Our title is taken from Job 22:22, which reads, “Receive, please, instruction from His mouth, and lay up His words in your heart.” Words are extremely powerful. Where do words go? Into our hearts. How vital it is for us to be guided by the Word of God because there are all kinds of words in our world. Sadly, many of them are negative and destructive, such as words of anger, words of bitterness, words of greed, and words of intimidation.
Face it, who and what we are today stems from our response to the words of someone. Whose words have you taken to heart? Consider: “Thy word have I hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee.” Many people live their entire life upon the basis of what “they say”. Who are “they”? Since when did “they” usurp the authority of God’s mighty Word?4 We must hear what the Spirit is saying to the church today. We need to hear the wisdom of God instead of the philosophies of man.
It is the Holy Spirit’s desire to reveal God’s glorious truth to us, thus enabling us to be spiritually minded. By laying His words in our heart richly, we are being transformed “from glory to glory” into the image of Jesus. The application of the Word of God develops faith. The faith that withstands the inevitable storms of life. To lay up God’s word in our heart may require that I turn off the tube and turn on the light.
As we lay up God’s word in our heart, we inevitably “lay aside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness”, “perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” What we lay up in our heart is what we live out in our lives. To whom are you listening?
The word of God versus the word of man. No contest.
Why do we sometimes place excessive emphasis on the word of man? Happens often at churches. We latch on to our favorite theologian or philosopher and we “overshare” their words rather than the inspired WORD OF GOD. Let’s take Plato…. Believed by some to be one of the most important “philosophers” influencing early Christianity. He is often quoted during some church sermons, during Christian classes, books, studies. Nothing under the sun. It started in the early church. Augustine, a most admired man in reformed and other circles, believed that had he not been immersed in Plato’s philosophy, he may not have accepted the gospel as truth. He was a big Plato fan- as are many others still today. C.S. Lewis a favorite of ours? Here is one of his takes on Plato:
“…the average student wants to find out something about Platonism, the very last thing he thinks of doing is to take a translation of Plato off the shelf and read the Symposium. He would rather read some dreary modern book ten times as long, all about ‘isms’ and influences and only once in twelve pages telling him what Plato actually said. The student feels himself inadequate and thinks he will not understand him. But if he only knew [that] the great man, just because of his greatness, is much more intelligible than his modern commentator.”
I love C.S. Lewis, but we should not follow him (or Plato). We should follow HIM. Although I agree with Lewis in not following “isms”, I disagree that Christian “students” should place much emphasis on Plato. Platonism is after all an “ism”.
Are there others we “overfollow”? A few come to mind, you can make your own list. Can we learn from them and their words? ABSOLUTELY! Especially when their words come from THE WORD. Smart men, but only men.
In this morning’s devotional you say:
“We need to hear the wisdom of God instead of the philosophies of man.”
100% agree. I suggest we kick it up a notch and add “theologies” to “philosophies”. Let us focus and prioritize the wisdom of God and His word ABOVE ALL. The Holy Spirit will guide us.
God bless,
JoseM