Remember when life was much simpler when you were a child? Looking back, you had very few decisions to make, and the decisions you made had mild consequences whether good or bad. Of course, when you were a child, all of your decisions, their consequences, and the work you had to do seemed huge. But looking back now as an adult you realize that life was much simpler because the responsibilities were fewer, lighter, and consequences weren’t as immediately severe.
As we grow into our teenage and young adult years, all of this changes. Life becomes more complex. Responsibilities become heavier, and the consequences of our decisions have much more serious ramifications for the rest of our lives. The complexities grow with us as we age and add more to our lives.
When we face heavy responsibilities with serious consequences for our decisions, there is the temptation either never to grow up or try a flight to immaturity; a return to those early days when life was simpler. Growing up is hard to do.
Wisdom calls to the simple ones in several places in Proverbs. The simple are those who are gullible or naïve (Pr 14.15). Sometimes this is innocent immaturity. Sometimes it is culpable sin. We are all simple at the early stages of our lives, gullibly believing our older siblings when they tell us to trust them or even naively trusting a nefarious adult. We don’t know much about the world or understand the sinfulness of men. These simpletons can learn (Pr 19.25; 21.11). One purpose of Solomon in Proverbs is to teach prudence/shrewdness to the simple (Pr 1.4). They must heed the call of Wisdom (Pr 1.20ff; 8; 9), but they are in a place where they can learn.
There is a simpleton who can’t learn, however. He is the one who “loves being simple” (Pr 1.22). They aren’t merely immature. They love being immature. They don’t want to grow up. They hate knowledge and do not choose the fear of Yahweh (Pr 1.29). They refuse counsel and despise reproof (Pr 1.30). They have no heart for wisdom (Pr 9.4, 16). These are the 25% of young men and women ages 25-34 who, in 2017, were living in their parents’ homes not going to school or working. These are those young men and women who don’t want to take on the responsibility of marriage and children. Life is a playground. Adulting isn’t fun, and life must always be fun.
The simplicity of the simple hamstrings their responsibility for the mission of dominion. They develop no productive skills and live aimless lives, living only in each moment. Their simplicity costs them the joys that come through the disciplines of maturity. But it isn’t only what they fail to achieve that is a problem. Their foolish simplicity causes them to inherit folly (Pr 14.18); they make a mess of their own lives and create problems for others.
Solomon’s contrast to simplicity is shrewdness, commonly translated as “prudence.” “Shrewd” might make us cringe a bit because we hear it with all of its manipulative connotations. The serpent was shrewd in the Garden, leading man into sin (Gen 3.1). But shrewdness dwells with Wisdom (Pr 8.12), meaning that it is a member of Wisdom’s family; it is a particular expression of Wisdom. Sin distorts it into evil manipulation, but it need not be so. Shrewdness is an ability to connect the dots intellectually and move things around with people and situations so that you get the desired outcome. When used righteously, you can work with people and circumstances in ways that bring about peace and productivity so that everyone benefits.
Shrewdness, guided by God’s revelation, understands the ends of words and actions, seeing the immediate and long-term consequences (see Pr 14.8, 15; 22.3//27.12). Husbands need to be shrewd with their wives, dwelling with them according to knowledge (1Pt 3.7). Wives need to be shrewd with their husbands, understanding how they can help him be the man God has called him to be (Eph 5.33). Parents must be shrewd with children, learning each of their personalities and helping them grow into the men and women God created them to be. Businessmen need to be shrewd to be righteously productive, establishing God’s order in the world. Each of us needs to be shrewd in our interpersonal relationships with Christians and non-Christians, knowing how to relate to each. We are to be wise—shrewd—as serpents and harmless as doves (Mt 10.16). We are not to be serpents who create disorder through shrewdness. We are to be Holy Spirit dove-like, brooding over the unformed and unfilled creation to bring about order through shrewdness.
You can’t learn shrewdness if you love simplicity. Learning shrewdness, as with all wisdom, takes a humble, patient submission to God’s revelation as it is taught to you through parents, church teachers, and friends by instruction, reproof, and example. You must meditate on what God says and then go out and learn through experiences both good and bad.
Superficially it seems that simplicity is the way to go. It’s the easy life. Well, it is … for a short time. But it will not last. The way of the simple leads to death. The way of the shrewd is challenging, but it is the way of life.
