“ONLY BY PRIDE..”

In Proverbs 13:10 we read a statement that should be a rebuke to most of us: “Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom.” Did you really hear that? “Only by pride comes contention…” Strong’s Hebrew dictionary defines the word for contention here as “strife, debate.” Here is one more of its three uses in the Bible: “He loveth transgression that loveth strife: and he that exalteth his gate seeketh destruction.” (Pr 17:19) Then there is one more: “Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.” (Isa 58:4) At the root of all contention, strife and debate is PRIDE…period! God says “only.” Whatever our stated reasons might be, pride is the real reason. The scriptures say that with pride comes shame and it is pride that precedes destruction and a haughty spirit that precedes a fall. But contrasted to that it says, “but with the well advised is wisdom.” Who are the well advised? They are those truly taught of God, those who have learned of the Father and have come to Christ who is the Wisdom of God! You see, the sinner brought to Christ the Wisdom of God is brought knowing, acknowledging and confessing that he has no wisdom of his own to be proud of! His opinion is nothing. His ideas have all been wrong, especially his thoughts of God. No, Christ is now the only Wisdom he has. Not only that, but all other believers he now esteems more highly than himself knowing that surely, they all have more knowledge, more understanding, more faith and more graces than he himself does. He knows there is no need to enter into strife or debate or contention because it would only reveal his ignorance but also be a reproach to God and the gospel of His dear Son. He prays, “God, shut the door of my mouth and keep me from contention.” No, he runs back to the Word of God and asks God to teach him the truth as it is in Christ Jesus and to cause him to be “well advised” by the Spirit of God. No matter what we may say or think, “ONLY by pride cometh contention….” God bring us to be among the “well advised” and to acknowledge that Christ is the only Wisdom we have!

GS

The principle of “love” may well be distorted by men when they speak of the love of God to men. However, the principle of justice is not quite so easily distorted. Thus, the love of God to His people is described as their “justification.” In love, God justifies His elect, declaring them righteous through Jesus Christ and His righteous death. He does this showing that His love is a just love in Christ crucified and He is always at the same time “a just God and (not “but”) a Savior.” His love is demonstrated by His giving Himself for us, redeeming us from all iniquity. As the only hymn writer wrote: “Redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die.”

GS

'Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued, investigation of the great subject of the Deity. The most excellent study for expanding the soul is the science of Christ and Him crucified and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity.'

"The proper study of the Christian is the God-head. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the doings, and the existence of the great God which he calls his Father. There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity. Other subjects we can comprehend and grapple with; in them we feel a kind of self-content, and go on our way with the thought, 'Behold I am wise.' But when we come to this master science, finding that our plumb-line cannot sound its depth, admit that our eagle eye cannot see its height, we turn away with the thought 'I am but of yesterday and know nothing.'

C. H. Spurgeon

Recently, I heard a man introduce himself as “Reverend _______” This was one of the many God imposters that abound in our day. I say, “God imposters” because of what the Bible says: “He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name.” (Ps 111:9) “Reverend” means to be held in reverence and feared! The One who has sent redemption to His people, who commanded His covenant forever, the One who is holy, HIS name alone is REVEREND! GS

When Jonathan, in the strength of the Lord, attended only by his armor-bearer, went up against the embodied host of the Philistine army, we read that "between the passages by which he sought to go over unto the Philistines' garrison, there was a sharp rock on the one side, and a sharp rock on the other side—and the name of the one was Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh." (1Sa 14:4.) I have thought sometimes that this narrow passage between the two rocks, Bozez and Seneh, may be viewed as descriptive of the path of a Christian between the two rocks, presumption and despair.

J. C. Philpot

“When I was a boy in the ministry about fifty-four years ago, I traveled with a precious old father in Israel who was loving, tender and kind to me. If I made a misquotation, a mispronunciation or an ungrammatical expression he would privately tell me about it. He did so in love. He never corrected me publicly. I always loved him. Many times I have thought I heard good brethren misapply the scriptures, but I ever publicly exposed them. If I said anything about it, it was to them in private. No matter how honest and sincere we may be, and how much we know, we could be mistaken. Brethren should be very kind and tender with each other. It is good for brethren to meet and discuss their seeming differences and see how close together they are. You can hardly find any two that will fully agree on every little technical point. Better not harp on those points. On the great essentials there is great harmony among us. It should be our greatest desire to comfort, strengthen, educate, and bind our dear people more closely together. We should not decide that everyone that does not view every little point as we do and say everything as we say it, is unsound, disorderly, and has the leprosy and that it will not do to associate with him lest we catch the contagion. Brethren, in different sections, have different customs and some are more tolerant than others. We should not think the Lord has made it the business of some of us to regulate all of our brethren and force them to come to our standard. I fear that some are like Diotrephes who would not receive the brethren and rejected all who did (#I John 9:10|). As I grow older the less confidence I have in self and the more forbearing I am. Jesus ate with publicans and sinners. The Pharisees reproved Him for it. Charity suffers long and is kind, not easily provoked. Not puffed up, beareth all things. Charity covers a multitude of sins. And it is so good for all of us that we all be kind and keep ourselves unspotted from the world, and shun the appearance of evil.”