Proverbs 14.33
“Wisdom rests in the heart of a man of understanding, but it makes itself known even in the midst of fools.”
You will recall from our earlier studies in the book of Proverbs that wisdom (hokma) is acquired through the disciplined process of learning (musar). In this verse, Solomon reminds us that wisdom resides in the heart of those who have done the work to build understanding, but he also tells us that even in the midst of foolish people there is an awareness of wisdom.
In other words, people have a conscience. People naturally have a sense of right and wrong. Most of the time they know when they are doing something bad. Ignoring one’s conscience is the ultimate act of foolishness.
Paul spoke to this in the opening chapter of Romans: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” (Romans 1.18-20)
This scripture says people will sometimes suppress the truth by their unrighteousness. When people do wrong, their conscience seeks to warn them, and deep inside they know what they are doing isn’t right. Everyone has had this experience: You are caught in the grip of a strong, emotional impulse, and you are tempted to say or do something you know you shouldn’t say or do. A little voice in the back of your mind says, “Don’t say that! Don’t do that!”
However, some people override their conscience and suppress the truth (and their conscience) with a defiant attitude and disobedient behavior. If someone suppresses the truth long enough, their heart eventually hardens.
Continual and unrepentant sin causes hearts to grow hard. 1 John 1.9 tells us that “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins.” On the other hand, continual and unconfessed sin causes hearts to grow hard. Repeated sin has a cumulative and desensitizing effect on the conscience, making it difficult even to distinguish right from wrong.
A heart that is hardened by defiant, unrepentant sin is the “seared conscience” that Paul speaks of in 1 Timothy 4:1-2. Scripture makes it clear that if people relentlessly continue to engage in sin, there will come a time when God will give them over to their distorted thinking and let them have it their way.
Romans 1.21-32 gives God’s response to people’s stubborn refusal to acknowledge him as Lord. Three times it says that “God gave them up.”
“Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves.” (Romans 1.24)
“For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature.” (Romans 1.26)
“And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.” (Romans 1.28)
This is God’s wrath of abandonment where godless and wicked people who suppress the truth are eventually given over to the sinful desires of their hardened hearts.
