Utter fools

I was looking at a Calvin and Hobbs cartoon the other day after spending time with someone who just didn’t have all of their facts quite right, realized that Calvin  (not John) had just reminded me about some Biblical truths.

Have you ever had to sit and listen to that person that will not shut up? Then to top it off they so far removed from the truth they don’t even realize it. The problem is rooted in Romans 1:21-25.

²¹ Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. ²² Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. ²³ And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles. ²⁴ So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. ²⁵ They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.

To top this off those who are the most ignorant of the truth are the most convinced they are right and try to convince everyone else they are right. This is covered in Romans 1:32

³² They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.

The ESV study Bible says this

Rom. 1:32 People do not generally sin in innocent ignorance, for they know God’s righteous decree (at least in an instinctive way) that their evil deserves condemnation. Indeed, the evil goes further when people give approval and applaud others for their sin, probably because having others join in their sin makes them feel better about the evil course they have chosen.

Sometimes those who claim to be wise are just utter fools and deep down all they are doing is justifying to themselves the evil that they do. Calvin is correct from the world’s perspective when he says “the secret to happiness is short term stupid self interest”