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The Terminal Disease of the Soul: The Peril of Intellectual Pride (Proverbs 26:12) · Reformed Thinking

• 0:00
  Welcome to another session of reformed thinking.
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  We are back at the table, stacks of notes in front of us and
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  ready to tackle a subject that, to be honest, made me sweat a
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  little bit while preparing. It's one of those topics.
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  It is. We usually look at big cultural
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  trends or, you know, complex theological systems, but today
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  we are turning the camera around, we are looking at the
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  machinery of our own minds. And that's a bit of a hazard for
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  us, isn't it? We send so much time analyzing
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  ideas out there in the world that we can forget the apparatus
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  we use to do the analyzing is what's broken, right?
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  And the text we're dealing with today is not a comfortable 1, is
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  not the kind of verse you stitch onto a pillow or put on a
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  graduation. No, it is a verse that goes for
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  the jugular. We're looking at Proverbs 26.12,
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  and I want to read it right at the start, so it just sort of
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  hangs over this entire conversation, Solomon writes.
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  Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes?
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  There is more hope for a fool than for him.
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  That statement is jarring. It's meant to be a shock to the
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  system. It's shocking because of how we
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  usually define a fool in the Bible, and specifically in
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  Proverbs. A fool, the Hebrew word is
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  Kessel, is not just a guy who, you know, slips on a banana
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  peel. This is a serious moral
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  category. Very serious category.
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  We think of the fool as the bottom of the barrel.
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  He's the guy who ruins his life, ruins his family, and just
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  refuses to listen to reason. You're right, the Kessel is a
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  tragic figure. He's obstinate.
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  He's dull hearted. He actually hates knowledge,
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  hates it. Later in the Proverbs, we see
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  him returning to his folly the way a dog returns to its vomit.
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  It's a grotesque, irrational addiction to just bad decisions.
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  So in the biblical imagination, you assume the fool is as bad as
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  it gets you. Think that's rock bottom?
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  You do. But then Solomon drops verse 12
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  and he says essentially, you think that guy is hopeless, I
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  can show you someone in a much more desperate condition.
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  The premise is terrifying. There's a spiritual condition
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  that is more dangerous than ignorance, more dangerous than
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  open rebellion, and even more dangerous than the
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  self-destructive behavior of that standard fool.
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  And what is it? It's the certainty that one
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  cannot be taught. It is what we might call the
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  most dangerous form of blindness.
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  That's our mission for this deep dive.
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  We need to identify this blindness.
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  And the scary part is that it's not about a lack of information.
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  The man, wise in his own eyes, might have a library full of
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  books. He often does.
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  The problem is not the quantity of data he has, it's the posture
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  of his heart toward that data. In our Reformed tradition, we
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  talk about the noetic effects of sin.
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  From the Greek word noose for mind.
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  Exactly. Sin didn't just mess up our
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  emotions or our behaviors. It broke our cognitive
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  faculties. It darkened the mind.
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  It affects how we reason and how we perceive reality itself.
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  So the goal today is to move from into this mirror of fools
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  to understanding why the only cure is what the Apostle Paul
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  calls the foolishness of the cross.
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  We have to go there. The Westminster Confession is
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  very clear about the nature of effectual calling and
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  repentance. If man is wise in his own eyes,
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  he is for all practical purposes deaf to the outward call of the
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  gospel. He has inoculated himself
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  against the cure. He needs something to shatter
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  that shell from the outside. He does.
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  OK, so let's set the scene before we tear the verse apart.
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  This doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's part of a specific
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  collection in Proverbs, chapters 25 through 29.
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  Correct. The superscription tells us
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  these are the proverbs of Solomon, which the men of
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  Hezekiah, king of Judah, copied. That sounds like a bibliographic
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  footnote, but you're saying it actually carries a lot of
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  weight. It carries immense weight.
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  I mean, think about who Hezekiah was.
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  He was a reformer. He was a king trying to pull
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  Judah back from the brink of idolatry and cultural collapse.
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  So he's on a mission. He's on a mission.
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  He wasn't just collecting sayings for a hobby.
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  His men were curating A curriculum for the moral
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  formation of a covenant community.
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  They were trying to rebuild a culture that feared the Lord.
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  So chapter 26 isn't just a random grab bag, it's
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  structured. It is a gallery.
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  Specifically, verses one through 11 function as a gallery of
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  fools. It's like walking through a
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  museum where every portrait shows you a different aspect of
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  folly. What are some of those
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  portraits? Well, verse one says honor
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  doesn't fit a fool any more than snow fits in summer.
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  It's just out of place, verse 3 says.
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  Dealing with a fool is like trying to manage a brute beast.
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  You need a whip for the horse and a rod for the fool's back.
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  It's about containment, not instruction.
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  Right. And then you have the famous,
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  slightly disgusting image in verse 11 about the dog.
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  It's visceral. It is like a dog that returns to
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  his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.
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  It is meant to make you recoil. It's meant to be repulsive.
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  Here's the thing about walking through that gallery, though.
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  When I read verses one through 11, I feel pretty good about
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  myself. Of course you do, I look at.
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  The fool. And I think, well, I make
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  mistakes, but I'm not that guy, you know?
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  I don't return to my vomit. I'm not irrational.
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  And that is the trap. The text is designed to elicit
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  that exact reaction. You read about the fool's
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  rashness and his stupidity, and you instinctively distance
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  yourself. You feel a sense of moral
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  superiority. You feel safe.
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  You feel safe because you think I'm not acting like a maniac.
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  And that is when verse 12 jumps out from behind a Bush.
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  It's a total ambush. Just when the reader feels
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  secure despising the fool, Solomon introduces a character
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  who is worse. It's a moral escalation.
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  How so? The previous verses showed fools
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  doing foolish things behaviors. Verse 12 introduces a man whose
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  entire identity is wrapped U in his own rightness.
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  It's not just what he does, it's who he is.
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  So the chapter moves from, let's say manageable folly, which is
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  bad but it's obvious, to a hardened state that is much
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  harder to detect. That's it.
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  The fool in the earlier verses is annoying and destructive, but
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  he's transparent. You can see him coming a mile
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  away. The character in verse 12 has
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  blocked the means of grace. He has locked the door from the
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  inside. OK, let's get into the exegesis
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  then. I want to diagnose his condition
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  properly. The text starts with the
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  question. Do you see?
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  In Hebrew? That's what it does.
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  And the verb is doing a lot of work.
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  It is not asking if you physically see a guy standing
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  there. It's a summons to observe.
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  It demands spiritual perception. It's a challenge.
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  It's a challenge, Solomon is asking.
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  Do you have the discernment to spot this profile in the wild?
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  And more uncomfortably, do you have the discernment to spot
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  this profile in the mirror? And the profile is wise in his
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  own eyes. Check them by Nov.
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  You mentioned earlier this isn't about how smart you are to.
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  Be very, very clear on this. This is not about IQ.
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  It is not about how many degrees you have on your wall.
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  You can have a PhD in theology and be wise in your own eyes,
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  and you can be a guy with no education at all and be wise in
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  your own eyes. So it's a moral category, not an
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  intellectual one? Absolutely.
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  So what is the core issue? If it isn't intelligence, What's
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  the mechanism at work here? I think the best word for it is
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  autonomy. The man establishes himself as
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  the final authority. He becomes his own lawgiver, his
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  own judge, and his own jury. This sounds this.
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  This sounds like the original problem.
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  This sounds like the Garden of Eden.
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  It goes straight back to Genesis 3.
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  Think about the temptation. The serpent didn't just offer
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  fruit, he offered a rival wisdom.
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  Eve saw that the tree was desirable to make one wise, but
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  wise according to whom? Wise apart from God's word.
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  She decided that her assessment of reality was superior to God,
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  the command. So it's a kind of practical
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  atheism. It is.
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  It is living as if God's verdict is optional.
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  The self becomes the Canon of truth.
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  If I feel it, it must be true. If I think it, it must be right.
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  Everything is referenced back to the self.
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  And this creates what we might call a closed system.
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  That is a helpful way to picture it.
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  This person does not just make mistakes.
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  We all make mistakes. This person defends their
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  mistakes as wisdom. They have hermetically sealed
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  mind. So what happens when you try to
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  warn them or offer counsel? It doesn't get in.
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  They filter it through self protection.
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  If you rebuke them, they interpret it as hostility.
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  Oh that person just hates me. Or they're just jealous.
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  And if you offer advice? Then they interpret it as
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  condescension. Who are you to tell me what to
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  do? They can't receive it as help
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  because to receive help would be to admit a need, and their whole
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  system is built on not having any needs.
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  The door is locked and they've swallowed the key.
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  Precisely the ordinary means that God uses to teach wisdom,
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  reproof Scripture, the lessons of Providence, you know, just
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  life itself. They can't get in.
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  And This is why it's so dangerous.
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  It is not that the medicine doesn't exist, it's that the
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  patient refuses to admit you're sick.
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  Which brings us to the verdict in the second-half of the verse.
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  There is more hope for a fool than for him.
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  The Hebrew construction here uses a comparative men.
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  It sets up a hierarchy of spiritual danger and it places
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  the fool, the Kiesel, the vomit returning disaster for man
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  higher on the scale of redemption than the self wise
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  man. OK, we really need to unpack
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  that. Why is there hope for the fool?
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  You just told me his life is a train wreck.
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  It's hopeful because it's a train wreck.
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  The fool's folly is loud. It's public.
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  It is self-destructive. He hits rock bottom.
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  He does, and rock bottom is a very hopeful place to be.
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  Consequences catch him. Poverty comes, shame comes.
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  The rod for the fool's back does its work.
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  The pain becomes a teacher. The pain can become a teacher.
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  Here is the key. Pain and undeniable failure can
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  crack the shell. The fool is interruptible.
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  He is empty, and deep down he usually knows he's empty.
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  His life isn't working. It's like the severe mercy of
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  the law that Paul talks about. That's a great connection.
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  The disaster of his life acts as a schoolmaster.
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  It drives him to despair, and potentially that despair drives
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  him to Christ. When you are sitting in the
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  ruins of your life, it is very hard to argue that you are wise.
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  The evidence is all around you. You're.
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  Confronted with the undeniable fact of your own bankruptcy,
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  there's an opening for grace there.
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  But the self wise man, he has a way to avoid rock bottom.
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  He is insulated against it. That is the hopelessness.
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  He reinterprets consequences. He has a story for everything.
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  He engages in what one of the sources called reflexive self
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  justification. That is the term.
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  It's a reflex. If he fails in business, it
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  wasn't his fault, it was bad luck or the economy or his
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  partners. If he sins, he was just stress
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  or someone else provoked him into it.
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  And then if he. Is rebuked.
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  If he is rebuked, the rebuker is the problem.
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  They're too harsh, they're self-righteous.
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  They don't understand the full story.
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  He's always the victim. One of the sources used the
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  analogy of a silent cancer. I found that chilling.
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  It is a chilling analogy. The fool has visible gangrene.
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  It is ugly, it smells, everyone sees it and you know you have to
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  deal with it or you're going to die.
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  But the self wise man. He has a terminal internal
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  disease and he feels perfectly healthy.
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  He's walking around giving life advice, feeling great while this
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  thing eats him up from the inside.
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  This reminds me of what Jesus said to the Pharisees in Luke
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  chapter 5. They that are whole need not a
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  physician. The tragedy is not that the self
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  wise man is too sinful to be saved.
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  There is no such thing as too sinful for grace.
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  That's a key point. It is.
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  The tragedy is that he thinks he is too righteous to need saving.
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  He never goes to the doctor because he is convinced he's in
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  peak physical condition. He's the healthiest man in the
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  world in his own eyes. OK, let's move this from the
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  theoretical to the practical. We need to look at what this
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  looks like in the real world. Our sources identify this at its
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  root as the sin of pride, taking the seed of God.
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  At its root, it is idolatry. It's misdirected trust.
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  You are trusting yourself more than revelation.
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  And it's unbelief, A fundamental refusal to live as a dependent
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  creature. The sources break this down into
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  secular and religious manifestations.
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  Let's start with the secular side, the Greeks, to borrow
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  Paul's terminology. Well, one major manifestation is
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  scientism or naturalism. Now we have to be clear here.
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  We are not talking about science itself.
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  Observation and experimentation are good gifts from God.
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  Of course, we're talking about the philosophical arrogance of
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  claiming that the cosmos is a result of random chance and that
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  human reason is the ultimate judge of all things.
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  It's the creature judging the creator.
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  It is. It is looking at the incredible
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  complexity of the universe and saying I could explain this
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  without God. It is a form of being wise in
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  one's own eyes that blinds you to the evidence of design
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  staring you in the face. Then there's the other side of
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  the secular coin, which is very prevalent right now, Subjective
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  truth. This is the modern idol of lived
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  experience. The idea is that my feelings
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  define reality. If I feel it, it is true.
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  For me. This makes the self the final
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  interpreter. And it silences any external
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  correction. It has to, because if you bring
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  something like scripture to bear, the response is you cannot
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  tell me my truth is wrong. The individual's perception is
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  elevated to the level of divine revelation.
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  The sources also mentioned critical theory and social
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  justice ideologies in this context, and we need to be
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  careful here to be precise about the theological objection.
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  Yes, the issue isn't talking about justice.
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  The Bible talks about justice constantly.
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  The issue is when you have rival wisdoms.
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  These ideologies can function as closed systems that reject
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  biblical categories of sin and grace, and they replace them
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  with secular categories of power dynamics.
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  So if you adopt A system where your social standing or your
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  group identity gives you a special insight that cannot be
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  questioned by scripture. Then you are being wise in your
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  own eyes. You are placing A sociological
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  framework above the Word of God as the final authority.
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  OK, now, before we get too comfortable pointing fingers at
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  the secular world, the sources pivot hard to the church.
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  Specifically to us, to Reformed believers.
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  And this is where it hurts. We have to talk about the
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  Pharisees doctrinal. Pride.
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  It is a massive danger for Reformed believers specifically.
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  And why? Because we value precision.
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  We value the Westminster Standards, we value the five
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  points of Calvinism. And those are good things.
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  We should value truth. But it is entirely possible to
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  possess the right theology and use it as a shield against
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  conviction, to use it as a weapon against others and a
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  defense for yourself. This leads to the phenomenon of
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  the cage stage Calvinist. The classic example.
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  This is the guy who knows all the arguments.
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  He can dismantle Arminianism in his sleep.
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  He critiques the sermon every Sunday for not being nuanced
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  enough on some fine point of covenant theology.
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  He's technically correct. He's technically correct on the
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  mechanics of salvation, but he never trembles at the text.
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  He's never broken by it. He stands over the word, not
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  under it. He uses theology as a weapon to
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  validate his own intellect and prove his superiority.
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  And the litmus test here is simple.
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  How do we handle rebuke when the man, wise in his own eyes, is
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  confronted about his character, maybe his harshness or his lack
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  of love or his impatience? He defends himself with his
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  theological resume, he says. But I'm fighting for the truth.
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  I'm defending Orthodoxy. It's orthodoxy without humility.
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  Which is a demon's faith, as one old writer put it.
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  The devil is a better theologian than any of us.
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  He knows the Bible better than we do.
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  He's perfectly orthodox. But he has no submission.
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  He has no love. He has no humility.
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  If our theology makes us harder, not softer, we are the man in
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  Proverbs 26.12. Wow, OK we have painted a bleak
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  picture. You have the fool who is bad off
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  and the self wise man who is worse off because he is
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  unteachable. How do we get out of this?
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  What is the cure? Well, the cure cannot come from
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  inside the self. That is the whole point.
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  The system is broken. You cannot reason your way out
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  of a broken mind using a broken mind.
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  You need, for lack of a better term, alien wisdom.
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  Alien wisdom That sounds almost sci-fi, but it is a crucial
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  theological concept. It just means wisdom from
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  outside of us. Paul talks about this in First
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  Corinthians. One God chose the foolish things
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  of the world to shame the wise. The Gospel is an insult to human
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  pride. The cross is a stumbling block.
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  It is a stumbling block to the religious who want to earn their
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  way through moral performance and it is foolishness to the
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  intellectual who wants to reason their way through philosophy.
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  The cure is to embrace the so-called foolishness of the
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  cross. And this is where we have to
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  look at Christ. He is the complete antithesis of
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  the self wise man. He is wisdom Incarnate, but look
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  at his life. Unlike the self wise man, Christ
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  did not grasp equality with God. As Philippians 2 tells us.
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  He emptied himself. He's submitted to the Father.
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  He's submitted to scripture even when it led him to suffering.
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  Not my will, but yours be done. That's the cry of true wisdom.
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  And there's a theological exchange that happens here.
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  We call it double imputation. This is the heart of the gospel.
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  It is Christ took the record of our arrogant autonomy, our
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  lifelong insistence on being our own gods, and he paid for it on
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  the cross. And in exchange he gave us his
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  submissive wisdom. He gave us his perfect record of
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  saying not my will but yours be done.
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  So we are brought into union with Christ.
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  And we must be crucified with Christ.
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  The I that needs to be right, the I that needs to win every
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  argument that I must die. This is the beauty of
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  justification by faith alone. It breaks the need for self
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  justification. Unpack that a bit more.
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  How does the doctrine of justification actually stop me
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  from needing to be right in an argument with my wife or my Co
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  worker? Well, think about it.
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  If I have to justify myself, then every time you contradict
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  me you are attacking my very existence.
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  My sense of worth is on the line.
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  I have to win the argument to prove I am valuable that I am.
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  OK, my identity is at stake. Your identity is at stake in
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  every disagreement. But if I am justified by Christ,
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  by standing before God is settled, it is secure.
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  It does not depend on my rightness in this or any other
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  moment. It depends on His righteousness,
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  which has been given to me as a gift.
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  So I can admit I was wrong. You can say those 3 words
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  without feeling like you were dying.
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  I was wrong because your identity isn't built on being
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  right anymore, it's built on Christ.
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  Repentance really is just agreeing with God against
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  yourself. Say that again.
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  Repentance is agreeing with God against yourself.
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  It is taking God's side in the trial against your own soul.
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  It's saying your verdict on me is truer than my own.
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  That is a powerful definition of repentance.
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  It's the only way to freedom. It's the only way.
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  OK, let's land the plane with some practical application.
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  We can talk about this theoretically all day, but how
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  do we actually become teachable people?
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  How do we practice this? I think it starts with prayer,
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  but a specific kind of prayer, the prayer of Psalm 139.
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  Search me, O God, and know my heart.
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  Try me and know my thoughts. Notice the direction of that.
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  The direction is everything. It is not God.
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  Let me show you how right I am about my neighbor.
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  It is search me. It is asking for exposure, not
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  applause. It's an invitation for God to
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  show you your blind spots. And then we have to watch our
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  reaction to contradiction. This is the field test.
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  This is where the rubber meets the road.
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  When someone crosses you, when someone corrects you, when your
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  spouse point something out, what happens physically in your
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  chest? Do you heat up?
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  Do you feel that flash of anger? Do you instantly start
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  formulating a counter attack? Or do you listen?
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  Or can you just listen? The wise man listens.
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  The self wise man launches a defense.
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  It also changes how we handle scripture, doesn't it?
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  Completely. Do we stand over the text as
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  editors, looking for verses that confirm what we already believe?
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  Or do we sit under the text as disciples, ready for it to
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  correct and rebuke us? If the Bible never offends you,
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  you probably aren't reading it right.
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  You are likely just reading a reflection of yourself.
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  And finally, ecclesiology. We need the local church.
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  You cannot do this alone. A church member who refuses
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  accountability, who flows from church to church whenever they
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  get challenged, is wise in his own eyes.
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  We need elders. We need brothers and sisters who
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  love us enough to see our blind spots and speak into them.
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  It is the safety of the herd. It is the design of God for our
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  protection from ourselves. It really all comes down to a
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  paradox then. It does.
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  It's what we could call the door of hope.
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  There is no hope in yourself. None.
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  But there is infinite hope if you come empty handed.
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  Humility is the door. As James says, God opposes the
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  proud but gives grace to the humble.
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  So it's the great exchange, abandoning the mirror of self
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  admiration for the window of grace.
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  That is it. So here is the summary for
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  today. We have looked at the danger,
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  the certainty that prevents learning, the self wisdom that
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  is more hopeless than the fool's folly.
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  And we've seen the solution, the fear of the Lord, that posture
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  of humility. Independence is the beginning of
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  wisdom. I want to leave you, the
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  listener, with a final thought to Mull over this week.
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  Identify 1 area of your life. Maybe it's politics, maybe it's
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  parenting, Maybe it's a specific theological .1 area where you
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  are absolutely certain you are right.
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  That is a dangerous question to ask yourself.
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  It is, and once you've identified it, ask God to show
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  you if you were actually right or if you were just being
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  protected by your own pride in that area.
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  Because it's better to be a fool in the eyes of the world and a
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  son of God than a king in your own eyes and a stranger to
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  grace. Amen to that.
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  Thanks for diving in with us. Until next time.