Be Wise

There will be many situations in our lives where there may be several different ways or options for us to choose from, but not all of those options might be the best choice. Maybe you are up on your roof for some reason or another, when you accidentally knocked over the ladder you used to get up there. Now you have a choice to make: you can jump off of the roof down onto the ground, but that might lead you to injuring yourself seriously bad. Or you have the other option of asking your next door neighbor who is sitting in his chair in his backyard if he would come over and set your ladder back up for you. Now, which option do you think is the better, smarter choice? The second one, of course!  

When we weigh our options and pick the better one we are being wise, something that the Lord Jesus wants us to be.

Matthew 10:16  “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.”

To be wise means to show good judgment in a situation. Not everyone in the world is a Christian. Not everyone who claims to be a Christian is one either. To make this determination we need to be wise, testing the spirits to see if they are indeed of God, or if they are not. That is what the word test means, to put to the proof; to prove the truth, genuineness, or quality of by experiment, or by some principle or standard; to try.

Maybe you have watched a jeweler carefully examine a diamond using special magnification glasses or a magnifying glass itself in order to determine if a jewel is real or if it is a fake. The manufacturing of fake diamonds has gotten so good in recent years that it takes close scrutiny and examination to tell a real one from a fake.

The Bible is our magnifying glass with which we can use to examine whether somebody is truly a Christian or not. Whether they are a sheep of God or if they are a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” It is these types of people whom Peter warned of. False prophets, false teachers, teaching heresies and leading astray the sheep of God.

2 Peter 2:1-3  “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.

And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.”

Thankfully we have not been left blind. Through diligent study of God’s word we will be able to discern right from wrong. We will know the truth from a lie, even if that lie appears at first to be the truth, because we have become wise through the leading of the Holy Spirit. We will be able to examine others, testing them to see if someone truly is of the Holy Spirit, or if it is just the spirit of the devil in disguise.

1 John 4:1-6  “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:

And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.

We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.”

Search the scriptures, for therein lies our salvation. Obtain the wisdom of the Lord and you will always know the spirit of truth from the spirit of error. 

In Christ,

Andrew