“I Pity the Fool”—No One Mocks God and Wins

One of Mr. T’s catchphrases was, “I pity the fool who…” For my younger readers, he was a big deal in the late 1970s and early 80s. But I pity the fool who thinks that they can get away with thinking that God can be made the fool or tricked in any way.

In Galatians 5, Paul contrasts the one who lives by the Spirit with the one who lives by the flesh. The fact is, most of us, as believers, are somewhere in between. I know I am. Yesterday, I backed out and hit a car that was parked behind me. The car should not have been there because I have my own specific parking space in our underground parking garage, and his car was parked illegally. I was not expecting a car to be there.

Now this is where the battle begins. My initial reaction was anger and frustration. “Why is he parked there?” Technically, it’s my fault because even though he’s parked illegally, he was stationary, and I should have checked. But I’m mad. And thus, the inner war ensues between the spirit and the flesh. I will meet with the guy today and pay for it. But part of me wants to give him a piece of my mind about him being parked illegally, not giving me enough room to get out. There’s another part of me that wants simply to bless him and pay whatever it costs and move on. The problem is that in Israeli culture, anybody who is too weak is not respected. The point is this: “The desires controlled by sin do not want what the Spirit delights in. And the Spirit does not want what the desires controlled by sin delight in. The two are at war with each other” (Gal 5:17 NIRV).

There is a constant battle going on throughout every day in our souls. Will we react to life according to the spirit or according to the flesh? When you’re in the midst of that decision, it is like an inner war.

Sowing and Reaping

So in chapter 6, Paul speaks about the consequences of both.

Don’t delude yourselves: no one makes a fool of God! A person reaps what he sows. Those who keep sowing in the field of their old nature, in order to meet its demands, will eventually reap ruin; but those who keep sowing in the field of the Spirit will reap from the Spirit everlasting life (Gal 6:7-8 CJB).

The idea of sowing and reaping was understood both from the Hebrew Scriptures and ancient philosophy, according to Scholar Timothy George. 1 “Paul applied them, however, in a specifically Christian context with a view toward the impending eschatological [related to our final destinies] judgment.” 2 The following two verses, confirm this where there is encouragement not to give up amid difficulties because, “we will in due time reap the harvest” (v. 9). In other words, the believer understands that what he does today will be rewarded, not only in this life, but in the age to come. Of course, there’s a severe reverse outcome of that: 1) believers who make it into the age to come, but barely (1 Cor 3:25), and 2) those who lose their souls.

God Will Not Be Mocked

This phrase, “no one makes a fool of God,” is meant as a warning. You cannot live a life to the flesh—even if you have the outward appearance of holiness, because God sees everything. You cannot fool him. And before, at the beginning of the verse, Paul uses a phrase that he only used two other times, both in 1 Corinthians: “don’t be deceived,” or “don’t delude yourself,” in regarding to thinking that we can live in sexual sin (1 Cor 6:9) or hanging out with bad people (1 Cor 15:33). The human soul—the carnal part of our mind—is capable great self-deception.

David was a man who loved God, but somehow convinced himself that it would be okay to forcibly take another man’s wife, and then, when she got pregnant, to simply kill the husband and move on with life. Why not? He is the king! Despite the fact that David was a man after God’s own heart, he paid dearly according to the laws of sowing and reaping. Jeremiah says that the heart is deceitful above all things, referring to our ability to fall into self-deception (Jer 17:9). If David could fall into such a trap, so could we if we’re not careful.

I’ve definitely been guilty of doing things that I knew were wrong from the word of God, but convinced myself that they weren’t that wrong. That is where self-deception begins. “God understands my specific situation.” And his response is that he will not be mocked (v. 7).

Turning Up Your Nose at God

In the phrase “no one makes a fool of God” or “God will not be mocked,” Paul uses the Greek word myktērizein for “mocked.” George says this means literally to “turn up the nose in mockery or contempt.” 3 In other words, when we continue in destructive behavior unrepentantly, we are turning our nose up at God.

I have this really strange memory. I had moved to Israel a year earlier and it was Passover. Some friends had a condo in Eilat (it was actually owned by one of our Prime Ministers… but that’s another story!). My friend and I were in the pool with some young kids playing with a ball when suddenly the ball went over the railing into the lagoon. I jumped out of the pool and was getting ready to jump into the lagoon to be the hero and retrieve the ball. As I was moving towards the railing, I thought, You might get hurt. And my response to that thought was quite strange, this is no big deal; even God could not hurt me in this. What a dumb and uninformed thought.

But I continued and went over the railing into the lagoon, retrieving the ball. I had not considered how I was going to get out of the lagoon. I swam over to a certain area where I thought I could climb up. What I did not realize is that there were razor-sharp barnacles underneath the area where I would climb up. Long story short, I had a bunch of minor lacerations on my feet. I could not walk for a couple of days. I don’t know why I had that weird thought, other than that God has used that for the last 20 years to keep me from presumptuous behavior.

Think of how many times in the Bible people have assumed they would get away with presumptuous behavior:

• David did not think that having a census would bring judgment, but it did.

• Goliath assumed that he would kill young David, but he didn’t.

• Judas assumed that things would work out well for him when he turned in Yeshua.

• Ananias and Saphira did not think that lying about how much money they were giving would result in their deaths, but it did.

Sometimes the reaping is immediate, as in the example with the last three, but other times the reaping could take place over time, as in the case of David and Bathsheba. David's sin led to the death of their first child, family turmoil, and public shame.

Eat Bad, Get Fat

Forgive me for being so blunt. Sowing and reaping is something that we can see in our own world. Often the laws that govern this world are mirror images of the laws that govern the spirit world. If I plant tomato seeds, I’m not going to get bananas. You reap exactly what you sow. If I eat fatty food—and I would love nothing more than to eat an entire bag of “Kettle” potato chips or in a really weak moment, 10 to 20 Oreos or French fries as a meal)—I feel really horrible the next morning, in addition to putting on weight and abusing my body. I remember once driving home from a ministry event. I was getting hungrier and hungrier, and I thought about jumping into a McDonald’s and eating two cheeseburgers and French fries. I decided to go for it, and I honestly felt like I was buying drugs. I was looking around to see if anybody noticed me. Don’t get me wrong… It’s OK to eat a cheeseburger every now and then!

The Power of Repentance

While David acted unconscionably against Bathsheba and then her husband, he responded to God’s rebuke through Nathan the prophet. Repentance may not completely take away the judgment, or the reaping of that which we have sown, but it can certainly make a difference. And when speaking of eternal salvation, repentance is the pathway to Yeshua’s saving blood!

When Nathan rebuked David (2 Sam 12), with those famous words (that have to be uttered in King James’ English) “Thou art the man (v. 7). If you have time, go and read verses 7 – 12; they are devastatingly awesome. Nathan rebukes David harshly as a prophet speaking for God. He foretells the Absalom betrayal and says the sword will never depart from David’s house. “You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.” God is not happy with his king. But look at David’s response: “I have sinned against the Lord.” David’s sincere repentance blunted the judgment, but it did not do away with it entirely. Nathan told David, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord, the son born to you will die” (vv. 13b-14).

Don’t Harden Your Heart

Unfortunately, sometimes people who are caught in sin will choose self-preservation over repentance because repentance, true repentance, is humiliating—but also life-giving. King Saul, who disobeyed the Lord’s command when he was told to destroy the Amalekites completely, hardened his heart instead of simply repenting, and as a result, the Lord rejected him as King. Had he repented, things could’ve been completely different for his lineage.

A lesser-known figure is King Zedekiah. He was the last king of Judah before the Babylonian exile. He rejected prophetic warnings from Jeremiah and refused to humble himself before God. “He stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the Lord, the God of Israel” (2 Chronicles 36:13). His sons were killed before him by Nebuchadnezzar. Then the Babylonian king gouged out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him with shackles. He was in a Babylonian prison until his death (Jer 52:10-11).

In Revelation, many will harden their hearts, even in the midst of severe judgment.

The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts (Rev 9:20-21).

The fact that they did not repent indicates that they could have. But they hardened their hearts against God.

[The] purpose of God revealed in the agonizing plagues described in chs. 8 and 9 is to bring societies to repentance (cf. 16:9, 11). God is not willing that any person should suffer his judgment but that all should repent and turn to him (Lk 13:3, 5; 2 Pe 3:9). But when God’s works and words are persistently rejected, only judgment remains (Eph 5:6; Heb 10:26–31). 4

In Revelation 16, the people being judged “cursed the name of God,” and “refused to repent and glorify him” (v. 9).

Encouraging Final Thoughts

These are sobering words. I want to remind you that God is a gracious and forgiving God. His goal is always redemption and restoration. He loves each and every one of us, and he made us in his very image. However, he will not be mocked. We must humble ourselves before a holy God, and there we will find safe pasture.

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[1] Timothy George, Galatians, vol. 30, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994), 422.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Alan F. Johnson, “Revelation,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Hebrews–Revelation (Revised Edition), ed. Tremper Longman III and David E. Garland, vol. 13 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006), 675.