Heavenly Minded?

So anyone who thinks they are standing strong should be careful that they don’t fall.

1 Corinthians 10:12

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18

My mum had a saying that went, “The bigger they are, the harder they fall”, and in a way that sums up these verses. I also suggest that Alexander Pope hit the nail on the head when he said, “A little learning (knowledge) is a dangerous thing”. Every gathering has an expert on any given subject, and most of the time they give themselves higher plausibility than they are worth. In the army, they are known as “Barrack room lawyers”, and they will profess to know everything and pass judgement on just about anything and anyone.

Respect is something that is earned, and does not happen overnight. You do not give it to yourself. Respect is conferred ON you by others. The folks who know everything, tend to be seen as a bit of fun, but they are not usually respected. The kind of person who resists passing easy judgement on a subject or person too quickly, is one who has been taught well, and has learned a lot over a long period of time.

In the verses above, both Paul and Solomon are wise and respected by their peers. Paul spent years learning at the feet of one of the wisest and most clever in his day, Gamaliel and spent about three years in his own wilderness. The wisdom of Solomon was conferred directly by God himself. Both can be trusted in the things they say and teach, which is more than can be said about some of today’s teachers that you will find on the internet under the guise of Bible interpreters of note. As my dad said more than once to me, “pen and paper will accept anything”. Today, we would translate that as, “don’t believe everything you read and see on the internet”. Dad was wise beyond his earthly years!

The time will come when people will not listen to the true teaching. But people will find more and more teachers who please them. They will find teachers who say what they want to hear. People will stop listening to the truth. They will begin to follow the teaching in false stories. 2 Timothy 4:3,4