by T.M. Moore at ColsonCenter.org
"The way of a fool is right in his own eyes…" Proverbs 12:15
In the Scripture he is a fool who refuses to acknowledge the existence and relevance of God and, rejecting the authority of God and His Word, sets off on his own course in life, following his own counsel, living more by his affections than by sound judgment. The Bible makes it clear that such people are to be pitied, because they are in the grasp of the father of lies and have no power of their own to break free from his clutches and the false worldviews they have embraced. If the fools of this age are to find their way to the light of Truth, it will take loving, patient, gentle persistence on the part of those who serve the Lordship of Jesus Christ in living hope and fullness of joy. The believer’s calling involves seeking out fools, like we once were, finding ways to get close to them with sincere and loving service, and seeking to engage them in ongoing conversations concerning what they believe and why.
One thing we will discover very early on in talking with such people is that they are absolutely convinced of the correctness of their views. Their way of life makes perfectly good sense to them, and they consider that all their views, convictions, choices, and practices are completely in line with what any reasonable person would accept. We can begin to make progress with such people if we focus on two crucial components of the worldview of every fool. The first is suggested in the phrase, “in his own eyes.” The fool’s worldview makes perfectly good sense to him, frankly, because he wants it to. Yet most people are largely unaware of what they believe, and that at two levels. First, they have never taken the time to think through all that they believe, especially those foundational, bare essential convictions that must be true for anything to make sense. Second, most people are completely unaware of how they have come to believe what they do. All they know is that, as much as they understand things, their views make sense to them.
A second thing we will discover about the folly of the fool is that every worldview has a savior, someone, or more likely, something, that is looked to for ultimate happiness, deliverance, and wellbeing. The savior of the fool is not, of course, our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:18). However, everyone is trusting in someone or something to make his life make sense and to bring the happiness he rightly believes he should be able to enjoy. Part of our task will be to discover who or what the savior is in any fool’s worldview, and to expose the folly of thinking that such a person, idea, or thing could ever truly deliver the goods. Thus, from the beginning of our conversations with our foolish neighbors – and we’ll keep that term for our own use, not as a label to pin on them – we will want to discover two things: First, what is the full scope of what my neighbor believes, that which is so right in his own eyes that he has staked his life on it; and, second, what stands at the core of his worldview as savior and, thus, god? It will be necessary for us, besides remaining loving and sincere, to ask good questions, listen for insightful comments, understand clearly, and remember what our neighbor says, because, in the process of answering him, we will want to use his own words as much as possible.
Read Part One of this series here
Start your own ViewPoint discussion group. This week’s series is available in a free downloadable format, suitable for group study. Request the series, “Answer The Fool," available later this week.
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