On Truth

"Put not forth thyself in the presence of the king, and stand not in the place of great men: For better it is that it be said unto thee, Come up hither; than that thou shouldest be put lower in the presence of the prince whom thine eyes have seen" (Prov. 25:6,7). The following passage is what Jesus said: "When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him; And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted" (Lk. 14:8-11). So we can see that Jesus was in full agreement with the proverb of Solomon about the kind of mindset that God accepts, and the kind he has to put down. Any way we cut it, the truth of the matter is that we are not called to want recognition for ourselves, or to aspire unto great things for ourselves. There are just too many shallow minded folks running around with a condition I would call LWMS. That translates to mean 'Local Wise Man Syndrome.' Oh yeah, it goes for women too. Some people have a real desire to be known among God's people as having wisdom, and being respected for it. That mindset is exactly the opposite of what our text passages show us we need to have. In fact it is that kind of mindset that both Solomon and Jesus clearly said will go absolutely nowhere with God. I've seen it time and time again, and it always goes right where Jesus said it will go, meaning to be abased. We should rather aspire unto the following saying of Jesus, about those who are true: "And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven" (Mat. 18:2-4). Until our desire is purely to honor Jesus with our spirits and our words, and to more effectively love our neighbor, and to edify and honor others; we really have no wisdom at all.

So what are some of the characteristics of someone who has the spirit of LWMS? First and foremost they want to be the one who is right, which is to say the one knows the most. When they are clearly proven to be wrong they will not acknowledge it because that would overthrow their chief ambition, and show them to be vulnerable in the sight of others. Being wrong simply is not an option when you are vying to be the local wise man. So they will continue to support wrong claims with smoke that muddles the issue, after they have been shown to be in error. Yet the scripture says something altogether different about a wise man: "Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning" (Prov. 9:8,9). Someone with LWMS is very difficult to teach because they always have to be the teacher. Being taught or reproved is just not something that helps the image of someone who wants to be 'the man,' as it is said. The also have to be the top authority on the scene, because after all they do know more than anyone else. Maybe they should think a little more on what Jesus said about being like a child. Another trait of LWMS is that they generally have to comment on anything that is in direct opposition to what they think and believe. It's just too difficult to restrain themselves from an opportunity to prove their point, and to reprove someone's error with their advanced wisdom. Forget what edifies, or who will be helped or harmed; just be sure to to get in there and 'prove the truth.' Yet another trait of the wannabe wise man/woman is that they always have a whole lot to say, in spite of all the scriptures that tell us that it's a fool's voice that is characterized by a lot of words (Eccl. 5:3; Prov. 10:19; etc.). Though the Bible is replete with statements that a wise man is slow to speak and spares his words, the LWMS victim just can't help but go on as long as possible to prove that he is right (Jas. 1:19; Prov. 17:27; etc.). Actually when it's all said and done, LWMS just cares more about the praise of men than the praise that comes from God alone. Jesus rebuked some people in the Bible for that problem, as I recall (Jn. 5:44; Jn. 12:42,43).

It's the same spirit that is found with 'gurus' of various religions and philosophies, it's just dressed up as godly wisdom. It's the same old ugly spirit that wants to take attention away from Christ who alone IS wisdom, and direct it to themselves. And again, it dresses itself up to look as though it's giving honor to Jesus with all of it's words that appear wise except to someone who knows better. We give honor to Jesus by getting the heck out of his way and letting his love, and power, and truth flow through us to touch the lives of those around us in a way that builds their faith and confidence in God's love and care for them. Trying to be some kind of iconic wise figure to people, regardless of what it's about, is only about giving honor to ourselves; and it edifies no one. Someone who truly is endowed with wisdom cares more about the lives and needs of others than about being known as someone special in the kingdom of God. James gave us a highlight we should heed on the characteristics of godly wisdom: "But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy" (Jas. 3:17). Now that's some really solid stuff in the Spirit, and we should seek to be in accordance with those traits. The following note is from probably the wisest man of all time who did not come from heaven, where he tells us what the faith is all about: "Now the end [totality] of the commandment is [love] out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned" (I Tim. 1:5). If we can be in that place and remain there, then we have the greatest of all wisdom. It's also very interesting what the apostle said immediately after that statement, in regard to those in the kingdom of God who do NOT make that their focal point: "From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling; Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm" (I Tim. 1:6,7). It is clear that the people he was talking about here were those of his generation who manifested LWMS, having to be the teachers, and thereby missed the mark. If we learn anything at all we want to learn how to NOT miss the mark. We should also remember the greatest example of this vain ambition, that being Judas who thought he knew more than Jesus about what was the best way to get things done. Amen.