Proverbs 14:6 Commentary and Bible Study

The scorner is the one who sets no value on wisdom and therefore will not truly seek after it, as Solomon has already said, ‘Fools despise wisdom and instruction’. How is it then that we find him seeking after wisdom? Scripture acknowledges that the Greeks or Gentiles seek after wisdom but it is wisdom without the knowledge of God, a wisdom that gives glory to man and not to God. The wisdom spoken of in this verse is, by contrast, true wisdom. In seeking true wisdom, a scorner seeks something that is alien to him, for wisdom and scorning do not belong together. Yet times arise when he feels the need for wisdom, for he may be in some precarious position and only wisdom is going to deliver him from calamity; he therefore seeks it urgently though it is his normal practice to despise it. He imagines that wisdom is something which he can reach out and grasp whenever he wants, and does not realise that his years of cynicism and despising of wisdom have damaged his soul. The trouble is that he has seen God’s wisdom as a threat to his own wisdom, and he does not want a wisdom given him freely but one of his own which he can take credit for. To submit to God’s wisdom is to set aside our own, and to come with a teachable spirit that recognises our own inadequacy and shortcomings. But the scorner is now no longer capable of recognising or appreciating wisdom because he has developed a hatred of its simple and straightforward counsel to his soul. His habit of picking holes in it is not something that he can instantly end however great his present need, for it is impossible to hate something and to hone your criticism of that thing, and then to immediately choose to love it because it is convenient for the moment. It is of course impossible for the scorner to admit the great disadvantage that he has here, for to do so is to acknowledge that his whole life’s policy has been a failure and has caused him to suffer real loss. Let us therefore beware of despising what should be our source of protection, our consolation, our guide through the perplexity of this world, for otherwise wisdom will become to us like one whom we have insulted and who now refuses to help us.But wisdom is easy to the man of understanding, and it is a mere trifle for him to obtain the help he needs from it. Because it is his daily practice to value wisdom, then wisdom comes to him as a friend who shares his secrets readily. God is pleased to give the earnest man wisdom which comes from above, because he values it and asks for it, and knows how much he is dependent on it. He seeks to please the Lord who gives wisdom, by obeying him in every area of life, and as a result he is given an understanding of human nature, of human relationships, of the meaning of history, and of the way of salvation which the scorner is excluded from.