Commentary - Proverbs 10:23

Bird's-eye view

This proverb sets before us a stark and fundamental contrast, one that runs through the entire book of Proverbs and, indeed, the whole of Scripture. It is the great antithesis between two kinds of people, defined by what they find enjoyable. The verse neatly bisects humanity based on its laughter. On the one side, you have the fool, for whom the very idea of doing wickedness is a sport, a source of mirth and amusement. On the other side stands the man of discernment, for whom wisdom itself is his delight and pleasure. This is not a small matter of differing tastes, like one man preferring salt and another sugar. This is a fundamental divide in the constitution of the soul. The proverb reveals that what a man treats as a joke tells you everything about his character. It exposes the heart by revealing its central source of joy. One man's sport is another man's life, and one man's life is another man's joke.

The structure is a classic Hebrew parallelism, where the second line mirrors and intensifies the first. The fool finds his fun in mischief, but the man of understanding finds his in wisdom. The verse forces us to ask a deeply diagnostic question: what do I find funny? What is my sport? Is it the cleverness of sin, the thrill of transgression, the shared joke of rebellion? Or is it the beauty of God's order, the elegance of truth, the profound satisfaction of living skillfully in God's world? The answer to that question reveals whether we are walking the path of the fool, which ends in destruction, or the path of the wise, which is life itself.

Outline

Context In Proverbs

Proverbs 10:1 marks a significant shift in the book. The first nine chapters consist of longer, thematic discourses, primarily from a father to his son, extolling the virtues of Lady Wisdom and warning against Dame Folly. With chapter 10, we enter into the thick of the "Proverbs of Solomon," a vast collection of short, pithy, two-line sayings that present sharp contrasts. Verse 23 fits perfectly within this section, which repeatedly pits the righteous against the wicked, the wise against the fool, the diligent against the sluggard. For example, the surrounding verses contrast the speech of the righteous and the wicked (v. 20-21), the desires of the righteous and the wicked (v. 24), and their ultimate destinies (v. 25). This verse, focusing on the delight or amusement of each party, adds a crucial psychological and spiritual dimension to this ongoing contrast. It's not just that the fool does wickedness; he enjoys it, he thinks it's a game. This reveals the depth of his corruption and the fundamental alignment of his heart.

Key Issues

Two Kinds of Laughter

The Bible has a lot to say about laughter. There is a time to laugh (Eccl. 3:4), and the righteous can laugh at the calamity of the wicked (Ps. 52:6). Sarah laughed in joyful disbelief (Gen. 21:6). But there is also the laughter of the scorner, the fool, and the wicked. The wicked shoot out the lip and laugh at the righteous sufferer (Ps. 22:7). God Himself laughs at the plotting of the wicked, holding them in derision because He sees their day is coming (Ps. 2:4; 37:13).

This proverb gets underneath the action of laughter to the source of it. What is the fuel for the fire? For the fool, the fuel is mischief. The Hebrew word for "wickedness" here often refers to a malicious plan or device. The fool gets a kick out of seeing his wicked little schemes come to fruition. He enjoys the chaos, the disruption, the transgression. It is sport to him. It's a game. This trivializes evil, which is one of the central characteristics of the fool. He does not feel the weight of his sin because, to him, it's not weighty. It's fun. In contrast, the man of discernment finds his pleasure in wisdom. Wisdom is not a grim duty for him; it is his delight. Living in harmony with God's created order is his joy. This is the difference between Heaven and Hell in miniature. Hell is a place where everyone takes their own evil seriously as a joke, and Heaven is a place where everyone takes God's goodness seriously as their joy.

Verse by Verse Commentary

23a Doing wickedness is like laughing to a fool,

The first clause lays out the spiritual pathology of the fool. The word for "wickedness" (zimmah) often carries the sense of a crafty, premeditated plan, especially one involving sexual sin or other gross immorality. The fool doesn't just stumble into sin; he schemes it, plans it, and executes it. And his emotional response to this whole process is mirth. It is like sport, a game, a jest. He doesn't see the ugliness of his sin, the damage it does to others, or the offense it is to a holy God. He sees it as a clever trick, a way to get one over on the system, a source of entertainment. Think of teenagers who vandalize property for the thrill of it, or the office worker who crafts a clever lie and chuckles to himself at his ingenuity. This is the heart of the fool. He is morally blind, and his laughter is the evidence of his blindness. He is laughing on the edge of a cliff, amused by the pretty flowers growing there.

23b And so is wisdom to a man of discernment.

The second clause provides the glorious contrast. The "man of discernment" is the one who has understanding, who can see the nature of things. He can distinguish between good and evil, truth and falsehood, the path of life and the path of death. And for this man, what is his "sport?" What brings him that same level of delight? It is wisdom itself. He doesn't see wisdom as a burdensome list of rules or a tedious chore. He sees it as a beautiful, coherent, and deeply satisfying way to live. He takes joy in understanding God's world and living skillfully within it. He delights in justice, finds pleasure in truth, and is gladdened by mercy. Just as the fool gets a rush from his transgression, the wise man gets a deep and abiding joy from his conformity to God's reality. His pleasure is found not in disrupting God's order, but in discovering it and aligning his life with it. This is the pleasure that God Himself has in His own wisdom, a pleasure He invites us to share.

Application

This proverb is a spiritual stethoscope. It allows us to listen to the heartbeat of our own souls. We must have the courage to ask ourselves the question it poses: What makes me laugh? What do I consider "sport?" When we watch a movie or a television show, and the protagonist gets away with some clever sin, do we find ourselves chuckling along in admiration? Do we secretly enjoy gossip because of the thrill of sharing forbidden information? Do we find a certain dark amusement in the failures of others? If so, we are listening to the fool's laughter in our own hearts.

The application is not to become humorless stoics. The application is to repent of finding joy in sin and to ask God to retrain our affections. The gospel is the power of God to do precisely this. Christ died to forgive us for our foolish laughter, and He rose again to give us a new heart that finds its deepest delight in Him and in His ways. True wisdom is not a set of abstract principles; it is a person, the Lord Jesus Christ, "in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col. 2:3). To the man of discernment, Christ is his wisdom. And therefore, Christ is his joy. The application of this proverb is to pursue Christ, for in pursuing Him, we are pursuing the very wisdom that becomes the deepest delight of the redeemed soul. We must pray that God would so transform us that the thought of wickedness would become a grief to us, and the pursuit of wisdom our greatest and most lasting sport.