Before Paul was to speak before the Athenians, certain philosophers asked, ‘What does this babbler want to say?” (Acts 17:18). W.E. Vine defines the literal meaning of the word “babbler” as “seed collector,” used in Greek slang for a half-witted sort of person who picks up bits of information he does not understand. In other words, the philosophers called Paul a “fool” or “seed picker.”<\/p>\n
On another occasion when Paul was before Festus, the king said, “Paul, you are out of your mind; your great learning is driving you out of your mind.” Paul replied, “I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus; but I am speaking true and rational words” (Acts 26:24-25 ESV).<\/p>\n
Evidently there were others who accused Paul of being crazy or out of his mind, for in his letters to the Corinthian brethren, Paul wrote:<\/p>\n
\n“For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or if we are of sound mind, it is for you<\/strong>” (2 Corinthians 5:1).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n“I say again, let no one think me a fool. If otherwise, at least receive me as a fool, that I also may boast a little<\/strong>” (2 Corinthians 11:16).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Then in irony, Paul wrote:<\/p>\n
\n“For you put up with fools gladly, since you yourselves are wise!” (2 Corinthians 11:19<\/strong>).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
If name-calling could have stopped Paul, we would probably never have heard of him again, but Paul kept on “keeping the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7). While in Athens, he ignored their taunts and used their idle curiosity as an open gate for his message (Acts 17:22-31). His reply to Festus was calm and straightforward a self-contained refutation of the king’s charge (Acts 26:24-25 ESV).<\/p>\n
Paul also turned the tables on his Corinthian attackers. If they gloried so in the flesh, he would show them (he said, “I speak as a fool”) that he had the more reason to so glory (2 Corinthians 11:23). But whatever the content of his response, Paul’s outstanding characteristic was his determination that it should be to the glory of God (cf. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10; 1 Peter 4:14).<\/p>\n
Brethren, like Paul, whether we be beside ourselves or whether we be of sound mind, let us be “fools for Christ’s sake” (1 Corinthians 4:10).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Before Paul was to speak before the Athenians, certain philosophers asked, ‘What does this babbler want to say?” (Acts 17:18). W.E. Vine defines the literal meaning of the word “babbler” as “seed collector,” used in Greek slang for a half-witted sort of person who picks up bits of information he does not understand. In other … Continue reading “Let Us Be “Fools For Christ's Sake” – Bible study”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45238\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}