"Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil." (Proverb 3:7)
It's amazing the practical wisdom Solomon was able to impart through such short verses. The idea of fearing the Lord shows up time and time again throughout the Bible, and for good reason. But when was the last time you thought about it, and what impact does it have on your life? Does it have any?
Let's break down the verse a bit. To be wise in your own eyes is to be prideful, arrogant, a know it all, and selfish. It's the embodiment of living in sin, and relishing it. To be wise in your own eyes is to be blind to the overwhelming and infinite power of God. Pride is an incredibly empty state of mind, emotionally, physically and spiritually. I heard it once said that, “the emptiest people are usually full of themselves.” How true that is.
Worst part, pride can very easily come from a misguided attempt to seek something greater than yourself. Most want to have fulfilling lives, myself included. We want successful, minimally painful lives. We turn to things that bring temporary excitement and happiness, sacrificing more and more to boost ourselves up. But as soon as we go down that road and start seeing bits of success, our pride begins to grow. And even if we don’t have quantifiable success, we want others to think we do, so we make it look like we have “the good life.” In actuality, we’re dead inside, but we don’t know it yet.
Every time we bolster ourselves up with perceived or legitimate success, we take one step further from the fear of God and one step closer to the fear of man. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume that over time, left unchecked, this will result in in perceiving ourselves as god’s of our own universe. No one wants to be around people like that, so they leave. What a desperate place to be. All the pride and confidence in the world, with no one to back you up or even spend time with. Worse than desperate, this is a dangerous place for anyone to be. It leads directly to evil. Solomon understood this, hence his plea to shun evil.
See, what happens when you have so much pride and self proclaimed wisdom, mixed with the fact that no one wants to be around you is this: everyone else is no longer correct, valid, or worthwhile. Think about the Columbine shooters - they saw themselves as doing the world a favor by ridding it of people, because they thought they knew better. Their story is a vivid illustration of what happens when pride, resentment, bitterness and being wise in your own eyes is allowed to run free. Do everything in your power to shun these evils.
So, being wise in your own eyes leads you down the dark path of pride, envy, insecurity, hopelessness, and outright evil actions. What about fearing the Lord?
It’s interesting to note the contrast - wisdom is often considered a valuable characteristic, and fear the antithesis of courage. Yet, Solomon flips these around and claims fear to be of greater good than wisdom. Why would he do that?
To fear the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Proverbs 1:7 says as much. Knowledge and self perceived wisdom cannot go hand in hand, as the pursuit of knowledge requires the breaking down of our prideful walls. We have to be comfortable with being wrong, and learning from mistakes. From a purely practical perspective, it’s better to fear the Lord in the pursuit of knowledge, simply to be a more capable individual. It also makes you more humble and enjoyable to be around. When you’re enjoyable to be around, it’s much more difficult to grow resentful.
From a more eternal perspective, fearing the Lord puts him in his proper place. It confirms that He alone has authority over everything, and that because of his strength in us, through the Spirit, there is nothing else for us to fear. The power He contains is so much greater than the powers we are subjected to by man. Infinitely so. Because of this, though we experience pain, suffering, tragedy, and a whole host of other terrible things, we have nothing to truly fear aside from God. God lasts forever. Everything else is temporary, and eventually, powerless.
Now, as with all things, I believe this is something that is to be developed over a lifetime of turning yourself over to God. We fall short of his glory. We’re imperfect. But we can be better, and we can gradually turn our pride, our self perceived wisdom and insecurity over to him. He will, in return, replace our fear of the world with courage through his Spirit. He will embolden his children to push into the darkness and shine the Light. The only way to do so is through fear of God and God alone.
As we give over our insecurities, our pride, and the wisdom of our own eyes in exchange for proper fear of the Lord, we will see a change in our world. I’m no history guru, but I don’t know of a scenario where evil occurred because someone was fearing God and keeping Him in the proper place - on the throne. I would argue that all evil stems from pride and thinking too much of ones self, or being wise in ones own eyes. Decisions made from this perspective are never healthy. Usually, they lead to a lot of unnecessary death.
So I encourage you to shift your perspective towards fearing Christ and Christ alone. Shift your focus away from the world. It’s been a rough couple years, full of the unknown and some terrifying things. Most of the people we call leaders have nothing but selfish interest at heart - exactly the opposite of what we need right now. So, rather than waiting for them to change their minds towards humility, lead the way. Choose to fear God, and stand for what you believe to be true based on the Word. Be willing to listen and to learn, but don’t be fearful of what man can do to you. Then, watch what God is able to do through you.