1 Cor. 3 "Bottle Rocket Wisdom"

1 Corinthians 3 – Brandon Hatmaker “Bottle Rocket Wisdom”
Monday, June 16th, 2008

“Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight.” 1 Corinthians 3:18-19

Here are a few of Matthew Henry’s words on chapter 3: “To have a high opinion of our own wisdom, is but to flatter ourselves; and self-flattery is the next step to self-deceit. The wisdom that wordly men esteem, is foolishness with God. How justly does he despise, and how easily can he baffle and confound it! The thoughts of the wisest men in the world, have vanity, weakness, and folly in them. All this should teach us to be humble, and make us willing to be taught of God, so as not to be led away, by pretences to human wisdom and skill, from the simple truths revealed by Christ.”

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about leadership and “self-deception”. I guess that’s why Henry’s words on self-flattery and self-deceit ring a bell with me. While I agree at the highest level on how impacting this state of ignorance is on an individual and thus on an organization, I’ve come to an opinion about self-deception that is often not discussed, yet is addressed in 1 Corinthians.

I believe that most of us are indeed semi-aware of our areas of “self-deception”. I know that sounds counter-intuitive and even contradictory, but I think it’s true. If I was to sit down and make a list of the things that others might say would be my shortfalls, I think I would be surprisingly close. Most of us would be.

So here’s what we think, “I already know the things you think I don’t know.”

My point? Most of us know the practical side of our issues. Most of us are working diligently to personally counter them. Most of us see very clearly how our attitudes and personalities impact negatively what we are attempting to do. They are embarrassing and for “x” amount of years have not been able to do anything about them. We don’t know how to fix them so, although they are true, we get defensive and don’t want to hear about them.

Paul is telling us that pride is our greatest deception. The biblical solution is humility. Pride casts it’s shadow on all our obvious flaws. It’s the lens in which is magnified all our issues (obvious and hidden). The problem comes when we address the “list” of issues that others may think we are oblivious to and fail to deal with the deep seeded issue of pride. Pride is the heart behind the fear of failure, insecurity manifested as arrogance, false humility, selfishness (all forms), and is the driving force in defensiveness… the list goes on and on. We cannot address these issues properly without dealing with our personal, professional, and spiritual pride. They are not self-existent.

Chalk this one up as one of those obvious things that… well, isn’t. It reminds me of a scene from the movie Bottle Rocket where Bob asks Dignan, “Why is there tape on your nose?” To which Dignan points to him firmly and replies, “Exactly!”

Paul calls us to recognize that our greatest wisdom would be to find ourselves fools. What a lowly thought. Exactly.