“A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself, but the simple pass on and are punished” (Proverbs 22:3).
Some people, places, and circumstances are rife with dangerous spiritual toxins. Only a simpleton would naïvely believe that he can spend a couple of hours in a hog pen and not come out smelling like a pig.
How many young people and their parents, for example, foresee no possibility of evil when immodestly dressed females are dancing with hormone-laden males in a dimly lit environment on a night which has a clear history of alcohol consumption and fornication?
Several decades ago, I witnessed the baptism of a recent high school graduate at a church camp in Ohio. She was about two months pregnant. She and her parents were spiritual simpletons about the prom—the night her child was conceived. Her baptism removed the guilt of her folly and sin but not a lifetime of consequences.
Christians are to be innocent and harmless as doves but also wise as serpents (Mat. 10:16). This means a Christian is not a spiritual simpleton. Being made wise by the holy Scriptures (2 Tim. 3:15) includes developing the keen ability to discern between good and evil people, places, and circumstances and then prudently avoiding them.
Spiritual simpletons ignore spiritual dangers of certain people, plans, and circumstances and then have a lifetime to regret the consequences of their folly.
