On the last 2 sessions, we talked a bit about what it means to love an evil person and what it means to love a fool.

In this session, we’ll begin to focus in on what it means to love a simpleton or a normal sinner. Proverbs talk about the Simpleton as a very different category than a scoffer or the one who’s evil or the fool. The Simpleton is the one who walks precariously between foolishness on one side and wisdom on the other. They’re not full pledged fools yet on the other side they haven’t pursued wisdom

What does it mean to love the Simpleton? Let us be clear about how the Simpleton is.

First, a Simpleton is an individual who is to some degree controlled by envy. Envy is really the presumption that someone else has something you need in order to be complete, to be satisfied. As long as you believe someone else has it, you’re going to want to possess it. You’re going to work to somehow find what it is that one couple in church seems to have for such a happy marriage. Underneath the surface it might be a different story and yet the presumption is "let me learn what they’ve learned, let me do the steps that they’ve done to somehow make my life work as effectively as theirs." It may seem a bit harsh, but I believe that the self-help industry is sustained on the basis of envy. That is, "someone else knows how to live life. If I can only capture what they are doing right, somehow my life will go well."

Envy opens the door to a second quality and that is: the Simpleton is naïve, that is, they operate with certain innocence. And that innocence grows not out of good character, but out of a refusal to really think.

Proverbs 14:15 – A simple man believes anything but a prudent man gives thought to his

steps.

A simple man believes anything. Why? Because he doesn’t want to do the hard work of thinking things through, facing reality as it is. There’s a certain desire of a Simpleton to put his head in the sand, to not be disturbed by the harsh realities and the tough questions that life itself compels us to ask.

A third feature of a Simpleton is that the Simpleton wanders into danger often, repeatedly, without somehow learning how to handle danger with a greater degree of understanding.

Prov 22:3 – A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the Simpleton keeps going

and suffers for it.

What you are about to see is an interaction between Buck and Terry. Buck struggles to face the reality and frankly would prefer to be naïve and turn his eyes away from dealing with the harsh reality in him and in his world.

If you’re going to love a Simpleton, you must have the curiosity of God that pulls the carpet out, but also allows the Simpleton to talk about realities that will provide you with a "mind of data" to be able to interact with them about their perspective of life.

The real core in loving a Simpleton is to instruct. But you better hear me clearly when I say, it’s not having a podium where you lecture the Simpleton. It’s more interacting the way the Lord interacted (and that’s with a story). It’s walking through a path and seeing flowers and making comments about them. It is interacting about the realities of life in terms of saying, as a person expresses heartache about a certain problem, to say, "Help me understand. I can understand a bit, but I would love to understand more why that touches you?’

1. Listen to their story

Curiosity is a great gift. Notice that Terry doesn’t ask that many questions about Buck. She doesn’t open the door to question about:

"What was it like when you were a boy?"

"How did you interact that one time when your father shamed you by talking about your failure when you were injured?"

A real gift to a Simpleton is to open the door to their story – let them talk.

2. Express your desire for them

1. To love a Simpleton means to be curious, to allow your heart to be very broad towards them in terms of wanting to know what is happening in their world;
2. It means an expression of some level of desire for them, broadly speaking, but as well, personally.

There is a third element, and that is the:

3. Willingness to persevere in their failure. And this is an extremely important point!

• If you’re willing to persevere..
• If you’re willing to express desire..
• If you’re willing to have a heart that, at some very core level exposes the reality of what’s inside by your curiosity, you will instruct well those who linger between wisdom and foolishness.

And there’s another element and that is:

1. Joining together in ministry

What it means to love an evil person? Siege warfare

What does it mean to love someone who’s foolish? Guerilla warfare

What it means to love a Simpleton? It’s significant battle, but it is more like an athletic competition where you are striving with them, for them to become, as well as for you to become, the people that God intended you to be.

***

We’re near the end of our series. Let me take a few moments left to try and underscore a few points that I really hope are clear and even more than just conceptually clear have been helpful to you.

1. I hope you have faced the reality that life is really a war. And it’s the kind of war that cannot be fought without a heart that is willing to engage in love. That love that you offer others will only be powerful to the degree that it has touched your own life.
2. I hope you have come to face the fact that forgiveness is just awesome. The fact you have come to face that your own love of others is so incomplete ought to do two things:

• It ought to overwhelm you
• It ought to give you enormous hope that God can use you in spite of your failures.

Somehow it is a very unusual process that God has us involved in, and that is, as we face our sin, we’re brought to a position where we’re brought low, but when we’re brought low, that is, when we’re humbled, we’re contrite. God’s intention is not to rub our faces into it but to lift us up. And as we are lifted up, we’re given a perspective about Him, about others that’s just overwhelmingly good and then He sends us back into the battle to love.

What happens when we go back into battle? You’re going to fail again. Most of us at that time will simply want to quit. But that downward cycle of seeing our sin only opens the door to the wonderful revelation of what His love really means for you and me. And that is, He has not abandoned us and He will never shame us because He abandoned His son on the cross. And He shamed His Son on the cross so neither you or I will ever be abandoned or shamed.

Freedom of knowing the resurrection, that is our sins are forgiven and will one day dwell with God, ought to energize us to engage in one wonderful battle of winning others for that same good purpose.

• I hope you know that life is a war.
• I hope you’re just a bit more overwhelmed by the wonder of having been forgiven.
• I hope you’re more aware of the goodness of God.

To be caught up with passion and the purpose of Jesus Christ is a thrill beyond words. To be able to know that everyday you wake up, you’re going to have conflict, you’re going to have at times, turmoil. You’re going to have tragedy. But to know that in the middle of it, you have the opportunity to live out His purpose and His passion is enough, maybe to not get away from pain, to somehow at times not feel overwhelmed by living in a fallen world, but enough purpose and passion to engage with the reality that He is good.

I hope you’re overwhelmed by the war, by forgiveness, by God’s goodness. That will open the door for you to begin to deal with a very simple question –

There is no question that you have people who have harmed you, that have sinned against you, and in that sense, are your enemies. And you are called to give them a taste of good food that will pour burning coals upon their head and will conquer evil, will lead them to a point where they’re harder or where they’re softer and where they have a greater heart for God or have turned away from God. In either case, you have the enormous privilege to love.