How would you define a fool? A foolish, stupid person who acts in silly ways, without thinking?
The Bible’s presentation of a fool is much wider and deeper than that.
“The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and their ways are vile; there is no one who does good.”
Psalms 53:1 NIV
Some key words flesh out the concept of a fool for us.
The Hebrew word for “fool” is “nabal” from the primitive root, “nabel”, meaning “to wilt” or “to “fall away”. In context, it means to be morally wicked…a disgraceful, vile person.
“Says in his heart…”. The key to a morally wicked person is his heart…”leb”, the organ that is the centre of life. Figuratively, the heart is the centre of one’s being, the core of who a person is. When we speak of our heart, we include our minds…our thinking, understanding, and believing as well as what comes from our minds.
A fool is a person, then, who is rotten to the core…who has no moral compass…with a mind that has become so corrupted, twisted, and depraved that he/she calls “good” “evil” and “evil” “good”!
Paul outlines the process by which people become fools.
The process begins with a refusal to acknowledge God and, in turn, deliberately and purposefully act wickedly.
“In the Bible, to “acknowledge” means to deeply know, recognize, and submit to God’s authority and presence in every part of life.” (Google AI)
“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”
Romans 1:18-20 NIV
They know the truth, but they push down the Nosie of God by their wickedness by refusing to recognise God’s deity and power through the witness of creation.
“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.”
Romans 1:21-23 NIV
“They became fools.” They were not fools to begin with, but…they became fools by choice. By rejecting God, they substituted gods of their own making for the real God…gods that were a reflection of their own wicked nature. Their darkened minds produced darkened thinking and, eventually darkness in the core of their being…in their hearts.
What is darkness?
“In the Bible, darkness represents the literal absence of light as well as a powerful spiritual symbol for sin, evil, ignorance, and divine judgment.”(Google AI)
God’s response to these fools is surprising…He did nothing! He simply let them be and do what they wanted. Their wickedness came to a head in their perverted sexual behaviour…they turned natural, God-ordained sexual activities upside down…men with men and women with women.
“Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men…
So, God let them carry on but…with a terrible consequence.
“…and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.”
Romans 1:24-27 NIV
“Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”
Romans 1:28-32 NIV
What a horrible description of a fool, from start to finish! A fool is trash, destined for the fire where trash is burned…
However…despite the lost state of such people in their sin… here is the punch line of the gospel…
God’s grace can reach into the hidden depths of human depravity, forgive the worst of sin and the bring light into darkest human heart. He can transform a fool into a truly wise person because He is God and there is nothing impossible for Him.
“But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)”
Ephesians 2:4-5 NLT