Our Lord ^vished to emphasize the enormity of murder. He said, ' Ye have heard tliat it was said to them of old time, Thou shalt not kill, and Whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you that whosoever is angry [the inward feeling] with his brother, is in danger of the judgment ; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca [a contemptuous utterance arising from the inward anger, and probably no definite word ; see Raca], shall be liable to a more solenm judgment ; but whosoever shall say, Thou fool [the angry feeling formulated in a definite word of conteiuptuous depreciation], shall be worthy of a more dreadful doom.' This is, in the main, Augustine's explanation (de Serm. Dom. in Mont, I. ix.); and thus our Lord leaves it to be inferred how heinous actual murder is in His eyes.
Every use of the word ' fool ' is not, of course, condemned. Our Lord Himself (see above) anil St. Paul (Gal 3') employed it in needful rebuke ; but that use of it is condemned which springs from angry feelings, and which is one step on tlie waj' to violence or even to murder.
LiTERATrRE. — Grimiu-Thayer, Lex., under the Greek ternts ;
Albert Bonus.
FOOLISHNESS.— In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus ix)ints out the grave sin of saying to our brother, 'Thou fool ' (iiwpi, Mt 5-). When He likened His critics to children in the market-place who would play at neither a sad nor a merry game (Mt 11'°-'"), was He not saying in His heart, 'Ye fools ' ? But anger and contempt are the sources of the former ; wonder and pity, mingled with indignation, shape the latter.* He who knew whiit was in man had occasion to marvel at the foolishness of men. That foolishness is a ruinous self-deception in spiritual things. He points out this folly in these classes :
1. The foolishneis of worldUi men. — God .said to the rich man, ' Thou fool' {i^puiv, Lk 122"). flie parable (vv.'^^) was inspired by a request which showed to Christ a heart so absorbed in thought of material good that it could not listen to His mes- sage. That fact gives us the point of view from which to consider the parable. The gootl of life cannot be in earth's riches which pass from owner to owner, and whose possession is at the niercj- of death, which is only an accident to the immortal
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FOOTSTOOL
soul (v.-"). Covetousness, a man's absorption in heaping up and enjoying things, is folly in so far as it hinders him from attaining to the true riches, treasure of the soul laid up with God (vv.'^- ^').
2. The foolishness of theformulUt, who shuts his eyes (^upoi Kal rv^iXol) to the spiritual side, the inward consecration which gives meaning and value to conduct or to things (Lk 11*', Mt 23").
3. The foolishness of the irlir/ions. —Thin thought occurs more frequently. It is'a mark of our Lord's teaching that it is concerned rather with the subtler forms of evil whicli beset the religious class. He assumes that those sins of sense and temper which all the world condenins, need no condemna- tion from Him. Tliis foolishness consists generally in a lack of seriousness, a lack of whole-hearted- ness and simplicity in faith and conduct. There are those who hear His words and do them not (Mt 7°'' '-''). These are believers whose whole spirit is a contradiction, children of faith in mind, children of unfaith in conduct. This fool- ishness of believers is the formative thouglit of the parables of the Unjust Steward (Lk 16^"") and of the Ten Virgins (Mt 25>-i3). The meaning of the former pf,rable is said by Jesus to be, that the children of tliis world are wiser in their generation than the children of light. That wisdom consists in greater singleness of vision both as regards ends and means. The steward sees his end clearly : he apportions his means to that end, uses as best he may what resources he has. The infmence is left as to the wavering vision, both of end and of means, on the part of the children of light. The same thought is in the subsidiary and incidental lesson as to making friends by means of the mammon of un- righteousness. Selfishness, not brotherliness, rules this fraudulent steward, but he sees clearly those facts of our human life, gratitude and kindliness, which make brotherhood possible, and he turns them to his ends. On the other hand, brother- hood is the faith of the children of light, and yet they greatly neglect this rich field. The parable of the Ten Virgins completes this teaching of the foolishness of a half-hearted faith. It hints the irrevocable loss believers bring upon themselves thereby. Life's opportunities come unexpectedly — calls to service, possibilities of honour and spiritual enriching — and the half-hearted miss these. Their heart-culture, their spirits' disci- pline have been sleeping ; and the chances of life jiass them by.
The seat of all these follies is the heart (Mk 7"^). It is not any mere action of the intellect which here comes into condemnation. All these forms of foolishness are a ruining self-deception. The mind is there the servant, of the heart whose desires have confused and led it astray.