Feeding on Foolishness

“The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge: but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness.”

Proverbs 15:14

I read this verse a few weeks ago, and thought immediately of the fads that have come and gone over the course of the school year.

We started off September fighting several verbal fads, as the students replaced their Stanley tumblers with the latest popular water bottles as seen on Instagram. Even our very youngest students seemed to be wholly sucked into the fads this year.

With the rise of social media, and the way it is continuing to target younger and younger ages, the prevalence of fads is unsurprising, though no less concerning.

Of course, it’s not just kids who get sucked into fads, and social media has a hold on adults as well. It is easy to get into a habit of filling time with mindless scrolling or one quick video after another. But this verse from Proverbs gives us a helpful checkpoint with our social media, as well as the other things with which we feed our minds and emotions. We can apply this to books or music or television or our hobbies, but social media is what the Holy Spirit laid on my heart as I read the verse, so let’s just take a look at that.

I enjoy the quotes by great Christians of old that come across my Instagram feed, but as careful as I have been in training the algorithm to show me only good things, there is still a lot of foolishness, partly because there is just so much of it out there. And it’s subtle, often disguised with humor or silliness, or dressed up in a coat of superficial Christianity.

Of course, the problem isn’t just encountering foolishness—go into any public place and you can see someone behaving foolishly or spouting foolish speech. The problem this verse primarily addresses is the attitude of our hearts.

It all comes down to two options: are you seeking knowledge, or feeding on foolishness?

That word, seeketh is no accident. Acquiring knowledge takes effort, work, even toil. The book of Proverbs speaks of seeking, searching, pursuing knowledge as something valuable and rare.

But foolishness? It takes no more exertion than casually munching on a bag of chips. It’s easy, accessible, and usually requires little to no effort. Foolishness aligns with the bent of our flesh towards sin, and takes full advantage of our propensity to choose the easy path over the right one.

Proverbs gives us many contrasts between the wise and the foolish, but notice what it says specifically about foolishness:

“A prudent man concealeth knowledge: but the heart of fools proclaimeth foolishness.” (12:23)

“The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright: but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness.” (15:2)

Those who feed on foolishness tend to pour it right out again. I have noticed this year especially how the foolishness of social media fads literally trains the brain to respond to certain words or phrases with a specific verbal reply. It replaces grammatical forms with words that, in themselves, are quite meaningless. The same thing can happen to Christians if we feed on the world’s foolishness. Far worse than the faddish language picked up by youngsters, our hearts and minds can be trained to respond to truth with folly more quickly than we expect.

When we allow ourselves to feed on foolishness, we set ourselves up for spiritual disaster.  

“The foolishness of man peverteth his way: and his heart fretteth against the Lord.” (19:3)

There is some good out there on social media, and you can find accounts that post Scripture or quotes from godly, Bible-centered authors. But in the process of looking for those things, it is easy to get sucked into the foolishness of the world’s philosophies. Without even noticing, we can allow our minds and heart to be retrained to respond to God with a complaining spirit, or the emotional rejection of truths our intellects would say we believe.

“The thought of foolishness is sin: and the scorner is an abomination to men.” (Proverbs 24:9)

We need to be on the watch for foolishness, and guard our hearts and lives from it. Foolishness isn’t just silliness or “fun” or “harmless” entertainment. In the eyes of God, it is sin, and will draw us away from God.

Dear Reader, have you gotten caught up in the world’s foolishness? Pay attention this week to the way you speak and act, how you respond to truths from God’s Word, how you choose to spend your time. Ask God to reveal areas where foolishness has taken hold in your life, and yield to the Holy Spirit’s promptings.

Choose to seek truth, and refuse to feed on foolishness.

“Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou sleekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.” 

Proverbs 2:3-6