G453 ἀνόητος (anóētos)

Foolish (453) (anoetos from a = without + noéo = comprehend) means literally “not having a mind”, and so pictures the unsaved as without spiritual understanding, ignorant of God and continually manifesting an unwillingness to use their mental faculties to understand the truth about God. They clearly did not lack intelligence but did lack godly wisdom. They lacked discernment of spiritual realities, having become darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart. (see note Ephesians 4:18). Elsewhere Paul describes says a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. (1Cor 2:14) What a play on words -- "foolishness" to him who is the real "fool". By using the word foolish, Paul is saying that, no matter how advanced one might be in education and intellectual accomplishments, if he or she refuses to recognize God and trust in Him for deliverance from the penalty of sin which is death, they are foolish concerning the most important truth in all eternity. God's attitude towards the foolish is expressed in Proverbs, Solomon asking the question "How long, O naive ones, will you love simplicity? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing, and fools hate knowledge? (note now the riches of God's kindness and forbearance and patience in beckoning to all men to) Turn to My reproof, behold, I will pour out My Spirit on you. I will make My Words known to you." (Pr 1:22,23) Paul adds that "since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached (Christ crucified...the power of God and the wisdom of God) to save those who believe."(1Cor 1:21-24) Paul Johnson in his book Intellectuals documents the morass of unspeakable moral filth and ungodliness that has characterized most of the leading intellectual architects of modern Western culture. Their astounding mental capacities and their profound impact on modern society are indisputable and yet they are the very ones Paul is describing in this section for they “did not see fit to acknowledge God (or even to consider Him worth knowing!)" and therefore they were judicially given over by God "to a depraved mind (literally one that is worthless and rejected by God for it is base, perverted, corrupted, debauched, warped, twisted, degenerate) to do things not proper or decent but loathsome" (see note Romans 1:28). To study the biographies of the great "movers and shakers" of history is to study the height and depth of despicable degradation and depravity of which men originally made in God's image are capable! A brilliant mind is imminently capable of even the most heinous evil. Witness the appalling, unspeakable atrocities of Nazi Germany, which were conceived and perpetrated by brilliant men in arguably the most intellectually, scientifically and culturally advanced nation of modern times. Disobedient, deceived, enslaved - Spurgeon comments... That is what we were once; and if the grace of God has made a change in us, we must not boast, we must not censure others, we must not set up as self-righteous judges of others. Oh, no! our action must be the very reverse of all this. DISOBEDIENT: apeitheis: (Mt 21:29; Acts 9:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; 26:19,20; Eph 2:2; 1Pet 1:14)