Throughout Proverbs are three types of problem people:

1. The Simple
2. The Fools
3. The Mockers

What do these mean and what are the differences?

1. The Simple live without much thought, and they are too lazy to change.
2. The Fools are smarter than The Simple, but they have made a conscious decision to live by their own wits, independent of God and of advice.
3. The Mockers rebel against God and make their prideful position known to everyone.

If we think about these as people we’ve tried to help:

1. The Simple is the person who isn’t even aware of a problem. Even if we tell them there is a problem…even if we give them the resources and assistance to address the problem…they simply shrug and say “I just don’t feel like it.” They don’t care enough to take help, and they don’t care enough to change anything even for their own good.
2. The Fool is the person who we can give all the advice, resources, and aid in the world, but they don’t want help. By their perspective, they are smarter and wiser than anyone. Their way is the best way, and they don’t want to hear otherwise. They do not want to admit that they might be mistaken or that another way might be better.
3. The Mocker is the person who we don’t even want to help because even suggesting help will only end in heartache and headache. Like The Fool, their way is the best way in their perspective. However, further than the fool, this is the type of person that will go out of their way to belittle and degrade the poor soul who even tried to help this person just to prove how “right” they are.

I wish I could say I’ve never been any of these people at any time in my life, but if I am painfully honest with myself, I know that is not true. I have been too lazy to address a problem or change. I have been too smart for my own good. And I have been that jerk who treated someone else poorly because I didn’t agree with them (and they ended up being right after all).

I have yet to meet a person who survived childhood and adolescence without being one or all of these at some point.

My hope and my encouragement is that we learn to recognize these attitudes within ourselves, and then quickly give ourselves a major attitude adjustment.

I also hope that we may heed Proverb’s advice and be very careful around these attitudes in other people so that we are not poorly influenced and slip back into the same attitude ourselves.

May you be blessed and may God bless you with kindness, discernment, and mercy.