The Answer

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

THE ANSWER

Prov 26:4-5

4 Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself.

5 Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.

NIV

At first this seems to be a contradiction and some old Rabbinical Scholars use these two to question the canonical authority of this book. But there is no contradiction when we consider the truth here. In the first scenario the idea is that we should not answer a taunt with a taunt. That is we should not engage a fool in conversation with the same kind of words or attitude a fool has. We should not lower ourselves to his level. This might be more like arguing religion more than sharing the gospel. The second scenario points to having the right words at the right time to show the folly of the fool. We might be in a group of people and the fool makes all sorts of claims about science being truth and the bible simply written by man to enslave other men. Answering this can be nothing more than an argument never to be resolved. Of course we could bring all the historical facts about Christ living among the Jews and the records of all his miracles, even the evidence of his death and resurrection. But the fool would only refute our evidence because he believes the evidence of science, although he has no knowledge of the science himself. He can only quote the words of others who declare the science to be truth. He has not performed the science himself. He has not run the tests, and examined the evidence. He believes the science based on the work of others and their testimony. He may have experienced some result of science as in taking some medication which should relief his pain, or illness, but he takes it on the word of some doctor who may or may not have determined the evidence of that medication himself, but has taken the word of a pharmaceutical representative. The science might work or it might not, but the fool takes it on faith that it will work. In all reality science is only man discovering what God has created. See the folly in their reasoning against taking the word of the testimony of Moses, Isaiah, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul and others. The fool believes many things on faith, but refutes our faith in God. Answer him not with arguments, but with solid facts at the right time in order to show how foolish his thinking is. Bring reason, bring true wisdom to the fool and he will see how foolish he is, rather than thinking he is wise.