FOOLISH WISDOM
“… because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools…” Rom. 1:18 – 23 (NKJV).
From the above passage, we can define ‘foolish wisdom’ as a refusal to acknowledge, glorify or be thankful to God, even though His existence and works are not in doubt. There are folks out there who say there is no God neither do they acknowledge His work in creation. They put forth theories and arguments in support of their stance; claiming to be knowledgeable and wise, they rationalize all things. In this article, we explore the characteristics and danger of adopting foolish wisdom.
1. The Characteristics of foolish wisdom
In addition to denying God’s existence and displaying ungratefulness, other characteristics of foolish wisdom include:
Idol worship, which is exalting anything (carved images, money, possessions etc.) above God in one’s life (Rom. 1: 23).
Not retaining the knowledge of God (Rom. 1:28).
It must be emphasized that foolish wisdom is expressed in people who willfully reject God and His works around them. Even though they see Him displayed around them, their “wisdom” forces them to ignore or abandon the knowledge of God in them.
2. The Danger of foolishness
The danger of such foolishness is scary.
“Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves…” (Rom.1:24) (NKJV)
“For this reason God gave them up to vile passions…” (Rom.1:24) (NKJV)
“…God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting…” (Rom.1:28) (NKJV)
Having known Him, God will surrender us to uncleanness, vile passions and our debased thoughts if we willfully reject Him and this will reveal itself in unrighteousness, sexual immorality and all the sins listed in Rom. 1: 29 - 31.
The sure punishment of sin is death, however, God gives us time to repent as his desire is that all comes to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9). For some though, their stubborn foolishness leads to a filling of their cup of guilt (see Gen. 15:16; Matt. 23:32) and God’s judgment comes swiftly on them. His judgment comes not only on those who practice the evils of their heart, to which God has surrendered them to, but also on those who overtly or covertly approve of those who practice them (Rom. 1:32).
As we have seen, scripture deems foolish those who do not acknowledge God even though they claim to be wise because they know Him, yet they reject Him. The danger of this is that God will give them up to the evil desires of their heart, waiting to punish them when their cup of iniquity is full. However because of his mercy, he gives time for such foolish ones to come to repentance. A fitting closing admonition is found in Eph 4:17 – 19 (NKJV).
“…you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.”
Written by Ibubeleye Somiari, Sept. 2017