What’s the Difference Between ‘Foolish’ and ’Sinful’?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Well, it's a question we get a lot on the podcast.
00:00:06.520 | Can we distinguish between making mistakes and sinning?
00:00:11.520 | I don't know if we've covered it, not in this way,
00:00:14.160 | but the question comes to us in an email
00:00:15.580 | from an anonymous female listener who writes in to say this.
00:00:17.920 | Hello, Pastor John, what is the difference, if any,
00:00:20.560 | between my foolishness and my sin?
00:00:24.120 | - Well, as it turns out,
00:00:25.920 | this is a very illuminating question, was for me.
00:00:30.500 | It helped me see something more clearly
00:00:33.000 | than I had seen it before.
00:00:34.880 | Let me make the question more precise, though.
00:00:40.920 | Instead of what's the difference, if any,
00:00:43.480 | between foolishness and sin,
00:00:46.400 | let's ask what's the difference, if any,
00:00:49.380 | between foolishness and sin according to the Bible?
00:00:52.960 | - Right, yes.
00:00:54.520 | - Otherwise, I don't know whose definition
00:00:57.420 | she's asking about.
00:00:58.600 | This is always the problem when you start arguing
00:01:02.040 | over foolishness or sin and you say,
00:01:03.760 | whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute.
00:01:05.160 | Whose meaning do you want me to use?
00:01:07.340 | Yours, Joe Blow's, or the Bible?
00:01:10.880 | So I'm gonna go with the Bible here
00:01:12.640 | 'cause I assume that's really what she's asking.
00:01:15.360 | So let me read a sampling of biblical texts
00:01:22.360 | about the fool or folly and then draw out some inferences
00:01:27.360 | about its relationship to sin.
00:01:28.960 | Mark 7, 21.
00:01:32.220 | "From within, out of the heart of man,
00:01:37.040 | "come evil thoughts, sexual immorality,
00:01:40.480 | "theft, murder, adultery, coveting,
00:01:45.040 | "wickedness, deceit, sensuality,
00:01:48.280 | "envy, slander, pride, foolishness."
00:01:52.200 | And then he continues like this.
00:01:53.880 | "All these evil things come from within
00:01:58.880 | "and they defile a person."
00:02:01.520 | So Jesus lists foolishness with other sins
00:02:06.520 | like sensuality, deceit, wickedness, slander, et cetera,
00:02:09.400 | and calls them evil things.
00:02:12.240 | That's a pretty strong statement to me
00:02:13.780 | about the relationship between foolishness and sin.
00:02:17.880 | Here's another one, Psalm 107, verse 17.
00:02:21.980 | "Some were fools through their sinful ways
00:02:26.980 | "and because of their iniquities suffered affliction."
00:02:32.000 | So sin and foolishness are linked
00:02:35.180 | with sin being what leads to folly.
00:02:38.880 | Here's another one, 1 Chronicles 21, 8.
00:02:41.680 | "And David said to God,
00:02:43.160 | "I have sinned greatly in the thing I have done."
00:02:46.360 | He's talking about the census that he took.
00:02:49.160 | "But now please take away the iniquity of your servant
00:02:53.680 | "for I have acted very foolishly."
00:02:58.340 | So sinning and acting foolishly are the same act
00:03:02.180 | in 1 Chronicles 21, 8.
00:03:04.800 | Same thing with Aaron and Moses' sister in Numbers 12, 11.
00:03:10.560 | "And Aaron said to Moses,
00:03:11.860 | "Oh my Lord, do not punish us
00:03:14.260 | "because we have done foolishly and have sinned."
00:03:19.260 | And Jesus says that everyone who hears these words of mine
00:03:23.520 | and does not do them will be like a foolish man.
00:03:28.520 | So in other words, disobedience is folly.
00:03:33.040 | It's like a foolish man who built his house on sand.
00:03:36.720 | So not doing Jesus' commands is what makes a man foolish.
00:03:41.860 | And then he tells a parable about 10 virgins.
00:03:44.320 | Five of them were foolish, five were wise.
00:03:47.600 | And the foolish were excluded from the kingdom.
00:03:51.160 | This was not an innocent mistake.
00:03:54.160 | And then you go to the book of Proverbs.
00:03:55.620 | "How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
00:03:59.220 | "How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
00:04:02.860 | "and fools hate knowledge?"
00:04:06.760 | That's what fools do, they hate knowledge.
00:04:09.020 | Or Proverbs 14, 8, "The wisdom of the prudent
00:04:12.720 | "is to discern his way,
00:04:14.380 | "but the folly of fools is deceiving."
00:04:19.380 | Or Psalm 14, 1, "The fool says in his heart,
00:04:23.960 | "There is no God."
00:04:27.560 | Or Psalm 74, 22, "Arise, O God, defend your cause.
00:04:31.300 | "Remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day."
00:04:36.800 | Okay, so that's enough for me to get some inferences here.
00:04:41.060 | So here's my inference from all that biblical picture.
00:04:46.060 | Foolishness in the Bible is always sinful.
00:04:52.140 | To act foolishly is to sin.
00:04:57.660 | And I think we can say the other way around.
00:05:02.780 | To sin is to act foolishly.
00:05:07.000 | So to act foolishly is sin,
00:05:09.160 | and to sin is to act foolishly.
00:05:11.200 | Sin is an attitude or a thought or an action
00:05:14.700 | that dishonors God, or is the fruit of a heart
00:05:18.060 | that does not treasure God above all things.
00:05:20.640 | So sin dishonors God like that,
00:05:24.280 | and folly dishonors God like that.
00:05:29.280 | But, now here's the catch, gotta think carefully now,
00:05:32.760 | this does not mean sin and folly or foolishness
00:05:37.760 | are identical, or that calling someone a sinner
00:05:42.680 | and calling him a fool are saying the same thing
00:05:46.980 | about the person.
00:05:48.740 | The opposite of sin is holiness or goodness or righteousness.
00:05:53.740 | But the opposite of foolishness is wisdom.
00:05:59.900 | This shows, I think, that something different
00:06:04.480 | is being said when we call something sin
00:06:08.180 | and when we call it foolishness.
00:06:11.260 | Calling it sin puts the emphasis on God belittling badness.
00:06:16.260 | Calling it foolishness puts the emphasis
00:06:20.780 | on God belittling stupidity.
00:06:24.700 | In the Bible, the word foolishness exists
00:06:28.820 | mainly to bring to light how stupid sin is.
00:06:33.820 | The full-blown sinner is not just evil, he's an idiot.
00:06:39.060 | He's irrational.
00:06:40.980 | Or to put it positively, foolishness and wisdom,
00:06:44.100 | those words are in the Bible in application to people,
00:06:49.100 | not thinking about calling God wise here,
00:06:52.860 | in application to people.
00:06:53.920 | Foolishness and wisdom are words in the Bible
00:06:56.420 | as an application to people to show that goodness
00:07:01.060 | and holiness and righteousness are smart,
00:07:05.420 | rational, shrewd, wise.
00:07:09.420 | Or you might say calling something sin
00:07:13.100 | means it displeases God, and calling it foolish
00:07:18.100 | means it's gonna displease you in the end.
00:07:22.260 | Sin shoots God, folly shoots yourself.
00:07:26.780 | Sin opposes God, folly opposes yourself.
00:07:32.700 | And since opposing God is suicide, all sin is foolish.
00:07:39.340 | - Wow, that's a pointed way to put it.
00:07:42.620 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:07:43.940 | Well, we have run right up against the weekend,
00:07:46.100 | and that means it's time for me to tell you
00:07:48.020 | that you can subscribe to our podcast
00:07:49.620 | and you can find our audio feeds
00:07:50.780 | and you can search our episode archive
00:07:52.540 | and you can reach us by email
00:07:53.980 | with a difficult question that you're facing.
00:07:56.340 | You can do all these things through our online home
00:07:57.900 | at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.
00:08:02.180 | And Pastor John, you are known for writing biographies.
00:08:06.340 | You have about 27 of them to date,
00:08:08.860 | and those biographies are very popular downloads
00:08:11.220 | at desiringgod.org.
00:08:13.260 | And of course, they're published now in what,
00:08:15.260 | seven volumes in a series called
00:08:17.260 | The Swans Are Not Silent,
00:08:19.620 | which is a series of books published by Crossway.
00:08:22.460 | And on Monday, we have a question
00:08:23.780 | about how you wrote those biographies.
00:08:26.420 | What was your process?
00:08:28.180 | What was your intended purpose?
00:08:29.580 | How did you deliver them?
00:08:30.740 | Questions like that.
00:08:32.620 | And we will pick up that conversation on Monday.
00:08:35.660 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:08:36.820 | Thanks for listening to the podcast.
00:08:38.100 | Have a wonderful weekend.
00:08:39.340 | We'll see you on Monday.
00:08:40.540 | (upbeat music)
00:08:43.140 | (upbeat music)
00:08:45.740 | [BLANK_AUDIO]