Mar
7
Spoken by a Fool
Filed Under Devotional
There are many things in life of which I am ignorant. This is not something I’m proud of or ashamed of. It is simply the truth because nobody can know everything. However, it is a pet peeve of mine when someone who is ignorant of a subject I know well attempts to convince me that they know just as much or more. This happens most often to me in watching TV and movies.
I have learned to bite my lip every time I watch shows where computers and technology are used to move the plot along. It is rarely done well and is frequently just embarrassing (from my point of view). But, every once in a while, I see something that is so out of place it just ruins the show for me. The other night, it was a moment when the tech guy was examining some small piece of unknown electronics gear. He declared confidently that he knew who had created the item because when he examined the software code, it was in Chinese. This was followed by a camera shot of the computer screen full of Chinese characters. That’s just not how computer code works on about three different levels.
The best analogy I can give is imagining a cop show where the pivotal evidence is determined because the cop can look at a photograph on the computer and smell the aftershave of the photographer. It’s just so out of whack as to be non-sensical.
That’s about where I am with the growing crowds of people demanding that I tolerate them and using Scripture in their argument. The most common, by far:
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” Matthew 7:1
When Scripture is quoted at me to convince me that I should stop declaring sinful activity to be sin, I get the same feeling as watching that TV show. The speaker has no idea what he is quoting and he is doing himself no favors in my evaluation of his argument. When Jesus said this, it has to be taken in context with the rest of His teachings and even the rest of His paragraph in that same teaching. In no way, shape, or form has Jesus asked us to “tolerate” sin.
I think the more apropos Scripture here are a couple of Proverbs:
“Like a lame man’s legs that hang limp
is a proverb in the mouth of a fool.
[...]
Like a thornbrush in a drunkard’s hand
is a proverb in the mouth of a fool.” Proverbs 26:7,9
The message here is that Scripture used by the fool is, at best, powerless and, at worst, dangerous. If you hear Scripture being used to argue something new and different or seemingly contradictory to classical Christianity, you might want to check to see if it is being spoken by a fool.