There is an old proverb that says ”He that knows not and knows not that he knows not is a fool; avoid him. He that knows not and knows that he knows not is ignorant; teach him.”

There is a vast difference between the fool and the one who is ignorant. Solomon tells us that ”The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise.” The wise man also said, ”A fool despiseth his father’s instruction: but he that regardeth reproof is prudent.”

A week at any one of the Bible Schools shows us as Paul so aptly put it, ”If any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.” The key is realizing that we ”know not” and determining that with God’s help, we will learn. Without this attitude of mind we cannot be taught.

We have all heard of the young man who left home in his teens thinking that his father didn’t know anything at all only to return a few years later and find much to his amazement how much his father had learned in so few short years. The fool doesn’t know that he doesn’t know and therefore despises his father’s instruction just as Solomon said.

In a very real sense, we are all little children in the sight of God. None of us knows what we ought. Solomon realized this and said, ”I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in.” Unfortunately many who know not that they know not are puffed up. The wisdom of the world seems to have this effect on them. It appears the wiser one gets in the wisdom of this world the harder it becomes to accept God’s truth. How foolish and how sad to become so wise in worldly things that we become puffed up to the point that we are unable to accept what God has said. God has declared through Paul, ”I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” ”The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.”

When it comes to the things that really matter in life, the world around us knows not and not only knows not that they know not, but they don’t care. No wonder they are classed as fools in the sight of God. They certainly are ever learning – for the colleges and universities are packed with students giving all their time and energies to learn – yet with all this learning they are never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. It isn’t that they do not have the mental capacity, for they go to great lengths to master the sciences and the arts which will be as valuable to them in the day of Christ’s coming as was the knowledge of those who stood out in the rain when Noah entered the Ark.

Paul tells us that Jesus is coming ”in flaming fire to take vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Ignorance is not bliss. Let each of us realize as did Solomon and Paul that we are but little children and know not as we ought to know but that God has promised us through James that if we lack wisdom, ”let us ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” This does not mean that we can go to sleep and wake up smart, but it does mean that if we conscientiously ask for God’s help and apply ourselves that we will learn those things that are able to make us wise unto salvation. The more we know, the more faith we will have for ”faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

Let us know and know that we know. The people that do ”know their God shall be strong, and they that understand among the people shall instruct many ... and they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.”