Thou Fool!
I love it when someone starts off a sentence with “My Momma used to say.”
Sometimes they are words of sage advice – “Don’t go outside with wet hair or you will get a cold.” Sometimes they are words of Biblical advice – “Cleanliness is next to Godliness.” Of course sometimes these are wrong, but we heard them anyway.
One that I grew up with is “Don’t ever call anyone a fool.” This rule is based on a misunderstanding of Matthew 5:22, “Anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.” What this verse is teaching is not about the word “fool,” but not to be contemptuous of one another person.
The Bible uses the word fool many times. However, the main import of the Bible teaching is not about a person being called a fool, but about people being a fool when they behave as a fool.
Here are a few examples:
A Fool is:
1. A fool is anyone who believes he is always right (Ecc 5:1).
“Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.”
2. A fool is one who will not learn from pain (Proverbs 17:10).
“A rebuke impresses a discerning person more than a hundred lashes a fool.”
3. A fool is anyone who will not save a part of what they earn (Proverbs 21:20)
“The wise store up choice food and olive oil, but fools gulp theirs down.”
Well, these are three, but the Bible gives us many more. For example
* Anyone who ignores his father’s wisdom (Proverbs 15:5)
* Anyone who argues frequently (Proverbs 18:6-7).
* Anyone who will not listen to counsel (Proverbs 24:7).
* Anyone who focuses on things and stuff instead of God (Luke 12:20-21).
None of us like to be called a fool or thought of as one, but if we want to avoid having God think of us as a fool, we must be sure that we do not do the things a fool does.
Lonnie Davis