We laugh about April Fool's Day, but Scripture talks about foolishness quite a bit. Biblical foolishness resides in the arena of sin. It's not merely ignorance or even a lack of understanding. It begins with the suppression of truth (Rom 1:18) which produces the exchange of God for alternatives (Rom 1:22-23). Paul wrote, "They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen" (Rom 1:25). The phrase, "a lie," is most correctly translated "the lie." What lie is that? Worshiping and serving the creature rather than the Creator. And that is foolishness. David wrote, "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.' They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; There is no one who does good" (Psa 14:1). And you see the correlation between "no God" and the judgment of good and bad -- "There is no one who does good."
Proverbs has a lot on foolishness. Some of my favorites are "The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man is he who listens to counsel" (Pro 12:15), "A wise man is cautious and turns away from evil, but a fool is arrogant and careless" (Pro 14:16), and "A fool does not delight in understanding, but only in revealing his own mind" (Pro 18:2). A fool has a temper (Pro 14:17), perverse speech (Pro 19:1), and produces sin (Pro 24:9). And on ... and on.
Wisdom, the counter to foolishness, begins with the fear of the Lord (Pro 9:10). It would bring about a proper grasp of God as opposed to a suppression of the truth about Him. It would produce a right understanding of our sin nature and the need for a Savior. It would lead to repentance and faith, and the grace and mercy that accompany repentance and faith. Our "April Fool" is a joke day, and that's fine, but let's be year-round wise, pursuing God and His truth, rather than daily fools.
6 comments:
We don't do April fools around my home--It's my wife's birthday. On top of that, she was born on Easter!
Although I possess a very active sense of humor, I have an even greater esteem for wisdom--especially the version that the Lord promotes. Fortuitously, we have God’s Word at the ready to advise, correct, and inform us--from cover to cover. In addition to the Book of Proverbs (a defining collection of wise sayings), I think of all the references to foolishness and worldly wisdom made by the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians. A book on my bookshelf (authored by J. Allen Blair) is fittingly titled Living Wisely: A Devotional Study of the First Epistle to the Corinthians. (It expounds upon your weblog tagline’s quote from 1 Cor. 1:27.) I especially appreciated his clarification of the “foolishness of the cross to those perishing but the power of God to the saved” (1 Cor. 1:18). Receiving the Gospel is the wisest action of any human being, impacting their eternal destination--how truly foolish to pass up that free gift.
While your April 1st emphasis this time around was on the “fool” part of April Fool’s Day, I am mindful that even that serious topic can be lighthearted, as shown by the following sample of pithy sayings about fools. Some are well-known; others were new to me. Some inspire reflection; some made me laugh.
"A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.”
"The wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.”
"I sometimes wonder if the manufacturers of foolproof items keep a fool or two on their payroll to test things."
“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.”
“It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.”
“A fool and his money are lucky enough to get together in the first place.”
I understand, Glenn. But "April fools" was designed to laugh at other foolish people. We could do that, couldn't we? (Kidding)
Lorna, people who know me say there's very little that can be said that I won't inject with humor. (I was teaching on Acts a couple months ago and pointed out that "Festus" was not the same as the Gunsmoke character.) I see that you're similar. I'm not sure if they mean it as a compliment to me, but I'm behind you.
Well, “seriously funny” is a favorite oxymoron of mine--and I don’t see the words being antithetical at all. I have developed a serious case of lexiphilia in recent years; I love using my brain to tickle my funny bone (as awkward as that sounds!). I certainly enjoy when we readers are treated to some fun word play and humor at your blog. Honestly, who doesn’t love a good paraprosdokian? ;)
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