“The simple believes everything,
but the prudent gives thought to his steps.”
Proverbs 14:15
What does it mean to be “prudent”? Being prudent is to be thoughtful and discerning…to not be hasty. Prudent people think about the possible consequences of their decisions before making them. We often show this quality when deciding which university to attend, or who we want to marry, or even the type of job we want. There are plenty of important decisions we give thought to before making them. But what does it mean to be prudent in the Bible?
Just as mentioned before, being prudent means being thoughtful and discerning. Using wisdom when making decisions and for actions. Being prudent can keep us from walking down a path of destruction versus a path that leads to life.
We can see this clearly in the Bible. All throughout Jesus’s ministry while he was on earth, he spread the knowledge and words of God. He also exposed those who did not belong to God and taught his followers how to discern between the two.
Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.
Matthew 7:15
By teaching that there were false prophets to be wary of, it was now required of those who believed Jesus to use wisdom to be prudent in their faith. Now they had to consider who they were learning from, the words that came from their leaders’ mouths.
Believe me when I say…
God’s Word is a path that leads us to salvation and eternal life, but that means there is another path that leads to death. Jesus talks about this in Matthew 7:13-14.
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
If a believer is prudent, they are thoughtful and discerning. What is it that they should discern? The proverb from the beginning says that the simple [person] believes everything. They don’t bother to think whether what they’re hearing is true or false. They simply believe it because maybe someone they trust or respect told it to them, or maybe because those words make them feel good.
If someone believes anything they hear, especially about God and/or the Bible, which path do you think they’ll end up on? Jesus says in that passage in Matthew that the narrow road is hard and few find it. Who are those few? They are the prudent ones – those who think about the words they hear – and check them against the Bible.
Psalms 119:130 says God’s word gives light and understanding to the simple, and in Psalms 119:105, the Word is likened to a light for our path. Prudent believers will strive to learn and understand the Bible so that they can walk on the correct path.
Don’t be hasty
While we are thoughtful about our daily lives: where we’ll live, where we’ll go to school, who we’ll marry, etc., we should be just as thoughtful in our lives of faith, too. A prudent person thinks about their future, and spiritually, our future has only two options.
As believers, we need to learn how to discern the truth about God’s Word from the lies, and the only way to do that is by studying it and understanding it. If we don’t know God’s word, then we could end up like the simple person who believes anything and walks down the wrong path. Yet when we do understand it, we have the light of the Word that shows us the correct way.
Written by Kenny
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