Pro 15:21 | KingComments | STEP | If a son (or daughter) behaves wisely in response to the father’s strongly protective love and the mother’s warm affection, he (or she) will cause them joy ( ). However, if a son (or daughter) behaves foolishly, it represents a contempt for the parental investment of care. It is a declaration to the mother that she was wrong to have brought him (or her) into the world. Wise children give parents reason to rejoice over them. Foolish children show contempt for their mother. They show an unnatural harshness that causes great suffering to their mother. The greatest joy and the bitterest sadness in this world of tears are found in the hearts of parents. There is no greater joy than to see children walk in the truth ( ). There is no greater sorrow than to see a child reject the truth and live and die in unbelief ( ). The fool not only lives without God in his sins, but he finds his joy in foolishness ( ). This marks him as a man “who lacks sense”. Any man who delights in expressing or seeing foolishness has no sense. He goes a foolish way that ends in eternal death. He who does have sense or “understanding walks straight”, which is the path of life that ends in eternal life. The fool follows every fad and lives by the whim of the day. That life is a pleasure for him, because he has no understanding of God’s will, nor does he want to. Someone with understanding does know what God’s will is for him and therefore walks straight, he walks the way God has laid out for him. He knows “that a man’s way is not in himself, nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps” ( ).

‏ Proverbs 15:21

The Influence of Wisdom and Folly

If a son (or daughter) behaves wisely in response to the father’s strongly protective love and the mother’s warm affection, he (or she) will cause them joy (Pro 15:20). However, if a son (or daughter) behaves foolishly, it represents a contempt for the parental investment of care. It is a declaration to the mother that she was wrong to have brought him (or her) into the world.

Wise children give parents reason to rejoice over them. Foolish children show contempt for their mother. They show an unnatural harshness that causes great suffering to their mother. The greatest joy and the bitterest sadness in this world of tears are found in the hearts of parents. There is no greater joy than to see children walk in the truth (3Jn 1:4). There is no greater sorrow than to see a child reject the truth and live and die in unbelief (2Sam 18:33).

The fool not only lives without God in his sins, but he finds his joy in foolishness (Pro 15:21). This marks him as a man “who lacks sense”. Any man who delights in expressing or seeing foolishness has no sense. He goes a foolish way that ends in eternal death. He who does have sense or “understanding walks straight”, which is the path of life that ends in eternal life.

The fool follows every fad and lives by the whim of the day. That life is a pleasure for him, because he has no understanding of God’s will, nor does he want to. Someone with understanding does know what God’s will is for him and therefore walks straight, he walks the way God has laid out for him. He knows “that a man’s way is not in himself, nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps” (Jer 10:23).