There's Four Types of People
Pastor Donny, describes 4 types of individuals:
1. The simple person
2. The fool
3. The mocker
4. The wise person
1. The Simple Person
The simple person is basically ignorant and naive (although not stupid). He just doesn’t know; he lacks instruction and information. The majority of simple people are young (in age, and/or in the Lord). When confronted with truth, the simple person’s response is: “I don’t know what you mean.” The cure for the simple person: Time and experience (and, I would add, sound teaching/doctrine/instruction, and a patient teacher).
2. The Fool
The fool understands truth, but is willfully resistant to it, although primarily to his own (and secondarily others’) detriment. His primary goal in life is the pursuit of pleasure obtained through doing what he knows is wrong, with little concern for the long-term results or outcomes of his wayward actions. When confronted with truth, the fool says: “I know what you mean, but I don’t care!” The cure for the fool, sadly, is often trouble and tragedy.
3. The Mocker
The mocker is, in Donny’s words, “like the fool on steroids”. Mockers (also called “scoffers” in Scripture) defy and renounce truth and good things, not only to their own detriment and destruction, but that of others. They are provokers of others to wrong, strife, and evil. The Word tells us “Do not rebuke a mocker, or he will hate you.” You can’t persuade or reason with a mocker to turn away from his mockery. Without God’s, often dramatic, intervention, most mockers are “a lost cause”. When confronted with truth, the mocker responds: “I hate you!” (Notice, he doesn’t just say, “I hate the truth, the message,” but “I hate you, the messenger!”) Sadly, the mocker is usually beyond any human help. Don’t waste your time or energy trying to instruct the mocker; all you can do is to pray for him. The only cure for the mocker is God Himself, Who has to arrest him and cause him to humble himself before Him. One thinks of Saul on the Damascus Road; only God could reach him; He had to knock Saul off his horse, speak to him in an audible voice, and temporarily blind him in order to do so.
4. The Wise Person
Finally, there is the wise person. The wise person is no smarter or more educated than those in the other three categories; his primary distinguishing characteristic and character trait is that he is teachable. (See Proverbs 9:9.) And a key prerequisite for teachability is humility. When confronted with truth, the wise person responds: “Thank you, because you saved me from trouble!” The wise person has no need for a cure, because, by the grace of God, he has already found it — the fear of the Lord (Proverbs 9:10) — which, simply put, is “to stand in awe of God,” and which is the beginning of wisdom and understanding. From that solid and sure starting point, the wise person embarks on a lifelong journey of progressively gaining that which he can never lose, and which neither the simple, the fool, or the mocker will ever attain: an intimate relationship with the God of the universe — both to know Him and to be known by Him, and to joyfully dwell in His Presence forever.
1. The simple person
2. The fool
3. The mocker
4. The wise person
1. The Simple Person
The simple person is basically ignorant and naive (although not stupid). He just doesn’t know; he lacks instruction and information. The majority of simple people are young (in age, and/or in the Lord). When confronted with truth, the simple person’s response is: “I don’t know what you mean.” The cure for the simple person: Time and experience (and, I would add, sound teaching/doctrine/instruction, and a patient teacher).
2. The Fool
The fool understands truth, but is willfully resistant to it, although primarily to his own (and secondarily others’) detriment. His primary goal in life is the pursuit of pleasure obtained through doing what he knows is wrong, with little concern for the long-term results or outcomes of his wayward actions. When confronted with truth, the fool says: “I know what you mean, but I don’t care!” The cure for the fool, sadly, is often trouble and tragedy.
3. The Mocker
The mocker is, in Donny’s words, “like the fool on steroids”. Mockers (also called “scoffers” in Scripture) defy and renounce truth and good things, not only to their own detriment and destruction, but that of others. They are provokers of others to wrong, strife, and evil. The Word tells us “Do not rebuke a mocker, or he will hate you.” You can’t persuade or reason with a mocker to turn away from his mockery. Without God’s, often dramatic, intervention, most mockers are “a lost cause”. When confronted with truth, the mocker responds: “I hate you!” (Notice, he doesn’t just say, “I hate the truth, the message,” but “I hate you, the messenger!”) Sadly, the mocker is usually beyond any human help. Don’t waste your time or energy trying to instruct the mocker; all you can do is to pray for him. The only cure for the mocker is God Himself, Who has to arrest him and cause him to humble himself before Him. One thinks of Saul on the Damascus Road; only God could reach him; He had to knock Saul off his horse, speak to him in an audible voice, and temporarily blind him in order to do so.
4. The Wise Person
Finally, there is the wise person. The wise person is no smarter or more educated than those in the other three categories; his primary distinguishing characteristic and character trait is that he is teachable. (See Proverbs 9:9.) And a key prerequisite for teachability is humility. When confronted with truth, the wise person responds: “Thank you, because you saved me from trouble!” The wise person has no need for a cure, because, by the grace of God, he has already found it — the fear of the Lord (Proverbs 9:10) — which, simply put, is “to stand in awe of God,” and which is the beginning of wisdom and understanding. From that solid and sure starting point, the wise person embarks on a lifelong journey of progressively gaining that which he can never lose, and which neither the simple, the fool, or the mocker will ever attain: an intimate relationship with the God of the universe — both to know Him and to be known by Him, and to joyfully dwell in His Presence forever.
Posted in Bayside Life Men