Day 19: Foolishness: More Than a Lack of Intelligence

Have you ever been in need of wisdom? James 1:5 urges us to seek God in those moments, giving a wonderful promise:

"If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him." (NIV)

Yet we have considered some reasons why we sometimes forget to ask God for wisdom, which is in a sense foolish!

We need to understand that foolishness is not just a lack of intelligence. It indicates a heart that is not in tune with God. There is a moral quality to foolishness. In Mark 7:21-22, Jesus gives a list of evil things that come out of the unregenerate human heart. He says:

"For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness." (NASB)

Notice what bad company foolishness is in. It goes with thefts, murders, adulteries, envy, slander, pride, and many other evil things.

It's very interesting that, in colloquial Arabic, the opposite to the word 'clever' is the word 'lazy'. In other words, there is a moral significance to foolishness. It's not just lacking intelligence, but it's lacking character.

In Colossians 2:2-3, Paul says this (he is praying for the Christians at Colossae and for other Christians in other places):

"My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." (NIV)

Before I came to know Jesus, I was a professor of philosophy at Cambridge University, and I was searching continually for wisdom; but I was living, I would have to say, on the scraps and the garbage heaps of human wisdom. When I came to know Jesus, I was delighted to discover that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in Him; and I turned aside from those garbage heaps and from those scrap piles and I made up my mind that I would seek the wisdom that is in Jesus; the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.