Stop Walking As Fools

Let’s look at Ephesians 5, 15 through 17. See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. Now, beloved, there’s no question in my mind, but that we live in a world full of fools. It is a fool’s world. In fact, everyone born into this world comes in with a terminal state of congenital foolishness, otherwise known as the sin nature. That’s how it is. Man is born a fool. Proverbs 22, 15 says foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child.

Man is born in a state of foolishness. Now you say, what do you mean by that? When we think of a fool, we think of someone who does irresponsible acts or who speaks irresponsible words, but the Bible defines a fool as one who exists apart from God. A fool is one who exists apart from God. A wise man is one who lives in accord with God’s divine principles. That’s biblical definition for those two concepts. Man, then, is born separated from God. He is born a fool. He is born in a situation where God’s wisdom is absent.

Now, let me tell you how that kind of works out. There are characteristics of foolishness, and if you’ll look with me at Psalms and Proverbs for a moment, I’ll try to show you some that may sum up. Much of the book of Proverbs deals with the fool. In fact, you’d need to do a very detailed study of all 31 chapters to have a comprehensive view, but let me see if I can just extract a few thoughts, and also at least one from Psalms, and try to paint for you a portrait of a fool.

First of all, Psalm 14.1 gives us a basic definition for a fool. Psalm 14.1 says, The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. All right? Now that’s the beginning of it all, and it isn’t necessarily that this is only intellectual. This is what I would call practical atheism. Even though the fool may know in his mind intellectually there is a God, he lives as if there is not, and that’s why the next verse, or the next line of the same verse, says, they are corrupt, they have done abominable works.

In other words, this kind of atheism results in corruption. It is a practical atheism. So the first thing that is characteristic of a fool is that he lives a life which by its function denies God. It is an anti-God way of living, and that is the way it is with people. They come into the world and they live anti-God life. They cannot know the things of God. In fact, to a fool, 1 Corinthians 2.14 says, the things of God are what? Foolishness. The natural man understandeth not the things of God. They are foolishness to him.

You see, to a fool, foolishness is wisdom, and wisdom is foolishness. And so the first characteristic of a fool is that he practically denies God. In other words, God has no binding force on him. The law of God does not bind the conscience of a fool. He is pragmatically atheistic. He lives apart from God. The second thing, no man can live without a God. It isn’t a question of do you worship, it is only a question of whom do you worship. Everybody bows somewhere. And so, if there is no true God, man will inevitably substitute a false God, which in all cases will tend to be a God of his own creation.

That is Proverbs 12.15, the second characteristic of a fool, because he denies the true God, he inevitably becomes his own God. Proverbs 12.15 says, the way of a fool is right in his own eyes. And so he then becomes the one who determines truth and error. He then becomes the one who articulates for his own way of living right and wrong. Now, as a result of this, as a result of denying God, as a result of setting himself up as God, he will inevitably mock sin. He will mock sin. In 14.9 of Proverbs, fools make a mock of sin.

Fools make a mock of sin. He makes his own rules, and he wants to justify his own behavior, and he wants to make sure he’s going to be all right in the end, so he eliminates sin with its consequences. A fool then begins by practically living as if there were no God substituting himself as God and suggesting his own style of life, and then denying that there is a fool. Now, inevitably, a fool goes one step further. Not only does he deny God in himself, become his own God in himself, mock sin in himself, but he has a dramatic effect on other people.

Because when he talks, he always talks about his own opinions. Chapter 15.2, the tongue of the wise uses knowledge aright, but the mouth of fools pours out foolishness. I mean, let’s face it. You’ve got a bitter fountain, you’re going to get bitter water, right? You’ve got a rotten tree, you’re going to get rotten fruit. And when a fool opens his mouth, you’re not going to get wisdom, you’re going to get foolishness. And so this is talking not so much about his own attitude internally, but his effect, and so there is a propagation of foolishness.

He denies God, he becomes his own God, he mocks sin, and he speaks on his own authority. He generates his own opinions, and that we see all around us. The world is full of the opinion of fools, fools who have denied God in their living, who have become their own gods, and who mock sin as to its reality and its consequences. And then in chapter 16, verse 22 of Proverbs, it says that he is busy instructing others in the same foolishness. At the end of verse 22, the instruction of fools is folly.

The instruction of fools is folly. Here you have the picture of the unregenerate man, as he is described as a fool. He is a fool because he denies God practically. He is a fool because he becomes his own God, the ultimate sin. He has broken the commandment of God. He is a fool because he mocks sin. He is a fool because he lives life based on his opinion, and he is a fool in the greater sense, because he contaminates the rest of society with the same foolishness which damns his own soul.

He leaves it as a legacy to his own children. He leaves it as a legacy to his friends. He leaves it as a legacy to the classes of people that he teaches. He leaves it as a legacy to all those who fall under of the influence of his folly. Now summing this up, I think there is a good word in Proverbs chapter 1, and this just sums it up very simply. Verse 7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but here it is. Fools despise wisdom. Let me stop right there.

That is the heart of the matter. You see, wisdom in Proverbs means living by divine standards. That’s what it means, and it implies accepting divine truth. Wisdom implies that you accept divine truth, and you live by it. It is living by divine standards. But a fool hates that. He rejects that. He despises that. You say, well, what happens to a fool? What happens to one who denies God, substitutes himself, mocks sin, spins out his own opinions and contaminates others, who ultimately, and in summary fashion, rejects divine wisdom, does not live by divine standards? What happens to him? Look down at verse 20, Proverbs 1.

In other words, here is a great invitation. Here is God, as it were. Here is Christ in the New Testament, in the streets of the city of Jerusalem, crying out of wisdom, crying out of an invitation to the fools and the simpletons and the scoffers. But verse 24 says, And you would have none of my reproof, then I will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear comes. When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer.

They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me, because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would have none of my counsel. They despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. That is the end of it all. That is to die a fool. Solomon said it in Proverbs 10 21, fools die for lack of wisdom.

We hear and could hear more at grave after grave after grave, funeral after funeral after funeral, the words of David over dead Abner, died he as a fool dies, because men die as fools. They live, they die as fools, congenital, terminal foolishness. You say well what can be done about it? Well as we saw in Proverbs 1, wisdom cries out for people to turn. There is available wisdom. Solomon, or the preacher of Ecclesiastes in chapter 9, one says, the wise are in the hand of God, and to all generations, and to every generation, God reaches out his hand, and offers to take men out of a kingdom of fools into a kingdom of the wise.

Salvation is the only thing that can change this. Now listen to me. In 2 Timothy 3 15, the apostle Paul was reminding Timothy of his heritage. This is what he said, and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, watch this, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation. Now there’s the key. Wisdom is found in the knowledge of scriptural truth, which brings salvation. You see, it is the saving act that brings wisdom. The only thing that can cause an individual to cease being a fool and become wise is salvation.

Salvation. When you became a Christian, you became wise. When you became a Christian, you stopped being a fool, and you became one of God’s wise children. Thank you for joining us in this exploration of stop walking as fools. Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong, and continue to shine your light in the world. To hear these daily devotions of your daily bread, please log on to goddessgovernment.com. Goodbye, and may your faith always lead the way. [tr:trw].