Wise In Your Own Sight

Romans 12:16

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Today, I want to share with you part of a verse from the book of Romans. And it’s not even a whole verse. It’s just part of one. Paul here is talking about Christian living, about how we should live in view of our faith. And he writes here in Romans chapter 12, verse 16, he says,

Never be wise in your own sight. (Romans 12:16)

Never for a moment think that you have it all figured out or think that you are better or above the people that are around you. Now, this is a warning that we can only understand correctly in light of God’s Word, because we know that Proverbs says that wisdom is a good thing. Wisdom is wonderful. The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, and the fear of the Lord is understanding who we are by nature and who we are when we are connected to Christ through faith.

Now, when I was in high school, there was a situation in which I really thought that I was wise in my own sight. Some friends of mine and I, we did homework together before practices in the evenings, and we had a teacher for math who was an excellent teacher. But she meant business, she would give us these massive daily assignments that would take hours to complete. And so we had the idea to do this homework together, to share the load, and we would do 15 problems each and then rotate our papers so that this assignment that would take well over an hour would take under 20 minutes. We thought we were beating the system. We thought we were geniuses until it came time for our midterm test. We didn’t know the material. We did terribly on this test and we got an awful grade. Our wisdom was revealed for foolishness. And those students that we thought were silly for slaving away at these daily assignments, they turned out to be the ones who were wise.

Now, if our teacher had known about what we were doing, she would have warned us. She would have told us that these daily assignments are for our good, that they’re part of the bigger picture, the bigger plan, that we were sacrificing true success and knowledge for getting out of a little bit of homework or saving a little bit of time. The more I look back on this situation, the more I realize that it reflects so much what Paul is warning about here in Romans chapter 12.

He’s not warning about math class, though, he’s warning about sin and temptation.

Never be wise in your own sight. (Romans 12:16)

It’s tempting to think that as Christians, we can beat the system, that we can hold on to our sin, to the way that our sinful nature wants us to live, while at the same time holding on to our faith. But Scripture tells us that we cannot serve two masters. We cannot love both our sin and our Savior at the same time. God gives us the law for the same reason that my math teacher gave us these gigantic assignments. It wasn’t to punish us. It wasn’t to make us miserable. It was because he loves us. It’s because he cares for us. And he wants what’s best for us. More than anything, what God wants you to know is that His heart for you is nothing but a heart of love and care. And he revealed that heart for us by sending us his Son, Jesus.

When he sent Jesus, his one and only Son, it was to redeem us so that Jesus could live perfectly for us. That He could go to the cross and die in our place to win for us forgiveness. Was there on the cross that he took our punishment. And in this revelation of who our God is and who is heart is, then he follows that up with this. He says, I want you to trust me. He says in these other things that that I tell you, this is part of my word that that tells you how to live these rules for your life. I give these to you because I love you, because I care about you. And I know what is best for you.

God saying that he can see the bigger picture. He can see how it all turns out. God tells us, Do not think that you are wise in your own eyes. True wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord. Not following the wisdom of the world, but following the wisdom of God’s Word. And it’s in that word where He reveals to us who we were, that without him we are lost and condemned creatures. We are poor, miserable sinners who are chasing after the wind.

But it also reveals to us who we are now in his sight. By his grace through this gift of faith, we are connected to his Son, his redemption, his sacrifices, his holiness. It’s for us. And so now, through faith in him, we have been made into his children. We’ve been made into heirs of eternal life. Paul reminds us. Never be wise in your own sight. Never cling to the wisdom of this world, but cling to the wisdom of his word. Be in that word every single day to be reminded of who you were by nature, to be reminded of who you are through faith in Christ and whose you will always be. Amen.

Let’s pray. Dear God, we thank you for making us into your people. Enable us, Lord, to turn away from the wisdom of this world, to find our hope, our joy, our motivation in the salvation that your son has won for us In his name, we pray. Amen.

God’s peace be with you.