An Idea Borrowed

Years ago on a radio program someone shared that they read a chapter in Proverbs every day. Since there are 31 chapters and the longest month has 31 days it allows you to read through Proverbs on a regular basis. I use it as the launch pad for my personal worship time and branch out from there. On this blog I will try to share some of the insights I have in the Word. I will try to organize them in the archive by reference.

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Wise Not That You Be Not Wised

(Proverbs 9:12 KJV)  If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself: but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it.

As I was reading this today it again was puzzling.  I finally realized it might be a version of the admonition of Jesus,
(Matthew 7:1 KJV)  Judge not, that ye be not judged.
My thinking was not in just the first verse of Matthew 7 but in the full teaching which we usually ignore.  The key to understanding Matthew 7:1 is to keep reading until you get to verse 5.
(Matthew 7:5 KJV)  Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
Our greatest criticism, aka judgment, is to be of ourselves.  When we read what the Bible has to say we should be applying it to our own lives first.  That is so we are staying on track. 

But it does not stop there.  We are then in a place where we can share God’s teachings with others.  The same is true of wisdom.  To be “wise” (2449) we need to be applying it to ourselves first.

So?  Maybe if people see us applying wisdom to our own lives they will be more teachable themselves.  It won’t hurt to try it that way.  What do we have to lose?

2 comments:

Gorges Smythe said...

To which man would say, "But THAT'S no fun!" As you know, self-righteousness chases more folks away from church than anything else.

Pumice said...

Actually I think what chases most people away from church is a call to commitment and obedience. The yells of hypocrisy are usually smoke screens in my mind.

Grace and peace.