How to be Better Youth (Part 1 of 2)

The Failure of the King: A Transition from Ecclesiastes 4

Ecclesiastes chapter 4, verses 13-16 provides context for living a higher quality of life:

Better was a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who no longer knew how to take advice. For he went from prison to the throne, though in his own kingdom he had been born poor. I saw all the living who move about under the sun along with that youth who was to stand in the king's place. And there was no end of all the people, all whom he led. Yet those who come later will not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and striving after wind.

The failure of the king is that he stopped receiving warnings, advice, and counsel. This demonstrates how to live better than even a king. The book of Ecclesiastes is about comparisons, showing which situations lead to a better life. A poor but wise youth is better than an old, foolish king because the king no longer knows how to take advice—especially warnings against error or sin.

The world says being a king represents the best life: riches, servants, power. But Solomon argues life without God is pointless, meaningless, a striving after wind. Christianity isn't holding you back; pursuing life without God leads to no joy, and it ends in death and forgetfulness.

Youth, you may feel poor or misunderstood, but wisdom makes your life better than a king's. As 1 Timothy 4:12 says:

Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.

Paul tells young Timothy to be an example despite lacking life experience. Youth can rise above by receiving correction. When warned against sin, don't defend yourself—listen and take the advice. Fools despise wisdom and correction; the wise stay alert to sin's dangers.

You never stumble into sin accidentally. You let your guard down and pursue it. We are all capable of any sin, as John Calvin said: the human heart is a factory of idols. The greatest advantage is knowing how to receive advice and warnings.

Ecclesiastes 5: How to Be a Better Youth

Ecclesiastes means "church," and this preacher teaches how church people—youth included—should live. Chapter 5 shows three ways to be a better youth:

1. Better youth watch their mouths.
2. Better youth take care of their eyes.
3. Better youth deal with their hearts.

1. Better Youth Watch Their Mouths

Ecclesiastes 5 begins:

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few.

The wise control their mouths as instruments of worship; fools use theirs for evil. To draw near to listen is better than the sacrifice of fools. James echoes this: be swift to hear, slow to speak. Let words be few before God—prioritize listening in worship over rash speaking.

Letting Your Words Be Few

Do not be rash with your words, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God. Letting your words be few. The sacrifice of fools is somebody who comes in and just starts blabbing any kind of worship or concept they want within the house of God, thinking they're actually worshipping God. It's better to come and listen to God as an act of worship than to think your praise is what God needs—to think you could speak eloquently or that things you come up with are pleasing to God.

As we look into the New Testament, we recognize that the way we live our lives is our acceptable sacrifice to God. The sacrifice of fools is that their consistent lives evidence doing evil, yet what they say in church does not match how they live. We don't just come into a building we consider the Lord's house—the New Testament teaches that we are the house of God. We carry the house of God everywhere we go, like the movable tabernacle in Exodus.

The true worshiper comes in to hear from God, desiring to know God, to be in His presence, and not hastily utter a word. They want to hear from God so their lives can be conformed to what God says. Then, with lives conformed to God's word, they can effectively offer worship.

Jesus draws this out further, warning against vain repetitions. Repetition isn't bad—it's vain when empty. Jesus, our ultimate Ecclesiastes, warns against it because people engage in vain repetition without knowledge of God. Anyone can memorize a mantra or routine statements without relationship, lifestyle matching faith, or knowledge of God, yet offer what they think is worship.

Those who prefer to hear from God first, gain knowledge of God, then worship with right understanding and live accordingly—that's the better life.

In verses 3–6, on vows: When you vow, pay it. Jesus says don't vow at all; let your yes be yes and no be no. They're the same—better not to vow than to vow and not pay. Be a person who honors their word. Let not your mouth lead you into sin. How often do we stop to think how easy it is for our mouth to be an instrument of sin?

It's easy for people to say, "I am a Christian," but spend time around a professing Christian who may not be, and their mouth will reveal it—a crude joke, curse word, malicious statement. Genuine Christians can stumble, but the point is your mouth leads into sin. Do you control your mouth in what you say to God, your commitments? Is your mouth an instrument for worship or for sin?

The Better Youth Take Care of Their Eyes

Verses 7–9, 18: When dreams increase, words grow many; there is vanity. Better is the one you must fear. If you see oppression of the poor and violation of justice and righteousness, do not be amazed, for the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them. But the gain for land in every way is a king committed to cultivate fields.

Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun, the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot.

The better youth watch their mouths and care for their eyes. There's physical sight and mind-sight. The context talks about dreams—people dream of increase, leading to more words, which leads to vain worship. When stuck on what they see and imagine, it increases foolishness and vanity.

Rather, Solomon says what is good: eat, drink, find enjoyment in the life God gives. There is ability to find happiness and joy, not by conjuring in imagination, but by seeing enjoyment from God's hand. You see oppressions, violations—don't be amazed. Institutions can address them, but oppression happens constantly; both oppressor and oppressed are miserable.

What Solomon has seen as good: find enjoyment in life God gives. Take care of what we see, not focus on what we make up. One Hebrew term for idols is the same as for imagination. Youth who don't care for what they see focus on mind idols. In Ezekiel's day, leaders imagined idols in secret temple places.

Better Youth Deal with Their Hearts

He who loves money, verse 10, will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income. This is vanity. When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes? Sweet is the slumber of a laborer whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.

This is a grievous evil under the sun: riches kept by owner to his hurt, lost in bad venture; he fathers a son but has nothing in his hand. As he came from his mother's womb, naked he shall go again, taking nothing for his toil that he may carry away.

You don't see a hearse with a trailer hitch. When you die, you take nothing. A poor yet wise person is better than a king with a kingdom—in an instant, it all vanishes. Like Job: Naked I came from my mother's womb, naked I shall return. The Lord gives, the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord.

A person can have riches and enjoy them because God gives them. The difference: one with riches never satisfied goes to bed craving them. The laborer sleeps well, little or much. The rich, stomach full, doesn't sleep—insatiable craving.

The love of money is a root of all sorts of evils—not money itself. Paul learned contentment in little and plenty, even in riches. If you love things outside God, you'll never be satisfied. Only God, infinitely satisfying, brings satisfaction.

That person eats in darkness, vexed, sick, angry, never satisfied, chasing wind—accumulating, keeping, chasing satisfaction that never comes. Pointless.

Solomon concludes: What I have seen good and fitting is to eat, drink, find enjoyment in work. Not feasting, but necessities: food, water, toil. Find enjoyment because you're doing it with God—He is the source. Enjoyment outside God disappoints; with God, even same things as unbelievers bring joy because your enjoyment of God surpasses them. That's the happiness, hope, enjoyment, satisfaction Ecclesiastes promises with God.