Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.

Jesus said, “Even after all this, are you still so foolish?

Five of the virgins were foolish, and five were wise.

When the foolish ones took their lamps, they did not take extra olive oil with them.

The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, because our lamps are going out.’

He said to them, “Are you so foolish? Don’t you understand that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him?

So he said to them, “You foolish people—how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!

who said by the Holy Spirit through your servant David our forefather, ‘Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot foolish things?

Also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him, and some were asking, “What does this foolish babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods.” (They said this because he was proclaiming the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.)

I am a debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.

The Message of the Cross

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Where is the wise man? Where is the expert in the Mosaic law? Where is the debater of this age? Has God not made the wisdom of the world foolish?

For since in the wisdom of God the world by its wisdom did not know God, God was pleased to save those who believe by the foolishness of preaching.

but we preach about a crucified Christ, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.

For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

But God chose what the world thinks foolish to shame the wise, and God chose what the world thinks weak to shame the strong.

The unbeliever does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. And he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Guard against self-deception, each of you. If someone among you thinks he is wise in this age, let him become foolish so that he can become wise.

For the wisdom of this age is foolishness with God. As it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness.”

Paul and His Opponents

I wish that you would be patient with me in a little foolishness, but indeed you are being patient with me!

What I am saying with this boastful confidence I do not say the way the Lord would. Instead it is, as it were, foolishness.

(To my disgrace I must say that we were too weak for that!) But whatever anyone else dares to boast about (I am speaking foolishly), I also dare to boast about the same thing.

Justification by Law or by Faith?

You foolish Galatians! Who has cast a spell on you? Before your eyes Jesus Christ was vividly portrayed as crucified!

Are you so foolish? Although you began with the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by human effort?

Neither should there be vulgar speech, foolish talk, or coarse jesting—all of which are out of character—but rather thanksgiving.