Foolishness

 Foolishness 

Only fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.”

PSALM 14:1

The wisdom of this world is foolishness to God.

1 CORINTHIANS 3:19

People who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.

1 CORINTHIANS 2:14

If we saw someone trade in a painting by a famous artist like Monet or Picasso for a painting by a first grader, we would think, What a fool! That person must not understand how valuable that painting is!

We tend to think of a fool as a person who doesn’t have the brains to grasp the meaning of things, or someone who can’t understand things. But foolish people are not unintelligent; they just have no sense of what is valuable and what is worthless, and that impacts how they live. They understand what they can have through the person and work of Christ but find it unnecessary, unsatisfying, perhaps even ridiculous. And instead of trading in their lives for something that will be satisfying and worthwhile in the end, fools trade in their time and energy and attention for what is worthless and won’t last.

The Bible tells us that on our own we are all foolish. We simply can’t see how valuable Jesus is. But as the Holy Spirit takes over our thoughts and our value systems, we begin to see the true value of things. We go from being bored by the Bible to enjoying God’s Word. We go from seeing ourselves as the centre of the universe to seeing God as worthy of all our worship. The Spirit enables us to see how worthless a life outside of Christ is and how precious it is to know and walk with Christ.