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.” (I wonder where Momma got that one. I think God likes the dirt of honest work).
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. Here are just 7 examples:
A Fool is:
1. One who believes he is always right – Ecc 5:1
“Guard your steps as you go to the house of God and draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools; for they do not know they are doing evil.”
2. One who ignores a father’s wisdom – Proverbs 15:5
“A fool rejects his father’s discipline…”
3. One who will not learn from pain – Proverbs 17:10
“A rebuke goes deeper into one who has understanding than a hundred blows into a fool.”
4. One who will not save a part of what they earn (Proverbs 21:20)
“There is precious treasure and oil in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man swallows it up.”
5. One who focuses on things and stuff instead of God (Luke 12:20).
“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’”
6. One who argues frequently (Proverbs 18:6-7).
“A fool’s lips bring strife, and his mouth calls for blows. A fool’s mouth is his ruin, and his lips are the snare of his soul.”
7. One who will not listen to counsel (Proverbs 24:7).
“Wisdom is too exalted for a fool…”
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