“Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me, since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the Lord. Since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke, they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes. For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.” (Proverbs 1:28-33)
Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; (Romans 1:28-30)
“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened.” (C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce)
Back in high school, someone told me that if I didn’t use the French or Spanish I took on a regular basis, I would forget it. Sadly, while I never got good at either language, they were correct. Sometimes, I think I’ve lost more knowledge than I’ve gained. When I lost weight, I gained discipline. When I lost discipline, I gained weight. It seems to work in every area of life.
It even works with something as simple as drinking enough. Dad hasn’t been drinking enough, and now we may be going to the hospital because he’s reached the point where putting anything in his stomach causes pain and sometimes vomiting. Put simply, when you do something, doing that thing tends to become easier. When you don’t do it, it gets harder…sometimes to the point of impossibility.
The same is true with wisdom and folly, and with morality and immorality. People who reject wisdom or reject morality eventually find it impossible to embrace them.
Back in high school, someone told me that if I didn’t use the French or Spanish I took on a regular basis, I would forget it. Sadly, while I never got good at either language, they were correct. Sometimes, I think I’ve lost more knowledge than I’ve gained. When I lost weight, I gained discipline. When I lost discipline, I gained weight. It seems to work in every area of life.
It even works with something as simple as drinking enough. Dad hasn’t been drinking enough, and now we may be going to the hospital because he’s reached the point where putting anything in his stomach causes pain and sometimes vomiting. Put simply, when you do something, doing that thing tends to become easier. When you don’t do it, it gets harder…sometimes to the point of impossibility.
The same is true with wisdom and folly, and with morality and immorality. People who reject wisdom or reject morality eventually find it impossible to embrace them.
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