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Living As Fools For Christ In A Foolish Society

Living As Fools For Christ In A Foolish Society

Last updated on: August 2, 2026 at 2:05 am by Henry Karlson

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Living As Fools For Christ In A Foolish Society 2026-08-02T02:05:55-05:00 Henry Karlson

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shakko: St. Basil The Blessed (Fool for Christ) / Wikimedia Commons

Paul was often questioned by many of his fellow Christians, not just those who preceded him in the faith, but even by some of those who he had once evangelized. He could be controversial, but what he said and did was all for the sake of the Gospel. He pushed boundaries, leading some to be confused, as he repudiated both legalism and antinomianism, and the ideologies which developed from either of those two perspectives. Christians were set free in Christ, but their freedom was not given to them so that they could be selfish; rather, it was given to them so that they could love others, serving them (and God) out of their hearts and not just out of necessity. Their freedom is not meant to have them return to the ways of sin, but to transcend it and follow Christ, living their lives for the good of all. Those who thought their freedom allowed them to do anything they want were warned by Paul that this was not the case; they should see the consequences of what they would do, and if it was determined to hurt others, they should not do it. Those who thought they were free from any and all obligations complained to Paul, saying he was undermining their freedom by rejecting heir libertine ideology. And as many of them were those Paul had brought into the faith, Paul, when responding to them, reminded them of the promises thy made when they became a Christian; he suggested he was acting like their father, seeking what is best for them:

I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me (1 Cor. 4:14-16 RSV).

Paul didn’t want to shame them. He didn’t give us the names of those he was responding to. What he did was reproduce their arguments, and show how foolish they were from the Christian perspective. He reminded them that when they were baptized that they promised to repent and change their ways, to follow Christ and what Christ taught. If it made him look foolish to do so, Paul said he would embrace that foolishness, knowing that he is doing it for their sake, and so for the sake of Christ; if it made him weak, he would glorify in that weakness as he knew it opened him to the grace he needed to truly become strong, stronger than his critics who ended up being weak by giving into their base desires and impulses:

We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are ill-clad and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become, and are now, as the refuse of the world, the offscouring of all things (1 Cor. 4:1-13 RSV).

Paul embraced the labels his critics gave him him. He was, however, also pointing out, though they wanted to call him foolish, and he would accept them doing so, they were fundamentally even more foolish as they were not following the wisdom of God. It’s just just those living in Paul’s time who did this; Christians throughout the centuries have done the same thing. Their are always those who find excuses to ignore what Christ taught, and their excuse has always been to point out how foolish it would be for them to do as they were told, such when Christ told them to love our enemies, to help the poor, or to welcome strangers (foreigners) with hospitality. We find Christians excuse themselves from these expectations by saying those who do such things would prove to be foolish, as they undermine their own self-interests. This is exactly the mentality pushed today by Christian nationalists: they tell us it would be foolish to take migrants into our countries, because our countries would become “diluted,” our culture destroyed, our greatness undermined; they show themselves far more concerned with worldly borders than the great expanse of God’s love. Every time we find Christians speaking like this, we can and should point back to Paul, who said, even if what we do appears foolish to those in the world, we will follow Christ’s teachings because they come from the wisdom of God.

While Christians might often seem foolish to non-Christians, because their values are far different from those taught by Christ, it’s worse when Christians, living out the expectations of Christ, are told they are being foolish by their fellow Christians. But, they know Christ’s call upon them, and if they live it out in a way which is shocking to many, like living at the outskirts of society with the poor, the homeless, with migrants, or other social outcasts, they know they are following the greater wisdom of God, a wisdom far greater than fallible human ideologies, and so they will keep doing it despite what others say to them. They know this makes them truly wise. They might appear weak or powerless as they are not in positions of power or authority, but they know they have a hidden strength in them which is far greater than worldly strength, as it is given to them by God and God’s grace.

Paul demonstrated this willingness to appear foolish by the way he imitated Christ. He was with the outcasts of society. He was always on the move, an itinerant missionary, so that he could find more of those deemed unworthy by society, and show them the love of Christ. He knew this was the right way for him to live; and, he saw that in his lowly position, he was able to perform miracles. He also knew, if others followed after him, and embrace the foolishness of Christ, if they embraced Jesus’ way of life, they could also perform miracles. While he could and would exhort them to do so, he also knew it was something Jesus’ followers had to learn for themselves. And he knew those who did so were following Christ, who lived such a radical lifestyle himself that he often had his would-be followers question him and what he was doing:

And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and kneeling before him said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly; for often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” And Jesus answered, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured instantly (Matt. 17:14-18 RSV).

Jesus went beyond the norms of society. He went to sinners, giving them love, caring for them and their needs. He lived his life in solidarity not just with the poor, but with the homeless; he could be described as a wandering sage, and this was an aspect of Jesus’ life which Paul imitated. Paul was willing to be with the outcasts, to stand up for them, even amongst his fellow Christians. He knew that even if some accused him of being foolish and weak for doing so, his faith made him stronger and wiser than if he pursued worldly power or wisdom. That he could bring countless peoples to the Christian faith was a great miracle. He saw the power of God behind it. Seeing how his embrace of weakness made him strong, and how his apparent foolishness allowed him to serve Christ in a way his critics could not, he encouraged the rest of us to be like him, to imitate him in his imitation of Christ. If we are unwilling to transcend ourselves and live out our faith doing what Christ taught us to do, even if it meant we would seem to be weak or foolish to others, even if it led us to be among the homeless the world says are worthless, we will find that becoming fools for Christ has its own proper reward, one which transcends anything we could ever have imagined or wanted from the things (or people) of the world.

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N.B.: While I read comments to moderate them, I rarely respond to them. If I don’t respond to your comment directly, don’t assume I am unthankful for it. I appreciate it. But I want readers to feel free to ask questions, and hopefully, dialogue with each other. I have shared what I wanted to say, though some responses will get a brief reply by me, or, if I find it interesting and something I can engage fully, as the foundation for another post. I have had many posts inspired or improved upon thanks to my readers.

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