Proverbs 26 - Key

v12

Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? [there is] more hope of a fool than of him.

Proverbs 26 just had about 10 verses about fools, and they made it clear that it's not a good thing to be a fool. But the cherry on top is that it's even worse to be conceited, thinking, in your own estimation, that you're wise.

Being a fool is pretty hopeless. But it's better to be a fool, and to know that you're a fool, than it is to think that you know it all. Because then you'd be even more hopeless.

Then this chapter spent 3 verses on warning against laziness, but there's nobody more conceited than a lazy person.

v16

The sluggard [is] wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason.

You have to be extremely conceited to be a lazy person. A lazy person thinks that he doesn't even have to bother trying to show that he's doing things right. He just remains complacent, in his own estimation, that he is.

Application

I'm always talking about the problem I know I have, with being lazy, but in this chapter I see that laziness comes from conceit, and that being conceited is even more hopeless than being a fool. This week, I'll be willing to consider the things that I waste time on, and how I'm being conceited about them. Then I can realize that I'm being a fool about those things, and change them.