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The first part of Proverbs 1:7 tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. So the fear of God is the starting point and the direction to take when acquiring knowledge. That includes the knowledge of evil and how to avoid it. Evil is the things which go against God’s Will. In that respect, then, it is essential that we know as much as possible for us what God’s Will is so we may know that which is, and which is not evil.
According to 1 Corinthians 12:8, God has imparted the gift of knowledge on certain people. That doesn’t mean the rest of us need not have knowledge, it merely means that it is necessary that those not gifted with the Lord’s knowledge, should acquire it so as to not run afoul of His Will.
Knowledge in the sense of God’s Will ranges from the obvious to the not-so-obvious. For example, to fear the Lord is knowledge that is obvious to anyone who at least has interacted with those who worship God. Also obvious, when such knowledge is known, is the Commandment Thou shalt not murder, in that it is very easy to understand. So, knowing that committing murder goes against God’s Will, and taking pains not to commit murder, either directly or indirectly, is knowledge that enables a person not to do evil and run afoul of God’s Will.
Less obvious, perhaps, are things like deceiving and misleading a person. There is a Commandment, ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness,’ but sometimes it’s hard to discern where the falsity may be when the person who intentionally misleads has combined a set of facts that are based on the truth. Such a person may spout off facts that may lead one to conclude, ‘Aha, makes perfect sense, let’s do it,’ if one’s knowledge of the fear of the Lord is limited.
It is evil to mislead others for your own gain, at the expense of others. Think of a scheme in which a person who presents himself to potential investors as a master moneymaker. Those who fall for him didn’t bother to look into exactly how he made his money and which investors made it. If they did, they would have realized that the earlier they got into the person’s game, the more money they would make, since the person counted as income for those early investors the capital contributions of later investors. In a sense, the person robs Peter to pay Paul, with the Pauls being the earlier investors and the Peters being the later ones. What the Pauls did, essentially goes against the Commandment ‘Thou shalt not steal,’ and thus, what that person did was evil.
The Pauls in that scheme are just as accountable as the person who set them up, since they accepted the money the person tool from the Peters and the Peters got nothing in return. This is robbery, which is evil. It is more likely that a God-fearing person, who by having knowledge is on the lookout for things that would steer him to committing evil, and thus invite the Lord’s wrath.
Robbing Peter to Pay Paul, and variations thereof, isn’t limited to the private sector. There are leaders in government who have used taxpayer money to fund their own interests and the interests of at least some who’ve enable those to attain positions of leadership. Those leaders, and some of those who supported them, would be regarded as Paul, while the rest of the people who derived little to no benefit would be the Peters. And many of such leaders got to where they were, by misleading enough Peters, combining facts of truth together to induce the Peters to choose them over their rivals, and in terms of the government, which under God is obligated to provide for its household, i.e. the jurisdiction they preside over, the Peters were robbed; they were robbed not just in money but in the sense that they didn’t have the infrastructure which a government is required to give, for them to prosper. Does not 1 Timothy 5:8 say, “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” Do such people show they fear God? Is not denying or neglecting one’s household a mark of evil?
Another point is that it is one thing to have knowledge of that which may be evil, but it is another to act in spite of such knowledge, either known or unknown. So the second part of Proverbs 1:7 says “[F]ools despise wisdom and instruction.”
According to 1 Corinthians 12:8, God has imparted the gift of knowledge on certain people. That doesn’t mean the rest of us need not have knowledge, it merely means that it is necessary that those not gifted with the Lord’s knowledge, should acquire it so as to not run afoul of His Will.
Knowledge in the sense of God’s Will ranges from the obvious to the not-so-obvious. For example, to fear the Lord is knowledge that is obvious to anyone who at least has interacted with those who worship God. Also obvious, when such knowledge is known, is the Commandment Thou shalt not murder, in that it is very easy to understand. So, knowing that committing murder goes against God’s Will, and taking pains not to commit murder, either directly or indirectly, is knowledge that enables a person not to do evil and run afoul of God’s Will.
Less obvious, perhaps, are things like deceiving and misleading a person. There is a Commandment, ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness,’ but sometimes it’s hard to discern where the falsity may be when the person who intentionally misleads has combined a set of facts that are based on the truth. Such a person may spout off facts that may lead one to conclude, ‘Aha, makes perfect sense, let’s do it,’ if one’s knowledge of the fear of the Lord is limited.
It is evil to mislead others for your own gain, at the expense of others. Think of a scheme in which a person who presents himself to potential investors as a master moneymaker. Those who fall for him didn’t bother to look into exactly how he made his money and which investors made it. If they did, they would have realized that the earlier they got into the person’s game, the more money they would make, since the person counted as income for those early investors the capital contributions of later investors. In a sense, the person robs Peter to pay Paul, with the Pauls being the earlier investors and the Peters being the later ones. What the Pauls did, essentially goes against the Commandment ‘Thou shalt not steal,’ and thus, what that person did was evil.
The Pauls in that scheme are just as accountable as the person who set them up, since they accepted the money the person tool from the Peters and the Peters got nothing in return. This is robbery, which is evil. It is more likely that a God-fearing person, who by having knowledge is on the lookout for things that would steer him to committing evil, and thus invite the Lord’s wrath.
Robbing Peter to Pay Paul, and variations thereof, isn’t limited to the private sector. There are leaders in government who have used taxpayer money to fund their own interests and the interests of at least some who’ve enable those to attain positions of leadership. Those leaders, and some of those who supported them, would be regarded as Paul, while the rest of the people who derived little to no benefit would be the Peters. And many of such leaders got to where they were, by misleading enough Peters, combining facts of truth together to induce the Peters to choose them over their rivals, and in terms of the government, which under God is obligated to provide for its household, i.e. the jurisdiction they preside over, the Peters were robbed; they were robbed not just in money but in the sense that they didn’t have the infrastructure which a government is required to give, for them to prosper. Does not 1 Timothy 5:8 say, “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” Do such people show they fear God? Is not denying or neglecting one’s household a mark of evil?
Another point is that it is one thing to have knowledge of that which may be evil, but it is another to act in spite of such knowledge, either known or unknown. So the second part of Proverbs 1:7 says “[F]ools despise wisdom and instruction.”
