wrong kind of practices in their lives, and end up losing out with God in the long term.

The angel who told Daniel of end time events said something that is a fearful saying for those who are aware of its reality: "Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand" (Dan. 12:10). What that clearly means is that the wicked will not know that they are the wicked, because they will not have listened to the wise or mirrored their patterns in their lives. They refused to 'walk with wise men' because they were not able to be advised or reproved, therefore they had no choice but to be 'the companion of fools [and] be destroyed.' Jesus brought this exact same message out nearly six hundred years later in the parable of the ten virgins: "Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish" (Mat. 25:1,2). This parable, like all of the parables of Jesus, were about people who were going to be born again by faith in him. That is the connotation of "the kingdom of heaven [God] is likened unto..." And the time that Jesus was speaking of here is the end time, because he was teaching about the end time all through chapter 24, and chapter 25 was merely a continuation of that sermon. That is what he meant by saying, "THEN shall the kingdom of..." The kingdom of heaven, or God if you will, is defined in the Bible as, "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the holy Ghost" (Rom. 14:17). So again, all of the parables of Jesus were about people who would be born again of the Spirit of God, as Jesus spoke of (Jn. 3:5,6). But back to the ten virgins, Jesus said that as his coming draws nigh, all of God's people, wise and foolish, would go forth in their journey of faith (Mat. 25:6,7). But the foolish virgins ended up not having what it took to "endure unto the end and be saved," and the wise were not able to help them at that point, though the foolish finally sought their help (Mat. 24:13; Mat. 25:8-10). The foolish had established the wrong patterns for too long, and the time came when it was too late for them to change; and therefore they came up short in the end (Mat. 25:11,12).

The problem with the foolish virgins is that they did not walk in agreement with the wise in the journey, and never learned how to be advised or reproved of their foolish ways. Therefore they went to the end not realizing that they were foolish, and it cost them their salvation. That is what the parable is about, and anyone who thinks it is not about born again people losing out in the end is in danger of being a foolish virgin, and not knowing it. The apostle Paul charged Timothy, in regard to the congregations that he appointed him as a bishop over, saying, "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables" (II Tim. 4:2-4). So Paul was telling Timothy that the people he resided over needed to be reproved, rebuked, etc, that they might be firmly established in the faith. Without being reproved, advised, rebuked, etc, people will end up with faulty and injurious ideologies about the faith of Christ, as Paul clearly said to Timothy. Timothy was a wise man because he had 'walked with wise men,' Paul in particular who was one of the wisest men in the history of the world. He was in fact quite possibly THE wisest man in history that did not come from heaven. In another place Paul even instructed the people to not walk with those who were contrary to what he had taught them, knowing that they were foolish for resisting the wisdom that God had given him for the people's good: "Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple" (Rom. 16:17,18). The bottom line is that those who follow hard after God's Spirit, and "walk not after the flesh," are going to want to be around those who have enough of God's love and wisdom to advise and reprove them (Rom. 8:1,14). So when it's all said and done, those who really love God are going to be with those who also really love God, and they are also going to love the established order of God, which very much includes being reproved, rebuked, advised, etc. Amen.