In the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, the contrast between diligence and laziness and wisdom and folly is heavily emphasized. The books teach that in order to live righteously one must seek wisdom and live diligently. They also teach that foolish living can come from being lazy or from being imprudent. The righteous will be blessed by God while the foolish will come to their own ruin. The books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes commend the wise and diligent and condemn the lazy and foolish. The book of Proverbs displays the contrast of diligence and laziness. The diligent will be rewarded for their hard work and the lazy will be punished for their lack of work. “Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth” (Proverbs 10:4, …show more content…
The wise walk in the ways of God while the fool walks in the ways of sin. The wise are blessed by God while the fools come to ruin. Wisdom is from God and starts with God. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10). The wise obtain this godly wisdom by seeking God and following his commands. However, fools reject God’s wisdom and reject Him. “Whoever fears the Lord walks uprightly, but those who despise him are devious in their ways” (Proverbs 14:2). The wise accept advice from others and learn from their mistakes. The folly ignore advice and are prideful. “The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice” (Proverbs 12:15). The wise know how to hold their tongue and are slow to anger. The fool, however, does not hold back his foolish words and is quick to become angry. “Whoever is patient has great understanding, but one who is quick-tempered displays folly” (Proverbs …show more content…
The wise know that working hard will result in prosperity and fearing God will result in blessings. The fools reject the wisdom of God and waste their lives doing nothing. They waste their lives chasing after sin and everything they have done is meaningless. It is better to be wise than foolish but if the wisdom is not obtained from God, then their wisdom is meaningless. Without God, the lives of the wise and the fool are meaningless and both have the same fate of death. However, by fearing God and keeping his commands, one can fully enjoy the blessings of
I have heard it said that a smart person learns from his own mistakes but a wise person learns from the mistakes of others. In the two books, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and SHE, we have two characters that emerge as wise men. In Jekyll, it is the character of Utterson, the stoic but curious lawyer, and in SHE it is the character of Holly, the stoic but curious academic. It is interesting to note that neither character chooses this fate of wise man, but rather has it thrust upon him through fate and curious circumstances. It is because of their high moral character that they are selected to bear witness to extraordinary events. The question is, how far are we willing to go to push the bounds of knowledge; when do we stop being smart and start being wise?
...nt’s overpowering enforcement of conformity and their attempt to control the knowledge people have, while others understand the need for change but resist it. Change is difficult and uncomfortable. Those who have the knowledge to see injustice, and are able to step out of their comfort zone, ultimately attempting change that can benefit the society at large. When one considers that change is difficult, it is often easy to think that without wisdom one would not have to change. The happiness experienced from ignorance creates a simpler, easier way to live that does not involve irritating and painful change. Often it can be hard to pick between ignorance and knowledge. One must decide if they would be better thinking life is good, completely blinded from the truth, or if life would be better if they had the knowledge to face change, even if changing may be difficult.
..., not only will we acknowledge the needs of others by redeeming ourselves from sensuality, but avoid being prideful by acknowledging how unessential material wealth is in our own lives. When we do this we will break out of the the “competitive rat-race without meaning”, or the “vicious circle” (Arrupe 10), by choosing God’s love and the love for others.
Throughout the context of the Bible, the Lord stresses the importance of what we do with our time here on Earth. He wants all of his children to obey their masters through Him, regardless of how tiresome the task becomes. Several books within the Bible illustrate the importance of sacrifice and discipline in the journey to salvation and everlasting happiness. God enforces that believing in Him, having hope, and putting in fruitful work is the true path to a righteous life and acceptance into Heaven (1 Cor. 15:58). The strength to endure any obstacle comes from your relationship with God and the integrity you have for it; exhibiting the significant relationship between His word and your work.
b: Each person has a divine purpose for which they should live. Whether or not they follow this plan is partially to their own accord. 3. Craft and Structure (a) Make a Judgment: How important is Emerson’s use of the adjective “foolish” in his discussion of consistency? (b) Speculate:
While Solomon and Socrates had the same perspective on what wisdom was, they had contrasting understandings on where it came from. Solomon’s definition of wisdom was the knowledge of making wise choices. Proverbs 1:2-3 says,
The book of Proverbs expresses the conclusion of the will of man. Together, the books of Psalms, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes give us the understanding of the soul of man. In Psalms you have the emotional nature, which is one part of the soul function. Ecclesiastes deals with the function of the mind, the search of man reason throughout the earth, analyzing, evaluating, weighing and concluding. But in the book of Proverbs we have the appeal to the will of man and the conclusion of the will. Therefore, this book is all about the things man should decide, the choices of life. This is beautifully set before us in the introduction to the book.
Hard work is challenging work. But why does it have to be challenging work? Because challenging work, when intelligently chosen, pays off. It’s the work that people of lesser character will avoid. And if you infer that I’m saying people who avoid challenging work have a character flaw, you’re right… and a serious one at that. If you avoid challenging work, you avoid doing what it takes to succeed. To keep your muscles strong or your mind sharp, you need to challenge them. To do only what’s easy will lead to physical and mental flabbiness and very mediocre results, followed by a great deal of time and effort spent justifying why such flabbiness is OK, instead of stepping up and taking on some real challenges.
Gladwell demonstrates that hard work does not get people to high places but a series of opportunities and other factors will. What people have grown up to think about hard work is not true and it is demonstrated through these various examples. People will not be able to succeed, practice, and master their skills without opportunities, timing, devotion, and moral support. There is no such thing as “rags to riches” because those people would not be rich unless they had opportunities in their life. Remember that with out these key factors, people will never be able to succeed.
In the Apology, Socrates was told by the Delphic Oracle that there was nobody wiser than him. With ancient Greece having been a prominent home of philosophy and art since before Socrates' time, the Athenian court found his proclamation both insulting and hard to believe. Socrates goes through great lengths to find the wisest of men and seeing if their reputations are in fact true. He hoped to find a man wiser than him to prove the oracles prediction was false, even Socrates failed to believe he was the wisest man. He first went to a man that seemed wise. After he spoke with him Plato quotes "I came to see that, though many persons, and chiefly himself, thought that he was wise, yet he was not wise."(77) With his certainty that Socrates was wiser, the man was insulted and hated Socrates for derailing his intelligence. Socrates then goes to another wise man, but is again let down. He still believes he is wiser. Convinced that he would not find a more intelligent man amongst wise men, he then questioned the more "educated people", such as poets and artisans. According to Plato, Socrates says "I imagine, they find a great abundance of men who think that they know a great...
God and the Bible’s teachings are used as a framework to find meaning in life and purpose of human presence. Purpose resides in every human’s potential to strive for peace, seek equality, nurture relationships and the environment to achieve harmony with the earth (Valk, 2012). “Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior and my hope is in you all day long” (Ps 25:5). The Holy Spirit, known as God’s active force and His power in action (Lk 1:35), is used as a guide by Christians to ascertain and determine what is right. “We choose to act based on good thinking, scripture and prayer, and the Holy Spirit helps us discern the right alternatives” (Shelly & Miller, 2006, p. 89). In seeing others as the image of God, choosing what is right from wrong is influenced by beliefs cultural background and respect for one another. In this religious culture, the tendency to do wrong is seen as sinfulness. However, it is the admission of sin that leads Christians to Jesus Christ to find and experience God’s forgiveness (Shelly & Miller, 2006). The recognition of sin and eventual redemption strengthens the relationship with God which directs a life of service to humanity (Shelly & Miller,
agree that it is better to be a clever fool than to be someone who
With so much wrong in the world, nothing is often done to stop it. “Laziness and cowardice are the reasons why so great a proportion of men, long after nature has released them from alien guidance, naturalists, nonetheless gladly remain in lifelong immaturity, and why it is so easy for others to establish themselves as their guardians. It is so easy to be immature” (Kant 1784, p. 1). Laziness simply fits in with human nature a tad too well. The idea of laziness, unfortunately, allows people to feel like they are in a state of peace and comfort with no need to “think outside the box” or rebel for what is right.
What does it mean to be wise? Webster's Dictionary defines the word "wise" as being "marked by deep understanding, keen discerment". Through the telling of the ancient Mariner's tale, the Wedding-Guest became sadder and wiser. He became sad in that he identified himself with the shallow and self-absorbed mariner. However, the mariner changed his ways. The Wedding-Guest became wise through realizing that he himself needed to alter his ways.
When this proverb is analyzed with Ecclesiastes in mind, the theme would be a completely different method. For example, "Rejoice in your youth, you who are young; let your heart give you joy in your young days," means that the youth will desire opportunities to pursue every pleasure, which by the teaching of Ecclesiastes, would be wrong. It would be wrong for the reason that since the youth will be pursuing pleasures, they would be living a toil (toil #2 pleasures to fill the body). Ecclesiastes warns against man living toils. Since a toil is not a man's true center, the youth would be going against the greater good. "Follow the promptings of your heart and desires of your eyes. But this you must know: for all these things God will bring you judgment," also has significant meaning within the teaching of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes tells the youth to follow their heart and eyes' desires, yet they will be watched by God. In writing this, Solomon almost condones the pleasures of sin and seems to temp the youth, but then tells them that if they take that course of sin, God will judge them.