Fools for Christ

Os Guinness, in “Fools Talk” reminds us that “the world is full of themselves. In such an age, “I post, therefore I am…. We are all apologists now, if only on behalf of the Daily Me.” Guinness urges Christians to become the true apologists for Christ. Ambassadors not for ourselves but for Christ and to recover the “lost art of persuasion.” Amen to that.

Proverbs remind the Twitter and Facebook crowd:

Proverbs 18:2 – A fool does not delight in understanding, But only in revealing his own mind.
Proverbs 28:26 – He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, But he who walks wisely will be delivered.
Proverbs 29:11 – A fool always loses his temper, But a wise man holds it back.
Proverbs 29:20 – Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

The Psalmist warns: the “fool has said in his heart their is no God” (Psalm 14).

However, atheists’ aren’t the only fools. While the Corinthians were acting as though they were already kings in God’ court, Paul warned them of their folly. As Christ humbled Himself and became man, the true servant of God willing lowers himself. He writes in I Corinthians 4:

“God has put us apostles at the end of his parade, with the men sentenced to death; it is true – we have been put on show in front of the whole universe, angels as well as men. Here we are, fools for the sake of Christ, while you are the learned men in Christ; we have no power, but you are influential; you are celebrities, we are nobodies. To this day, we go without food and drink and clothes; we are beaten and have no homes; we work for our living with our own hands. When we are cursed, we answer with a blessing; when we are hounded, we put up with it; we are insulted and we answer politely. We are treated as the offal of the world, still to this day, the scum of the earth.”

The goal of the Christian is not act like royalty but to die to self. Paul asks us to put on Christ, i.e. “take up our cross” and die daily.” Paul reminds us “to face death every day-yes, just as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus our LORD” (I Corinthians 15:31). Don’t end up like the rich man in Luke 12, “Thou fool, this night thy soul will be required of thee.”

Who are the true fools for Christ today?

God created an order to His society. Paul reminds us, “And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues” (cf. I Cor 12:28).

Fools say, “I walk to the beat of my own drummer.” Fools for Christ say, “I follow the teachings of the Church and its teachers.”

St Cyril of Alexandria Our Lord Jesus Christ has appointed certain men to be guides and teachers of the world and stewards of his divine mysteries. Now he bids them to shine out like lamps and to cast out their light not only over the land of the Jews but over every country under the sun and over people scattered in all directions and settled in distant lands. That man has spoken truly who said: No one takes honour upon himself, except the one who is called by God, for it was our Lord Jesus Christ who called his own disciples before all others to a most glorious apostolate. These holy men became the pillar and mainstay of the truth, and Jesus said that he was sending them just as the Father had sent him. sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.