“If it is true that ‘whoever says, “You fool!” will be liable to the hell of fire,’ then why did both Jesus and his apostles call people fools?”
Normally the questions answered in this series of posts come from anonymous sources, all of whom are (at least
to the best of my knowledge) actual people. Their problems may be real or
hypothetical (or, in at least one case, just plain old trolling), but
I answer them here because their writers make a decent effort to submit questions
we have good reason to believe might be of concern to our readers or people
they know.
In this case, I freely admit I submitted this one to myself just for the dubious pleasure of working
it through.
Jesus and the Use of ‘Mean Words’
It is incontestable that both Jesus and the apostles called people “fools” and “foolish” on occasion,
and referred to their actions as “foolishness”.
Jesus even did it to his own disciples:
“And he said to them, ‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!’ ”
Well, yes. Anyone who did
not take God’s prophets seriously was definitely behaving unwisely. Jesus did
not flinch at making that known. In fact, he made it known not only to his
disciples for their correction at the time, but to us, a couple of thousand years
later, for our own edification, and to millions of believers in between.
We should pay attention to what the Old Testament prophets wrote and said, and not pick and choose the
prophecies we find comforting while discarding the ones that give us prickly
sensations. That much is clear.
Yes, I have the later chapters of Ezekiel in mind. Among others. Post-millennialists take note.
The New Testament Writers and the Word ‘Fool’
The apostles and NT writers do not use the term “fool” effusively, but they certainly do not flinch at employing it whenever the shoe fits. Paul twice speaks of the
“foolish
Galatians”. To Timothy, he calls men and women
“foolish” when they show a desire to be rich, and refers to the
“foolishness” of “men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith.”
To Titus he even acknowledges, “We ourselves were sometimes foolish.” To the Romans, he says he is indebted to
foolish people. Luke refers to the scribes and Pharisees as
“filled with foolishness.”
So here we have multiple instances of both Jesus and his followers making use of a negative characterization which for all intents and purposes seems to have been declared verboten in the gospels. How do we
reconcile this apparent contradiction?
Senseless and Empty-Headed
There are two very different Greek words translated “fool” in English, and one is quite a bit nastier than the other. The one Jesus forbade was rhaka, which refers to a “senseless, empty-headed person” who is to
be considered utterly worthless and irredeemable. It is a final judgment of worth, one which human beings are not truly qualified to make.
On the other hand, the Greek word used by the Lord Jesus and his apostles is anoētos or anoia, signifying
a lack of understanding that might be expected to be remedied with teaching, maturity, time or sufficient attention. It is an educated assessment of the current state of an individual, not a juridic pronouncement about his ultimate potential.
Time to Grow Up
In such a case, then, it is apparently permissible to criticize another person’s reaction to truth, to
tell them they need to think more carefully about an issue, or grow up, or become
mature, or study harder. It is not wrong to say, “Your current understanding of
things is unacceptably unchristian, and desperately needs to change.” What is
wrong, per the Lord Jesus, is presuming that we possess sufficient wisdom to
write off an individual as irredeemable or of no value in the world. Such a
critique goes well beyond any license we have been granted by God, and as a result,
we are sternly warned against engaging in it. Even Jesus himself did not
use the word rhaka, though he
certainly possessed the wisdom and authority to make such judgments.
The lesson for us, I suppose, is to be very cautious about writing people off. God has a track
record of doing amazing things with apparent reprobates. Paul, who used the word “fool” more than anyone,
could definitely attest to that.
Seems we have an example of that in the current presidency of the USA ;=).
ReplyDeleteOoh, I'm going to stay out of that one ...
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