I say, it is the everlasting privilege of the foolish to be governed by the wise; to be guided in the right path by those who know it better than they. This is the first “right of man;” compared with which all other rights are as nothing,—mere superfluities, corollaries which will follow of their own accord out of this; if they be not contradictions to this, and less than nothing! To the wise it is not a privilege; far other indeed. Doubtless, as bringing preservation to their country, it implies preservation of themselves withal; but intrinsically, it is the harshest duty a wise man, if he be indeed wise, has laid to his hand. A duty which he would fain enough shirk; which accordingly, in these sad times of doubt and cowardly sloth, he has long everywhere been endeavouring to reduce to its minimum, and has in fact in most cases nearly escaped altogether. It is an ungoverned world; a world which we flatter ourselves will henceforth need no governing. On the dust of our heroic ancestors we too sit ballot-boxing, saying to one another, It is well, it is well! By inheritance of their noble struggles, we have been permitted to sit slothful so long. By noble toil, not by shallow laughter and vain talk, they made this English Existence from a savage forest into an arable inhabitable field for us; and we, idly dreaming it would grow spontaneous crops forever,—find it now in a too questionable state; peremptorily requiring real labour and agriculture again. Real “agriculture” is not pleasant; much pleasanter to reap and winnow (with ballot-box or otherwise) than to plough!

So much emphasis has been placed on reason and intellect in our modern world that people who have various mental and intellectual challenges are considered almost subhuman. Some Protestant churches will not even allow people with these kinds of challenges to be admitted to their membership, thereby putting IQ as a condition of communion with Christ. But as Fr. Jordan Bajis has said, “One’s ability to use his mind and faculties is not the requirement of faith. The orientation of one’s heart and trust is the requirement.”

Even before Christ, we see prototypes of the fool for Christ—as far back as Old Testament times when several prophets of God adopted outlandish and even shocking behaviors in order to reveal His judgments. We see, for example, Isaiah walking naked for several years while he predicted Israel’s captivity in Egypt (Is. 20:2–4); Ezekiel lying on his side for 390 days and eating bread baked over human dung (Ezek. 4:9–12); and Hosea marrying a harlot and buying her back from harlotry when she was unfaithful to him (Hos. 1:2; 3:1–2). It was St. Paul who first used the term “fools for Christ” in one of his epistles to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 4:10), pointing out that Christian doctrine and the Christian manner of life are foolish in the eyes of the world. In time, a number of Christian ascetics adopted the term and feigned foolishness or insanity in part to demonstrate the foolishness of the world about them, just as the prophets of old had done. These people feigned foolishness (mental illnesses) but in actuality were perfectly rational and in full command of all their senses. They adopted their behaviors in order to reject the status quo and cares of this world; to communicate (often in riddles or parables) great spiritual truths in admittedly sometimes outlandish ways (the equivalent of a slap in the face, which society often needs); and also to avoid the temptation of pride by allowing themselves to be humiliated, mocked, and sometimes even physically abused because of their seemingly absurd behavior.

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We all are called to be fools for Christ’s sake—perhaps not in the extreme of those who bear the title “fool for Christ,” yet we must maintain a holiness and purity of heart that would appear to be foolish in the eyes of the world about us. It is foolish to swim against the current of society, but we are called to do so. It is foolish to forgive and pray for those who abuse us, yet that is our task. It is foolish to stand for ancient truths when the contemporary world tells us they are outmoded or even evil; yet, as with Christ, we must maintain that which is “the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8). It is foolish to feed and clothe the poor and outcast who can do nothing for us in return, especially when we ourselves have barely enough to sustain us; yet that is our calling. For we are called to be “fools for Christ” in multiple ways every day—even when not called specifically to outlandish behavior, our behavior is nonetheless outlandish to the world that surrounds us.

[St. Andrew of Constantinople (870–936)] was talking with his disciple Epiphanius when he received a vision in which a demon came and attempted to trap Epiphanius. But the demon would not approach Andrew and instead cried out, “You are my greatest enemy in all of Constantinople!” Rather than driving the demon immediately away, Andrew let him speak. “I feel,” said the demon, “that the time is coming when my work here will be complete. When that time comes, men will be worse than I am now and children more skilled in wickedness than those who are grown. At that time I shall take my rest and do nothing more to tempt mankind, for they will do my will of themselves.”

Andrew then asked the demon what sins gave his kind the most satisfaction, and the demon replied, “Idolatry, slander, evil against one’s neighbor, sodomy, drunkenness, and love of money. These,” he said, “give us the most joy.” Andrew then asked the demon how his kind react when someone who had served them repents and turns away from their evil works. “It is hard to bear,” replied the demon. “We do all we can to bring him back. And many who have denied us and turned to God have come back to us!” At that, Andrew breathed on the demon, and he disappeared.

For no man, and for no body or biggest multitude of men, has Nature favour, if they part company with her facts and her. Excellent stump-orator; eloquent parliamentary dead-dog, making motions, passing bills; reported in the Morning Newspapers, and reputed the “best speaker going”? From the Universe of Fact he has turned himself away; he is gone into partnership with the Universe of Phantasm; finds it profitablest to deal in forged-notes, while the foolish shopkeepers will accept them. Nature for such a man, and for Nations that follow such, has her patibulary forks, and prisons of death everlasting:—dost thou doubt it? Unhappy mortal, Nature otherwise were herself a Chaos and no Cosmos. Nature was not made by an Impostor; not she, I think, rife as they are!—In fact, by money or otherwise, to the uttermost fraction of a calculable and incalculable value, we have, each one of us, to settle the exact balance in the abovesaid Savings-bank, or official register kept by Nature: Creditor by the quantity of veracities we have done, Debtor by the quantity of falsities and errors; there is not, by any conceivable device, the faintest hope of escape from that issue for one of us, nor for all of us.

Ipeirotis had noticed that his students' assignments were neat, comprehensive, and extraordinarily well-edited — a red flag to any seasoned educator.

Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:

For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.

Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.

Paul has a good deal to say on this matter in his other epistles also, placing subjects under their rulers in the same way that household servants are under their masters. He does this to show that Christ did not introduce his laws for the purpose of undermining the state but rather so that it should be better governed.

He does not speak about individual rulers but about the principle of authority itself. For that there should be rulers and ruled and that things should not just lapse into anarchy, with the people swaying like waves from one extreme to the other, is the work of God’s wisdom.

In saying this, Paul was more likely to draw civil governors who were unbelievers to accept the Christian faith and to persuade believers to obey them. For it was commonly rumored in those days that the apostles were guilty of plotting sedition and revolution, aiming in all that they did and said at the subversion of the received institutions. However, when we see that Christ’s command is that we should obey the authorities, all rumors of this kind will be shown to be false.

What is the meaning of “not only to avoid God’s wrath”? It means not only because you resist God by not being subject, nor only because you are bringing great evils on yourself both from God and from the ruler, but also because the ruler is a benefactor to you in things of the utmost importance, because he brings you peace and the blessings of civil institutions. States receive countless blessings through these authorities, and if they were taken away, everything would go to pieces.

Most rightly, Paul warns against anyone who is puffed up with pride by the fact that he has been called by his Lord into freedom and become a Christian, and therefore thinks that he does not have to keep the status given to him in the course of this life or submit to the higher powers to whom the government of temporal things has been confided for a time. For because we are made of soul and body and as long as we are in this life we make use of temporal things as a means of living this life, it is fitting that, as far as this life is concerned, we be subject to the authorities, i.e., to the people who with some recognition administer human affairs.

But as far as the spiritual side is concerned, in which we believe in God and are called into his kingdom, it is not right for us to be subject to any man who seeks to overturn in us the very thing which God has been pleased to grant us so that we might obtain eternal life.

So if anyone thinks that because he is a Christian he does not have to pay taxes or tribute nor show the proper respect to the authorities who take care of these things, he is in very great error.

Even priests, bishops and monks must obey the commands of secular rulers. Of course, they must do so insofar as obedience is consistent with godliness. If the rulers demand something which is ungodly, then on no account are they allowed to do it.

The holy apostle teaches us that both authorities and obedience depend entirely on God’s providence, but he does not say that God has specifically appointed one person or another to exercise that authority. For it is not the wickedness of individual rulers which comes from God but the establishment of the ruling power itself. . . . Since God wants sinners to be punished, he is prepared to tolerate even bad rulers.

True and perfect obedience of subjects to their superior is shown not only by their refraining from every untoward action in accordance with his advice but also by their not doing even what is approved without his consent.

It is right to submit to higher authority whenever a command of God is not violated thereby.

Those who disobey the king have committed a crime and will face judgment.