But everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn’t act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.
Matthew 7:26 (CSB)
Jesus is finishing His parable about two builders, and this verse describes the second man. Compared with verse 24, almost every word is identical.
Both men heard Jesus, and both men built a house, so the foolish man was not someone who refused to listen. The difference is that he heard Jesus and then never acted on what he heard.
The foolish man probably did not think of himself as foolish, because nobody builds a house expecting it to fall down. That is what makes this warning so serious for people who regularly attend church and hear the Bible taught.
Jesus uses the same two words again in Matthew 25, in a story about ten young women waiting for a wedding: “Five of them were foolish and five were wise.” The foolish ones looked ready, but they had no oil for their lamps. When the groom came, they were shut out.
Jesus’ warning here is not aimed at the Christian who obeys Him and still stumbles, since every believer still sins and needs to keep returning to Him in repentance, turning away from sin and back to God. It is a warning to the person who hears and hears and never does. If there is a particular command of Jesus we have known well for years and never actually obeyed, we ought to stop treating it as information and start practicing it.
The good news is that Jesus did not come only to give us good advice. He died on the cross for our sins and rose again. Everyone who trusts Him has been given a new heart by God, a heart that wants to do what He says.