Jesting isn't supposed to be foolish right?

Question

Ok. I really do not understand why so many christians keep saying foolish jests on the web especially those puritans... But isit actually meant to be foolish? cos i dun think it is foolish. It is meant to cause laughter.

Answer 1

Foolish can either mean funny or it can mean unwise. Thus the jests made by Christians on the web could be doubly foolish. They could be funny, but they could also be unchristian and therefore unwise to make.

Answer 2

Jesting is not supposed to be "coarse" or "profane". By it's very nature jesting has an element of foolishness in it because it's meant to make people laugh at something silly. If it's done to raise a person's spirit and as a means of encouragement then it's proper.

Ephesians 5:4 Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking (eutrapelía), which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.

eutrapelía - . Facetiousness, coarse wittiness, ribaldry. The turning of one's speech for the purpose of exciting mirth or laughter. Since, however, such persons can easily manipulate circumstances, they are apt to deteriorate into mischief-makers and clowns. Therefore, eutrápelos (n.f.), a witty person, is sometimes used in a bad sense meaning a scoffer, a sneerer, or a coarse joker to which Paul probably refers in Eph_5:4.

Answer 3

That's a good question. There are some things I say to get laughs that are just clearly WRONG. I'd agree with even the most humorless Puritan who called me on making fun of a person without knowing whether or not they are emotionally capable of handling it. That's the danger of kidding around with people you don't know on the web. It's a lesson I'm still learning.

I find myself dancing in the "grey area" of humor a lot, though. Some people have as a standard not to speak humorously about ANYTHING that has to do with religion, even if the humor is not mocking humor. That would condemn a lot of the "good clean jokes" that kick off many evangelical sermons. I personally think Christian behavior can be laugh-out-loud SILLY. The bad thing is when it is silly and petty to the point of making God himself look silly and petty to the world who only knows God through the behavior of people who claim to know him. Poking fun at it, gently, in a general way not aimed at any specific individual, is a way to get Christians to reconsider their behavior, or at least to take themselves less seriously.

All jesting wrong? I can't see THAT one at all. Jesus used sarcasm and talked tongue in cheek, to make a point. Consider the episode (in Matt 15:21-28 and Mark 7:25-30) of the Gentile (Syro-Phoenician, Canaanite) woman who asked Jesus to heal her daughter. The Jews (even the very earliest Christian Jews) wouldn't even EAT with Gentiles, considering them to be unclean. She came asking for a healing, and Jesus played along with those who had this "Gentiles are inferior" attitude, stringing them along, telling the woman, "no way, I came to help Jews only. Why should I give the children's food to dogs? etc. etc." Undaunted, she keeps right on asking, and Jesus finally grants her the healing.

Can you imagine the sideways glance Jesus gave to the Jews all around him, as he finally gets down to the business of healing the Gentile woman's daughter? I wonder if Jesus said something at that point similar to what he said after another healing of a Gentile by proxy, the one for the Roman centurion's servant. " I say unto you, I have not found faith so great, no, not in Israel." (Luke 7:9)

"A merry heart doeth good like a medicine." Some humor makes a sad heart, or a lustful heart, or an angry heart, though. That's the kind of humor that's foolish jesting.

Answer 4

In the old days a jester was also called a fool.
If you look at tarot cards the jester is called the fool.
So yes jesters are supposed to be foolish.
Some people lauugh at foolish things.
Have you seen any of the "Airplane" movies or "Naked Gun" movies?
People are always quoting them.
They are foolish and make you laugh