Fools

Proverbs 26:1 Like snow in summer or rain in harvest,

so honor is not fitting for a fool.

Foolish people should not be honoured. Praise to a fool will only make him more foolish. The honour will go to his head and he will live as if he is worthy of the press clippings. How often is honour lavished on fools for the sake of political expediency, peace, money, or some other less than ethical purposes? And see how this addresses the whole concept so prevalent in our culture today that maintains that there are no fools. Everyone, it is said, is wise in some fashion and therefore should never be labelled as a fool.

There are such things as fools and the Bible is clear that there is a cure for it. Biblically, of course, the supreme mark of a fool is the denial of the existence of God. This is far from saying that there are no fools on their way to heaven. The fool says there is no God but there are plenty of other types who believe in Him who, while not having atheism as their mark still do some pretty stupid things and act the fools that they are.

But in this most important respect of all, the smartest of men are fools for denying that there is God. Christian fools, while not having the supreme mark of foolishness, do have a collection of other marks that they should be endeavouring to eliminate from their lives and which they can because of the presence of the Holy Spirit in them. The fact that they use their faith to defend their foolishness is a sad scar upon the church and we pray that their numbers will only diminish as time continues. We rejoice that the adage “The intelligence on the earth is a constant – the population is growing” is not true, despite so much evidence to the contrary.

Don’t think that because you believe in God that you have nothing foolish about yourself. Get into the Scriptures and be wise. A foolish Christian is the most pathetic thing there is. Let us never be content with our level of wisdom and let us rejoice that God makes people truly wise.