A Fly in the Ointment

A Fly in the Ointment

a-fly-in-the-ointment

“You can identify fools just by the way they walk down the street!”
– Ecclesiastes 10: 3 [NLT]

The world perpetuates the idea that when you become a Christian, you turn off your ability to reason like you check your hat at a fine restaurant. But some of this mentality may be self-inflicted because some Christians still act like fools. Solomon tells us that like a dead fly in a bottle of perfume, a little foolishness spoils great wisdom and honor.

Closing The Mind but Opening The Mouth
The Book of Proverbs tells us that, Fools have no interest in understanding; they only want to air their own opinions (Proverbs 18:2 NLT). The fool loves knowledge to show off because, as Matthew Henry has said, “he loves the sound of his own voice,” Dr. David Jeremiah has said that the fool “closes his mind while opening the mouth.” Humility is the pivotal piece here. Humility understands that wisdom is not to promote our agenda. Self-effort never makes us humble. If we should gain a measure of humility and understanding due to our merit, we will ultimately be proud of our humility. In his heart, the fool has said, “There is no God” (Psalms 14:1, NASB). We can seek wisdom and miss God, but we can never miss wisdom if we seek God first.

A Picture or a Mirror
As a “young and prideful” Christian, Kris Langham of Through The Word started reading through the Book of Proverbs. It was so apparent to him how foolish people were. He said it was almost “laughable” how stupid people acted sometimes. But it was not long before he started to see that God was not just giving him a picture of a fool, but a mirror image of one. A fool is always blind to his flaws, as deception is a by-product of conceit. If you think you are humble, you are probably not. And people recognize this smell even when you are just walking down the street. If pride is operative in our lives, we will end up with a dead fly in our ointment.

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