"Wise as Serpents"

 "Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise: why should thou destroy thyself?" (Ecclesiastes 7:16 KJV)

  "Stop deceiving yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world's standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As the Scriptures say, "He traps the wise in the snare of their own cleverness." And again, "The LORD knows the thoughts of the wise: he knows they are worthless." So don't boast about following a particular human leader. For everything belongs to you - whether Paul or Apollos or Peter, or the world, or life and death, or the present and the future. Everything belongs to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God." (1 Corinthians 3:18-23 NLT)

 There are several different opinions on this particular verse, as some might believe Solomon is speaking for an ungodly man, to which he answers the question in the following verse. This is something that is a question that I have struggled with from season to season, trying to figure out why I get so astounded by certain Scriptures, leading me into a 'rabbit-hole' and then leaving me feeling like a fool. 

 If you have been following this blog for any amount of time, I'm sure you understand what I am talking about. First of all, righteousness is not something that we can get on our own, for the Bible clearly says, "The LORD looks down from heaven on the entire human race; he looks to see if anyone is truly wise, if anyone seeks God. But no, all have turned away; all have become corrupt. No one does good, not a single one." (Psalm 14:2-3 NLT)

 The problem we see, in several of those that think they are righteous or wise, is they are so full of themselves, they cannot clearly see the need that they have for salvation. One of the things we would say in jail, among our believing brothers, was, "One thing is sure, nobody needs to tell an inmate that he is a sinner!" If you are locked up for a crime that you are guilty of, you already know that you need to be forgiven; you just need to know the rest of the story...

""God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God's one and only Son. And the judgment is based on this fact: God's light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants."" (John 3:17-21 NLT)