The Bible says:
“I (King Solomon) said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth ... I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth it?” — Ecclesiastes 2: 1, 2
We’re a fun-loving people. People demand that they have fun at work, at school, and even at church.
To attract and accommodate the funloving crowd the church has become a fun place to go. Even our revival meetings are a lot of fun now; they’re downright hilarious.
We attend worship services now in our casual clothes. And with our lightheartedness, there’s not much chance of us getting serious about our sins and repenting and having real revival.
It’s when Christians let their hair down to have fun and cast away all restraints and self-discipline they shame the Savior with their foolishness. It’s when we’re having fun that we most likely will think, say, and do something unbecoming of the Savior.
It’s when the Christian is having fun that they’re most likely to lose their testimony — if they have one of course. The Christian is to be sober (self-disciplined, temperate, discreet, and serious in mood and disposition), sober, sober, and sober. (Titus 2: 2, 4, 6, 12) Since the Goddess of Fun rules over our life there’s not much chance of Christ the Lord having His way in our life. And because of our fun-loving nature we can’t be serious with God.
We seem to eat, drink, sleep, and breathe fun. We can’t love the Goddess of Fun and also love God.
The word “fun” isn’t in the Bible but “mirth” is, but only in the Old Testament. The words “fun” and “mirth” mean the same thing — gaiety, merriment, pleasure, recreation, distraction, tomfoolery, sport, play, and revelry among others. The word fun comes from a variant of the Middle English verb fon, “make a fool of.”
But for all the time, energy, and money put into having fun, what does fun accomplish? What do we get for our dollar, but a brief escape from our stress and trouble.
Solomon said all the mirth or fun he had — and he had plenty — was vanity and accomplished nothing; “what doeth it?”
“Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful: and the end of that mirth (fun) is heaviness.”
— Proverbs 14: 13
We’re fun-loving, light-hearted people, but for all our fun-making we’re but for all our fun-making we’re still heavy-hearted by nature.
Fun is empty, vain, unprofitable, smoke in the wind, and yet we live for this temporary escape and fix when we could find real and lasting enjoyment in a relationship with Jesus Christ Who satisfies all the longings of the heart.
(Psalm 16: 11)
Israel was having plenty of fun as she lived in idolatry and rebellion against God, but when God judged her He put an end to all her mirth and fun (Isaiah 24: 8, 11; Jericho 7: 34, 16: 9, 25: 10).
“I will also cause all her mirth to cease.”
— Hosea 2: 11 We should ask ourselves if having all this fun is the best thing for a worldly unrepentant church and a nation that’s off track with a thrice-holy God.
“Woe unto you that laugh now for ye shall mourn and weep.”
— Luke 6: 25
What James said to the worldly Christians in his day is appropriate to the worldly church today:
“Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.”
— James 4: 9
James H. Cagle is a Ray City resident who pastored several churches 11 years. Email [email protected]
