"There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies, and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers" (Proverbs 6:16-19). Let’s look at this list again: · Arrogance is number one. God is concerned about high self-esteem: “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought…” (Romans 12:3) · Lying is numbers two and six. “A lying tongue” indicates a habitual liar. “False witness” is perjury. · The murder of innocent people is number three. It includes abortion. · Premeditated evil is number four. · Unpremeditated evil is number five. · Sowing discord among brothers is number seven. Although these are all very common today, it is the last I would like to draw your attention to. Stirring up dissension may be unintentional, or it may be the result of gossip. It is the
For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. (1 Corinthians 2:11) I often see people judging the thoughts and motives of another person with absolute certainty about what that person was thinking. To them, it is self-evident. The quote from Corinthians is a rhetorical question. Paul was not asking for a show of hands on who knows another person’s thoughts. He was saying that we cannot know them. We could know if he told us, or we could know if we had his spirit. We could also know if God revealed his thoughts to us. Until then, we must not judge the thoughts of another person. We guess wrongly and act on our guess as if it were right. *Excerpted from Being Christian . To purchase, visit ccmbooks.org/bookstore .