Being a Simpleton

In the Bible, the term “simpleton” denotes a person who lacks wisdom from God. Psalm 19:7 says that the law of the Lord is capable of “making wise a simpleton.” Therefore, when someone says that knowing and understanding the Bible is not important to him, he is essentially saying that he wants to be a simpleton!

It is interesting that Christians who believe that it is not important to know or understand the Bible still read the Bible! They still believe that the Bible is the word of God, and that is a good start. Since this issue has a lot to do with knowledge and understanding, let us turn to a book of the Bible which deals extensively with knowledge: the Book of Proverbs. What is the purpose of the Book of Proverbs?

Proverbs 1:1–4 The proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, the king of Israel,
To know wisdom and instruction, to discern words of discernment,
To receive the discipline of being thoughtful, righteousness, judgement and uprightness,
To give prudence to simpletons, knowledge and discretion to a young man.

According to the introductory passage in the Book of Proverbs, one of the purposes of the Book of Proverbs is “to give prudence to simpletons.” (Proverbs 1:4) The Bible does not speak positively of such simpletons (Proverbs 1:22, 32; 7:7; 8:5; 14:15, 18; 27:12; Psalm 116:6). In fact, the only positive thing that the Bible has to say about a simpleton is that he ceases being a simpleton (Psalms 19:7; 119:130; Proverbs 1:4; 9:4, 6, 16; 19:25; 21:11; Ezekiel 45:20)!

In fact, not only does the Bible speak negatively about simpletons, it also speaks negatively against them. Let me give you an example of that: In the section of Proverbs 1:20–33, wisdom is personified as a woman. She is depicted as calling out to warn the ones who do not possess wisdom:

Proverbs 1:22 Until when, O simpletons, will you love simplicity?
Scorners delight themselves with scorning,
and fools hate knowledge.

Notice that simpletons are not simpletons simply because they lack mental capacity. Rather, they are simpletons because they love simplicity! Such people feel that it is better to know less because “ignorance is bliss.” They simply have no interest at all to grow in knowledge and understanding. Moreover, there is no indication that Wisdom is addressing more than one category of people here. From the parallelism, we can see that the simpletons who love simplicity are the same people as the scorners who delight themselves with scorning, and the fools who hate knowledge! Such an attitude is clearly condemned by God.

One cannot help but notice the desperation in Wisdom’s plea. But why this sense of urgency? In verse 32, Wisdom explains: “because the waywardness of simpletons shall slay them.” If you are a simpleton, you are not walking according to God; you are wayward. That waywardness, if you do not turn back from it, will kill you. According to Wisdom, whether or not one has biblical wisdom is a matter of life and death. It is not merely “not good” to be a simpleton, but it is even dangerous! The attitude of the simpleton is simply not of God. In fact, as we have seen, God hates the attitude of the simpleton! May such an attitude never enter into or remain in our hearts!