Christian Know-It-Alls Are Frightening

 

“Pride is a person having too high an opinion of himself. Pride is the first sin that ever entered into the universe, and the last sin that is rooted out. Pride is the worst sin…Pride is God’s most stubborn enemy!..There is no sin so much like the devil as pride.”  Jonathan Edwards

 

  In the third century, Cyprian, the bishop of Carthage, wrote that Christians don’t “speak great things, but we live them.” Yet, it’s easier to speak about truth than it is to live out the truth. But Christians who only talk yet fail to walk are frightening. The most frightening Christians that I encounter are those who act like they have all of the answers. They love to share their opinions and pontificate to other “mere mortals.” 

  No doubt you’ve run across them. Hopefully, you’re not one. It sometimes feels like they’re ubiquitous. They either have a blog or use their Facebook page (or post on everyone else’s) sharing their insights. They’re on Twitter slamming all the other ignoramuses out there.

  By now probably a couple of names have popped into your head. These individuals believe that it’s their calling to correct everyone else who is not as enlightened as they are. Sometimes they’re disciples of some celebrity pastor and quote them ad nauseam. They’re modern-day Pharisees. 

  I wish I could say that pride or arrogance weren’t sins I struggle with. I frequently find Benjamin Franklin’s insights very apropos for my own life.

  In his autobiography, Franklin focuses on the weakness of human pride. He observed, “In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself; you will see it, perhaps, often in this history; for, even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.” Most can relate to being “proud of our humility.” Like Franklin, we must admit that we, too, struggle with pride.

  The greatest danger of being a spiritual know-it-all is that you’re stuck spiritually. If you believe that you have the answers, you are no longer growing. Your pride has become a blockage to continued spiritual growth. 

  If you believe that you have all of the answers, attending church is little more than symbolic. You don’t come as a student or a disciple. Christian know-it-alls rarely attend a study or small group, after all, they have the answers. If you read books, you read those that agree with you. Mr. or Ms. Know-it-All doesn’t really think that they have to learn anything. They’re already there. They are, in effect, unteachable. 

  When you put a word like “unteachable” next to this, it’s a major sin problem. Christians, when thinking biblically, operate out of the realization that they actually do not know everything that they need to know. As believers, we are to be learners until we get Home to glory. 

  We have things to learn both intellectually and empirically. God designed the local church to provide a context where we can grow in godliness and Christian maturity. Consider Ephesians 4:11-14: “And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,  so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” 

  Notice that from Ephesians 4 that God provides teachers and these teachers are to teach Scripture. Saints (Christians) need to be equipped to serve so the local church is built up and this must go on until we all grow into Christlikeness. Christlikeness and spiritual maturity are the goal. So what are some symptoms of being a Christian Know-it-All?

  They tend to be critical and petty. It’s almost like they thrive in finding out someone’s “wrong view” about something. Instead of seeing the church as a place to grow, they see it as a place to show what they know.

  They talk (or post) a lot but don’t listen very much. This makes sense–why not talk (if you know it all) and why listen (if they don’t)?

  They enjoy squabbling about little things. They will argue about all kinds of things that would seem to be of secondary (or even lesser) importance.

  They tend to lack compassion. Having no perceived weakness of their own, they can’t relate to others who are struggling. Often times they’re condescending or devolve into harshness or disengagement with the weak.

  They like to talk about people. This is divisive to unity in the Body. Instead of prizing unity, Christlikeness, and spiritual maturity, they delight in knocking others down, disrupting unity, and building themselves up. Their conversations with other Christians devolve into stories of how much they know and how much others do not.

  They only seem to have a lot of biblical knowledge. They drop $5 words to effectively argue their point. Often they’re involved and appear to have things together. However, the fact that they’re unteachable makes them dangerous in the local church and a detriment to their own spiritual health and the growth of the Body.

  The Lord designed for a church family and small groups to be places where we feel the liberty to be the most authentic version of ourselves and admit how little we know and how often we struggle. Those who are truly wise depend on God’s grace and work to remain humble. 

  Humility and teachability go together. Humility begins by simply realizing you’re not God and how little you know. Spiritual growth always begins with humility. We must come cognizant of how little we know and thirsting to learn, to grow, and to apply God’s truth to our lives. The goal is not to outshine other believers but to be more and more like Jesus.

  Do you have a goal of becoming wiser and growing in your faith? Get to know God. Study Scripture. Listen to teaching, even teaching you don’t necessarily agree with. Read books and determine to read those who differ from you. Apply what you learn to your life. 

  As you expose yourself to other insights and perspectives, you’ll be wiser, and know better how to walk with the Lord and serve Him. Humility reminds us of how little we know and that we can learn from anyone. All of us have so much to learn. It’s why we must remain teachable, humble, and lifelong learners until we get Home.  

Can we help you spiritually? Can we help you know Jesus better? Please check out more resources on our church's web page, Gracechurchwi.org. Or, call us at 262.763.3021. If you'd like to know more about how Jesus can change your life, I'd love to mail you a copy of how Jesus changed my life in "My Story." E-mail me at Carson@gracechurchwi.org to request a free copy. Please include your mailing address. 

Straining at gnats; Swallowing camels

“Whatever you condemn, you have done yourself.” Georg Groddeck

  If anyone or any group can cause me to shake my head in disbelief, it seems to be government or some elected official. It’s why I limit my exposure to the media. I find that limited doses of news stories, particularly about government, keeps my blood pressure down.

  I’m sure you heard about it. It left me shaking my head in disbelief. Recently, Chicago Mayor, Rahm Emanuel, and real estate mogul, Donald Trump, have been littering the airwaves with their sparring over Trump installing a sign on his building, 20-foot-high letters spelling out his name on the 96-story Trump International Hotel and Tower in downtown Chicago, the city’s second-tallest building. Mayor Emanuel called them “architecturally tasteless.”

  What’s particularly noteworthy, in Chicago, like most major cities, you can hardly sneeze without city approval. Mayor Emanuel’s own administration had approved it before the letters were installed. Now, though according to the news reports, the Mayor's office has had a change of heart and is looking at options to get the sign taken down or at least reduced in size. Mayor Emanuel's spokesperson, Kelley Quinn, said of the sign: The Mayor "believes this is an architecturally tasteful building scarred by an architecturally tasteless sign." Ouch!

  Personally, I just don’t get it. It’s a sign on the man’s building that he owns. It’s his name. They even essentially match. It’s not like they’re garish orange or flaming hot pink. They’re grey letters installed on the side of a grey building.

  Somehow it all seems very petty, particularly in the light of Chicago’s other news. Chicago has an escalating murder rate. 108 so far this year, with 421 last year. There have been over 600 shooting victims so far this year. Chicago residents have the highest sales tax rate of any city in the country and carry one of the highest tax rates overall. Meanwhile, Chicago beats out even Los Angeles for the highest unemployment percentage among the top 10 metro areas in population. While Chicago Public Schools are graduating nearly 20,000 seniors each year, nearly 10,000 of the CPS students who enter ninth grade, drop out before he or she graduate. And we all know that these young people just don't disappear. Probe what plagues Chicago — violence, unemployment, poverty, teen pregnancy — and you find those same former students who fell behind and dropped out. In light of all of the major problems in Chicago, six letters, even 20-foot-high letters, seems very petty.

  The dictionary defines “pettiness” as of little or no importance or consequence; of lesser or secondary importance, merit; minor; having or showing narrow ideas, interests. Essentially, pettiness is a lack of perspective. It’s focusing on the minutia, yet missing the monumental. It was the sin of the Pharisees. Jesus rebuked them for their pettiness, telling them that they “strained out gnats and swallowed a camel” (Matthew 23:24).

  And there’s my problem…I just can’t believe how petty that I can be sometimes. While I can see how silly Mayor Emmanuel is, I don’t as quickly see how silly I am, or how petty I can be. How about you?

  Pettiness goes hand in hand with a critical spirit. When I devolve into pettiness, I find that I focus on the one or two things wrong, yet miss all that’s right. I see a slightly skewed outcome, rather than a pure motive and heart’s intent. And I miss, that just like the Pharisees, I, too, am “straining out gnats and swallowing a camel.” Pettiness, for me, too easily succumbs to perfectionism when I know that I am light years, if not galaxies away from being perfect in my own life.

  The late, Walt Disney, was a perfectionist but his brother Roy was a realist. In Disney Studios early days, when they were racing for a Christmas release of Snow White, Walt Disney reviewed a nearly completed version of the film. He noticed something that really, really bothered him. It seems that when the Prince leaned over to kiss Snow White in her glass coffin, he shimmied. Did you catch that he “shimmied.” Somehow something had gone wrong in the camera work or animation. “I want to make it over,” Walt announced to his brother, Roy. “How much will it cost?” Roy asked. Walt replied that it would require several thousand dollars. “Forget it!” said Roy, who had already borrowed all that he could. “Let the Prince shimmy.” And ever afterward, he did.

  Life is never even close to being perfect. Most of the time, you just have to choose to “let it go” and let the Prince shimmy, and enjoy the film.

  All of us would do well to pray along with Queen Mary Stuart of Scotland (1542-1587). Ken Gire cites her in his book, Between Heaven and Earth: Prayers and Reflections That Celebrate an Intimate God:   

Keep us, O God, from all pettiness.

Let us be large in thought, in word, in deed.

Let us be done with faultfinding

and leave off all self-seeking.

May we put away all pretense and meet each other face to face,

without self-pity and without prejudice.

May we never be hasty in judgment,

and always be generous.

Let us always take time for all things,

and make us grow calm, serene and gentle.

Teach us to put into action our better impulses,

to be straightforward and unafraid.

Grant that we may realize

that it is the little things of life that create differences,

that in the big things of life we are as one.

And, O Lord God, let us not forget to be kind!

  By God’s grace, let’s determine to make the main thing the main thing and learn to overlook the trivial and petty. Not only will it help our own spirits, it will make us a whole lot easier to live with for those around us and a better testimony for our gracious Lord.