If someone continues to run with a fool they will spend their life running a fool’s errands. It takes courage to discern and eventually back out of these relationships. Many have learned this important lesson the hard and painful way. It is a lesson worth learning.

It is important to know what a foolish person is to avoid the sad experience of the life they offer to those who follow their example. A fool is someone who does not see the beginning and the end of all things. In their decision-making, they do not recognize the reality that they will stand before God someday to answer for the choices they made. A fool lives a reckless life without boundaries. They can even try to associate that recklessness and lack of boundary with faith deceiving the spiritually naïve.

Fools live an uninformed and undisciplined life. Uniformed about the ways of God and undisciplined by any outside source apart from their own vision of life. Scripture uses the word “fool” to describe someone who is “senseless” or “without reason.” There is no filter for their response to life. A fool’s foolish thinking will eventually lead to foolish conclusions that will deposit foolish people in foolish destinations.

It takes courage to disengage from a fool and the foolish errands they ask you to run for them. This is especially challenging if that fool is embedded in a community of faith.  This kind of Spirit-empowered courage gives you the freedom to become your own man or woman who stands before God and answers only to Him. It is a courage that will at times upset the course of your life, especially if the foolish person with whom you are associated is unaware of the error of their ways. They will announce your departure as an act of betrayal.  If this happens, stay strong. When you walk away from fools and their foolishness errands, Wisdom will be waiting to embrace you and walk with you into your place of destiny.

“Walk with the wise and become wise; associate with fools and get in trouble” (Proverbs 13:20).