Proverbs 13:20 Commentary and Bible Study

By what means will he who walks with the wise become wise? Not simply by being with them and by their personal influence upon him, although certainly we do influence one another. But wisdom comes from God and without the work of the Spirit in our hearts the influence of Christians upon us is of limited effect. Those who love and seek out the company of the wise tell us that they are already touched by the hand of God. Wisdom here, as always in Proverbs, is not worldly wisdom or academic wisdom which rises no higher than this world, but it is that wisdom which comes from above and marks out a person as belonging to the kingdom of heaven. It is characterised by the fear of the Lord, obedience to his law, and love of his righteousness. Why is a wise man attracted to the wise? Because he sees in them all that he values and aspires to. He knows that the wise belong to the Lord, and he wishes their Lord to be his Lord, their death to be his death, their rising to be his rising, and their eternal glory to be his, and that he may be counted in their number. But the fool is attracted to the foolish for all the opposite reasons. He is ashamed of believers, of their faith, of their eternal hope, and of their God. He boasts in the things that are considered great by men, and he wants his good things now, not in the world to come. He looks upon those who are willing to lose their life in this world and to wait for eternal life as fools.