What does the Bible say about foolishness?

Foolishness seems to be that gross form of stupidity which excludes God from the regulation of the life. In the words of the Psalmist, "The fool has said in his heart, No God" (Ps. 14:1). Though the natural heart is the seat of uncontrollable passions which impel the whole man into courses of vile action, the senseless refuse that divine help and guidance which alone can enable them to live lives of purity and obedience. Can there be greater folly than this? Foolishness is placed last in the list, says one writer, because it renders all the others incurable.

This foolishness arising from man's own nature is defiled and defiling, in contrast with that wisdom that comes down from above and is "first pure" (James 3:17). Counsel and instruction are to be had of God for the seeking, but the natural man wilfully disregards them. This is his foolishness. He allows himself to be carried away by the violence of his sinful desires, and ignores the mercy and grace of God which would lift him above himself into the plane of light, life and holiness. Such is his foolishness.

Folly (aphrosune); so often in the Septuagint. "The fool hath said in his heart." He that is uninstructed, I suppose, and disregards both counsel and instruction. It borders therefore, as to both man and God, upon impiety, flowing from groundless independence of will, with no independence of understanding and knowledge. This in act or habit is, I suppose, folly, showing itself in recklessness of conduct - conduct inconsistent with the real relations and obligations under which we are. This as to God, it will be observed, is practical atheism. The Psalms and Proverbs are full of matter connected with this. It is sometimes put for the vile person - Nabal (a fool) but moros is used for that. It is intimately connected therefore with self-confidence and assumption; it may therefore have here moral connection with haughtiness (huperephania) and then we have great light upon Paul's use of it in 2 Corinthians 11. But it does not, nor ought to lose the weight of its simple sense, though this may lead us to the moral sources of it.

"Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words" (v. 9). It is well that we understand who it is whom God calls a fool. Psalm 14:1 tells us, "The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’" Also, one who questions the truth of resurrection is called a fool (1 Cor. 15:35-36). More than this, the rich man who amassed such wealth as to consider he could live luxuriously for many years (Luke 12:16-21) was called a fool by God. In each case, the one who leaves God out of his life deserves that unsavory title, "fool."! Such a man will always despise true wisdom, so that it is hopeless to expect any proper response from him.

"He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered."

If in the previous verse the damage done by the proud heart is stressed, this goes further in designating the man's character as a fool. Solemn denunciation! Yet it is the Word of God that so speaks. A man's own heart is manifestly utterly untrustworthy, and that man who trusts it is worse than ignorant. A wise walk is put in contrast to this, for this will deliver from the snares and pitfalls into which the ignorant easily fall.

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings" (Jer. 17:9). The doctrine of the desperate wickedness of the heart, as a truth of universal application, is the verdict of divine Omniscience, however questioned by individual experience. Every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ has doubted it in his own case, till he has been taught it by God Himself. But after this lesson so taught of God, and acquiring depth by increasing experience, it is another lesson to learn practically the deceitfulness of the heart. The reception of this doctrine in the power of it, helps to keep the believer humble and watchful. Thus, "the Lord keepeth the feet of His saints," putting His fear in their hearts. And being in the fear of the Lord all the day, they are kept from many an outbreak of desperate wickedness, the common result of walking in self-confidence. "For he that trusteth in his own heart is a fool."

After all, where God was thus before the soul, and there was entire honest- heartedness, not only an individual but the whole congregation might err, and error would need atonement. Where God's Word is perfect, and able to furnish thoroughly to every good work, failure must be, no matter what the point, our own sin. If ignorant, yet why were we ignorant? Ignorance means negligence in some way: stupidity, want of ability to take in the truth, is not excused as if it were the fault of the mind only: God giveth wisdom to the simple. The "fool" is, in Scripture, he for whom God is not. (Ps. 14:1.) If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, and it shall be given him. (James 1:5.) This, then, being true, the plea of ignorance only avails in one way, — to distinguish from presumptuous sin. Thus of the sin of his unconverted state the apostle could say, "Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief:" (1 Tim. 1:13.) And so he says to professing Christians, If we sin willfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking-for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." (Heb. 10:26-27.)

But this section ends with a most vital prescription for one to even have the beginning of knowledge: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge" (v. 7). True knowledge can never be found without this wholesome fear of the Lord. But only "fools despise wisdom and instruction."

(1) "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;" and by way of antithesis he adds, "but fools despise wisdom and instruction" (Prov. 1:7). You know where you are, my friend; I do not know. But you know your company, and your companions will tell you where you are. I will read it again, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction." Then, again,

Only the fool has said in his heart, No God; he is fool morally and in the worst sense. Reasoning, if sound, may argue that so this or that must be; revelation says that so it is. Nothing is so simple, satisfactory, and deep as the truth. This alone in grace meets man's ignorance and his need: the truth answers both, now and for ever. Believers are entitled to say, We know, and this on God's testimony, as sure as it is clear, forming the consciousness of the new man by God's Spirit.

"As snow in summer, and as rain in harvest, so honor is not seemly for a fool." The basic character of a fool in the Scriptural sense is that of leaving God out of his calculations: he is simply a rationalist. He says in his heart, "No God"; he builds greater and greater barns to store his earthly goods, and forgets eternity (Psa. 14:1; Luke 16:21). A man like this receiving honors is grossly out of his place; for he is worthy only of dishonor and contempt. Only faith can maintain what is truly becoming to any position. Snow in summer and rain in harvest are both unbecoming and hindering to proper activity, no matter how proper they may be at the proper time. So honor is proper for some men, but not for a fool. Folly is the precise opposite of faith. Pharoah was in the highest place of honor in Egypt but blatantly defied God: "Who is the Lord?" "I know not the Lord" (Ex. 5:2). How repulsively foreign to noble kingly dignity!