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Wise in Our Own Eyes

 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. (Proverbs 3:5-8)

 

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. (I Corinthians 1:27)

 

Today, we look at the third of the instructions in this passage, with its three elements and a promise. First, we are to not be wise in our own eyes. Second, we’re to fear the Lord. Third, we’re to shun evil. If we do those three things, it will bring health and nourishment to our bodies and bones. And that sounds rather like what Jesus said about man not living by bread alone, but by every word that God speaks.

But not being wise in our own eyes is fearing the Lord and shunning evil. Or one leads to the next or is caused by the next. In whatever way you care to perceive it, they are either the same thing or bound up together. So, what does it mean to be wise in one’s own eyes?

Taken literally, anyone who claims to have any idea of how things work may be accused of being wise in his own eyes. Disagree with people, and those people are likely to pronounce you a fool who is wise in your own eyes. But let’s consider the most obvious example of being wise in one’s own eyes: the claim to know better than God about something.

In other words, all of this passage goes back to the same old problem. Being wise in our own eyes, ultimately, is setting ourselves up to be “like the Most High.”  Once we reject that, God can guide  us into wisdom.

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