Flirting with Sin

Last time in Ecclesiastes, I discussed the importance of realizing that you cannot escape sin, so instead of beating yourself up when you do, you should seek forgiveness and repentance, and continue to chase after God. This time, I’m covering the other end of the spectrum: don’t flirt with sin and temptation or you’ll end up in over your head.

I hear things like this a disturbing amount these days: “it’s okay to sin because God will just forgive me.” Or “I’m just going to try it once, just to see what it’s like, then I’ll never do it again.” Or even, “This is the last time I’ll let myself do this sin, then it’s on the straight and narrow for me.”

And y’all, that’s an incredibly dangerous line of thinking, as Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 7:23, “I have tested all this by wisdom. I resolved, ‘I will be wise,’ but it was beyond me.”

We are incapable of just dipping a toe into sin. You may think it’s possible, but if the wisest man to ever exist failed at it, you will, too. Over and over Solomon says that he was testing all the things he could on this Earth to find satisfaction. Just testing. It’s very likely that he had no intention of having as many wives and concubines as he ended up with or falling into as many other traps and temptations as afflicted him. His goal was to learn, to experience. It was a mindset that is perpetuated in those examples I gave earlier.

In for a penny, in for a pound. This saying references a penalty for owing money in Great Britain. At the time of its first use, the penalty for owing someone a single penny was the same as owing someone a whole pound. So, if you were prepared to be in debt by one penny, you should be prepared to be in debt a pound. Sin is the same way. Not only is the penalty for sinning once the same as sinning multiple times, but if you’re prepared to dip one toe in, you should be prepared to jump in.

So, don’t even try it. Better yet, don’t even entertain the thought of trying sin.

Verses 24-25 say, “What exists is beyond reach and very deep. Who can discover it? I turned my thoughts to know, explore, and seek wisdom and an explanation for things, and to know that wickedness is stupidity and folly is madness.”

The thing you’re looking for in sin when you just give it a try is not there. To go back to the pool analogy, if trying sin once is dipping your toe in, what you’re trying to find in doing it is at the very bottom of the pool. And it’s not just any pool. It’s dark, murky, and incredibly deep. So deep that, even if you dove in, you’d never find the bottom. It’s unknown, out of reach, and dangerous. It would be madness, stupidity, to jump in and swim for the bottom, not knowing if you’ll even come close to making it.

You can even devote all your skills, everything at your disposal, and you’ll never find a way to get to the bottom. But, if you’re thinking to yourself, “I won’t know until I try,” stop it. Solomon is about to show us exactly what happens when you dive into the pool.

Verses 26-28 say, “And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a trap, her heart a net, and her hands chains. The one who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner will be captured by her. ‘Look,’ says the Teacher, ‘I have discovered this by adding one thing to another to find out the explanation, which my soul continually searches for but does not find: among a thousand people I have found one true man, but among all these I have not found a true woman.”

Now, first, before people start hopping on Solomon for saying women are horrible, this is part of what happened because of his sexual sin and having one thousand wives and concubines. Solomon became incredibly jaded against women because he dove into the pool labeled “women over God” and was trapped in it.

When sin traps us, it changes how we see everything around us. That murky water from the pool gets in your eyes and makes it hard to see things as God intended them. And a result is that you start blaming the wrong things for the consequences you face for your decisions.

An alcoholic in the middle of alcoholism rarely blames the drink for his problems. A poor woman in debt and out of a house because of one too many shopping sprees rarely blames her greed for her lack of money.

Solomon used women as his example because it was likely easy for him to do so, and because he was writing for other men at the time, but let’s change this back to our pool comparison to bring the ladies into this, too. More bitter than death is the pool that is a trap, its murky depths in actuality a mire of quicksand waiting to suck you in and hold you down.

The one who pleases God, the one who ignores the call of the pool and runs away from it, will escape danger. But the one who sins, the one who desires to dive in and does so will be caught. When your goal is to please God, you’ll find it far easier to ignore whatever it is about the pool that calls to you and tells you to dive in.

If you think of it as two voices calling out to you, it’s much harder to hear a second voice if you spend all of your energy focusing on making out the first and listening to its directions. It’s like when you’re on the phone and you tune out all the noise around you. If you focus on God’s voice, you’re far less likely to hear, and thus entertain, the voice of sin that calls out to you.

Verse 29 says, “Only see this: I have discovered that God made people upright, but they pursued many schemes.”

Remember earlier how I said getting in the pool of sin makes it hard to see things as God intended them? This is kind of what I mean, and in a way, it’s Solomon acknowledging that his statement on women is because of his sin, the sin of women, and not because of God, how He made the world, or how He made women.

God made people “upright.” He made us to be righteous in His image, yet we pursued many sins. You know, a lot of people like to blame God for the things that are wrong in this world. Many people even reject Him because of this, but that’s because they are blind. If you see and know that God made everything good, you’d see and know that what’s messing things up, what’s wrong with this world, is the way we act.

When we sin, we see the world as Satan intends and all the good things God made we either cannot see, or we see differently. But make it your goal to see this: that God made this Earth, and it was good. When you see that, you can see what you should do, what is right, and avoid what you shouldn’t do, what is bad.

Life-altering Power

Words are powerful in the mouth of anyone who speaks, as I wrote on Monday. But words are even more powerful in the mouths of those who teach and lead because they have a responsibility to guide correctly with the things they say. The wrong word can ruin your life or someone else’s. And that’s why, as Christians, how we teach the Gospel is incredibly important.

James 3:1-2 says, “Not many should become teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive a stricter judgment, for we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a mature man who is also able to control his whole body.”

I know that James 3 is talking specifically about teachers, but we can spread this verse out to apply to all who teach. That means it applies to every believer who teachers others about the Gospel (which we should all be doing, by the way). But let’s apply it to teachers first.

I think it’s fair to say that teachers are judged more strictly by society. And I feel confident that every elementary, middle, high school, and college teacher will agree with me there. That’s because judgment typically goes hand in hand with responsibility: the more you are responsible for, the more people look up to you to always do the right thing, the harsher you are judged.

A teacher in a school will have their every action monitored and critiqued by other teachers, administrators, and parents of the children in their classes. Some children likely do some critiquing of their own, as well.

It’s the same for teachers in the church, too, especially pastors. Every word they say is critiqued by the congregation, other pastors, and anyone else who happens to hear their message. And actually, that is as it should be. Never hear a message preached without checking what is said by what the Bible says. That’s why James says that not everyone is fit to be a teacher.

Being a teacher requires constant monitoring of your heart and actions to make sure they are good and showing the fruit of the Spirit. It means constantly analyzing your lessons to make sure they are God-inspired and spoken so that you do not say anything careless, nor anything that is not backed up by scripture.

I say all this to say that you will be judged by what you say just as much as by what you do. Matthew 12:36 says, “I tell you that one the day of judgment people will have to account for every careless word they speak.”

Why is this the case? Because, as I’ve said, words are important. The tongue has the power to direct the body and soul. One of the reasons why teachers are judged more harshly is because they must give an account for every soul they directed through the lessons they’ve taught. I take this idea from Hebrews 13:17, which says, “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account.”

But, indeed, as Matthew 12:36 says, we all must give an account for what we say. This rings true for those of us who go out to act on the Great Commission and speak the Gospel of life to those who need to hear. If we say the wrong thing, we must give an account for it. If we speak unbiblically, we must give an account for that.

James 3:6 says, “And the tongue is a fire. The tongue, a world of unrighteousness, is placed among the parts of our bodies. It pollutes the whole body, sets the course of life on fire, and is set on fire by hell.”

I want to focus on “sets the course of life on fire.” With what you say, you have the ability to guide someone to Heaven or send them on a crash course to Hell. And this is my whole point. If God tells you to show someone the Gospel and you don’t know it well enough to speak the truth of life into them, you have to give an account of that. If you say the wrong thing and they turn away from God because of that, you have to give an account. You have to tell God when you approach the judgment seat what happened there.

1 Peter 3:15-16 says, “But honor the Messiah as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. However, do this with gentleness and respect, keeping your conscience clear, so that when you are accused, those who denounce your Christian life will be put to shame.”

Look, you can’t control other people’s actions, but you sure can influence them. If someone is going to turn away from God and Heaven, you can’t control them. But you can make sure you are not the reason they do so. When it comes to teaching the Gospel, make sure you’re ready to speak life into the person the Spirit directs you to share with.

Don’t let what you say be a stumbling block for someone else. I write all this because we talk about not letting what we do be a stumbling block for others, but it’s equally as important to watch what you say with the same fervor. True, sometimes actions speak louder than words, but often, a misplaced word is enough to make your actions meaningless.

Guard your tongue, guard your mouth, speak the Gospel backed by scripture. Speak carefully and exercise caution when provoked to answer, and don’t let what you say be the reason for someone turning away from the way, the truth, and the life. You have the power to change someone’s life; use it wisely.

Life in Moderation

I’m typically a proponent for the idea that extremism is almost always bad. I say “almost always” because, invariably, there will be something that my thoughts on the subject do not account for and requires extremism, but for the most part, an extreme reaction or thought pattern is incredibly inferior to actions taken in moderation.

Take exercise for example. Too far to one extreme leaves you in bad shape: too little exercise leaves you obese, but too much exercise can be a ridiculous strain on your body. When you try to lose weight, it’s important to maintain a difficult workout, but one that’s not so difficult you can’t do it multiple times a week. If you work out too hard the first time, lactic acid builds up and the pain of overly sore muscles ensues.

For those still in school, excessive laziness when it comes to studying means you won’t know your material, while excessive cram studying last minute leaves the information jumbled and unable to stick in your mind. Both leave you without having the knowledge you need to pass your tests.

Religiously, extreme devotion to correct actions leaves you living life like a Pharisee, while extremism on the other end results in failure to do what God has asked of us.

While many parts of the Bible encourage believers to extreme actions in some cases, such as when it comes to separating ourselves from the world and the things of it, Solomon reminds us that there are times when we need to remember that the extreme answer isn’t always the right answer.

Ecclesiastes 7 verse 15 says, “In my futile life I have seen everything: there is a righteous man who perishes in spite of his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who lives long in spite of his evil.”

This can be equated to questions people often have: why do good things happen to bad people? And why do bad things happen to good people? The answer, of course, is that we live in a fallen world of sin, and the bad things that occur are a result and a consequences of the place we live. Bad things often happen indiscriminately simply because they are bad things and Satan loves to cause as much pain as he can. And sometimes, that pain comes in the form of horrible people living lives with less pain than those who are good.

Solomon merely uses this well-known principle to point out that being good will not save you from the evil of this world while you live in it. No matter how righteous you are, no matter what good you do, you will hurt, you will cry, and you will die on this Earth.

Another way to think of it is like risk assessment. Skydiving is a good example of this. The “wicked” don’t even think of the risk of jumping out of a plane. These are like the people who ignore the safety instructions and do what they think is best. The “righteous” obsess over the safety instructions to the point they drive themselves nuts in doing so and don’t enjoy the experience. The moderate, on the other hand, follow the safety instructions to the letter, but do so in a rational way. When they jump out of the plane, they know they are likely safe from the parachute failing, and so they can enjoy the thrill of skydiving.

Here’s the thing to realize, too. Unlike most risk assessments, which determine whether you should make a choice to do something based on the relative risk of the action, you don’t have a choice on taking an action or not. You only get to choose which action you take. You’re already on the Earth. You’re already alive and you didn’t get to choose not to be born. So now, the choice is not between doing and not doing, but which form of doing things your life will take: either wicked, moderate, or righteous.

Verse 16 says, “Don’t be excessively righteous, and don’t be overly wise. Why should you destroy yourself?”

This can be easily paralleled with the Pharisees of Jesus’s time. They were so bent on appearing righteous that they destroyed who they were as a person. As Solomon says later, there is no person who can live without sin, so don’t rip yourself apart trying to follow every law and rule to the letter. You can even compare this to the idea that you can work your way into Heaven. People who believe this will ruin themselves by trying to do enough good deeds to earn their salvation, even though that’s not how salvation works.

Verse 17 says, “Don’t be excessively wicked, and don’t be foolish. Why should you die before your time?”

Put simply, don’t go around doing things you know will get you in trouble, either. Something that can be rationalized about sin is that many of them can put your very life in real danger. Get angry at the wrong people? They might kill you. Have sex with enough people and you’re likely to catch and STD, possibly even HIV/AIDS, which is deadly. Get greedy and rob a bank at gunpoint? You might get shot. It’s possible to drink your blood alcohol content so high you die, or you could drive drunk into a tree and die. I could go on forever if I needed to. But the fact of the matter is that doing bad things likely comes with a pain/death sentence, so it’s best to avoid as many bad things as possible.

Verses 18 and 20 say, “It is good that you grasp the one and do not let the other slip from your hand. For the one who fears God will end up with both of them. (20) There is certainly no righteous man on the earth who does good and never sins.”

Verse 20 is likely one of the most concrete verses about this subject in the Bible. If we take it at face value, with the knowledge we have from the rest of the Bible, we know that we are made righteous by Jesus’s death, resurrection, and our trust in Him as our Lord and Savior. Not a single one of us only does good. We are incapable of not doing some evil in the sight of God because we will sin as long as we live on this Earth. So, it is inevitable, then, that the one who trusts and fears God will have the goodness of God living in him while also still doing evil acts in the sight of God as we fall short.

I think the note I wrote in my Bible near verse 18 fits the idea and imagery pretty well, if I can toot my own horn for a minute. It says, “We can’t escape sin in this life, so all we can do is hold on to God and drag our sin behind us.”

Listen, I know that the goal is to become so much like Jesus that we no longer sin, just like He did not sin. But let’s all be realistic and realize that we’ll never get there. We’re not good enough. We’re not perfect. We will not be while we live here. Only when we reach Heaven will we be made perfect. Until then, let us live our lives for Christ, but let’s not beat ourselves up when we make a mistake here and there. Just go to God, be forgiven, and continue to live the live the Lord has given you as well as you can.

Solomon's Wise Sayings

Chapter seven of Ecclesiastes begins with a Proverbial section of text—it has a number of wise sayings, many of which sum up the previous six chapters in some way. Some are fairly simple, but others carry a lot of weight and require some understanding of the first six chapters to make the connection, so let’s just dive into them.

Verse 1 says, “A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of one’s death than the day of one’s birth.

What’s important to understand is that one’s name is synonymous with their reputation. In essence, it’s your character. In some cases, it’s character that is somewhat delineated from your family’s reputation and position in society, in others, it’s the reputation you’ve built up for yourself. But the important idea being conveyed here is that, even if you can cover up an ugly character with perfume, it will wear off. It’s better to make a good name for yourself by establishing good character than to attempt to cover up your actions when you need to look good.

This fits pretty well with a key theme of integrity from Ecclesiastes 5. It’s important to establish yourself as someone who does good rather than someone who does bad. The second part of that verse is similar to the topic I discussed last week and fits well with Philippians 1:21. Life after death will be beyond conceivably better than life on Earth for the believer.

Verse 2 is a request to take this life seriously and not to live it as though it’s an 85-year party, even though this life isn’t the end. “It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, since that is the end of all mankind, and the living should take it to heart.”

For the importance of this life to sink in, it is necessary to understand that it does end at some point. Similar to the phrase, “you don’t know what you have until it’s gone,” you don’t know how valuable this life is until you understand that it is limited. It’s far better for your eternal health to understand that there is importance to this life beyond just having a good time.

Verse 3 says, “Grief is better than laughter, for when a face is sad, a heart may be glad.” This refers back to joy. It’s an outlook on life that allows you to go through hard times and still be glad. It’s a perspective shift granted by a life reliant on God that only allows circumstantial events to affect you on the surface.

And on the flip side of this statement, though likely not intended here by Solomon, it’s possible for someone to appear happy but in reality be sad—something that our society today faces and understands better than most. So, don’t fool yourself, or let yourself be fooled by, an appearance of happiness. You’re looking for a root of happiness rather than a flower.

Verse 4 takes us all the way back to chapter 1. “The heart of the wise is in a house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in a house of pleasure.” Those who truly understand the position people on this Earth are in mourn for it. We believers should be mourning for the state of the world, for the lost, because we know the end result for those who do not know our God.

And now more than ever we see the second half of verse 4 being lived out wherein people gleefully cheer and celebrate about going to Hell. They exclaim that Satan is for them because they’ve found pleasure on this Earth.

In light of the explanation of verse 4, verses 5-6 are fairly self-explanatory, so I’ll leave those to you and move on to verse 7. “Surely, the practice of extortion turns a wise person into a fool, and a bribe destroys the mind.”

Personally, I think a better word to use for “mind” in this verse is “heart.” The Hebrew word used here could mean both. Using wisdom to take advantage of others or accept bribes is, in essence, incredibly unwise. It destroys your heart and changes who you are as a person. It’s degrading to your character, which changes how you can employ wisdom. To say it another way, wisdom without morals is tantamount to folly. We’ll expand on that in verse 12.

“For wisdom is protection as money is protection, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of its owner.”

The thing about money is that it’s a finite resource. Yes, it can be used to protect you, but only until it runs out. The advantage of wisdom is that it is endless, and the one who owns it automatically uses it to his/her advantage. It’s a biased resource to be used, whereas money is completely unbiased. But that’s also why you should use it wisely because the tool of wisdom is only as good as the actions it is used for.

For all the procrastinators out there, verse 8 is for you, and me, “The end of a matter is better than its beginning; a patient spirit is better than a proud spirit.”

The beginning of anything is difficult, whether it’s because of an anxiousness for it to start but having to wait or it’s because you know you need to start but are too anxious to do so. But once you get over the hump of doing it, the thing itself, and the conclusion of the thing, is well worth the satisfaction of starting it.

I like the idea of reading the second half of verse 8 as “give time for others to notice your work rather than being quick to justify your own skill.” We sometimes have this sentiment that no one else will notice what we do, so we have to be the ones to announce all our accolades. But it’s far better to wait—people don’t like prideful people, so be patient and others will notice.

Verse 10 says, “Don’t say, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ since it is not wise of you to ask this.”

I like this one a lot because it covers the grass is always greener idiom. It’s not right to dwell on the past or the lives of others. Comparison is the root of jealousy, which is often the root of greed. You’ll never have joy in good or bad times if you’re constantly comparing your current situation to times you thought were better. We’re tasked to live in the moment so we do not rob ourselves of joy.

Verse 11 says, “Consider the work of God, for who can straighten out what He has made crooked?”

This verse has a hefty meaning behind it, and it’s one that we often overlook in our fervor for righteousness. But there are some things in this world that are just unchangeable for us. And instead of railing against the immovable object, we should learn to work with what we have. There are some avenues of sharing the gospel that just won’t work. Think of it this way: there are just some avenues for sharing the gospel that have a roadblock on them. People have been made fully obstinate in this way, but often, we try to beat the dead horse to prove God when God’s saying, “try another way to reach this person’s heart.”

Finally, verse 14 says, “In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity, consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man cannot discover anything that will come after him.”

And I think of that simply like this: God has made times for us that are easy, and He has times for us that are hard. But both are under God’s domain. Both are under His control. There is nothing that happens in this world that He does not see, know, and have power over. In times that are rough, be reminded that the Lord is still in control, and place your joy in that.

God is Goodness

I feel fairly certain in saying that the phrase “don’t beat a dead horse” came around long after Solomon lived. Perhaps, someone came up with the phrase after reading Ecclesiastes for the first time, because it sure does feel like Solomon is absolutely demolishing the dead horse that is the troubles of wealth. Thankfully, it’s only for awhile longer to lead into the second topic he discusses in chapter six: goodness.

I won’t lie to you; this chapter gets fairly dark, and I will be discussing a very heavy topic that might be difficult for some and will sound extremely harsh. Unfortunately, though, it does make sense with what we understand of life and eternity. For those affected, I understand your pain, as my family and I have been affected by similar circumstances. The good news is that there is hope.

The first two verses of chapter six are merely a transition from the last subject into Solomon’s final statements on the matter, so we’ll jump straight into verse 3, which says, “A man may father a hundred children and live many years. No matter how long he lives, if he is not satisfied by good things and does not even have a proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.”

I think a lot of people recoil from that because of our perspective of live on this Earth being good. How can someone who lived, was rich, and had a large family here ever have it worse off than a child who came into the world dead and never got to experience what could be had on Earth?

First, we have to understand what happens to a stillborn child, or indeed, any person who passes away without having knowledge of good and evil. This can extend to young children whose brains cannot yet comprehend such things, or those born with genetic and mental diseases that prevent them from grasping the subject.

This is an issue that becomes rather clear if you can understand even a portion of God’s character: that He is just. He gives punishment where it is deserved, and He provides salvation where it is deserved. Punishment comes because of knowingly committing evil acts. Salvation comes from having never committed an evil act in the sight of God—being washed clean by Jesus’s sacrifice is how this works for most people.

But for those who cannot knowingly commit evil, well, can they really sin against God? I argue no, and for a couple of reasons.

The first is that Adam and Eve could not commit sin until they had the knowledge of evil. Because they knew God, they already had knowledge of good, but until they knew what was evil, they could not commit evil. Really think about why the tree is called “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” That name is important, and I think it’s likely for this very reason, among a few others.

The devil’s advocate argument for this belief is that we are born into a sinful world and thus must suffer the price of sin no matter how long we exist in it, but we know from Ezekiel 18:20 that no child is punished for the sins of their parents. And we know from multiple places in the NT (2 Cor 5:10, and Rev. 20:11-12, to name a few) that we will be judged by our own actions.

So, what really happens to that stillborn child? They experience no evil. Their first experience will be Jesus’s arms wide open accepting them into Heaven. The only thing they will ever experience is pure goodness and joy from being in the presence of the Father.

And that child is much better off than the man who lives a long life on Earth without knowing good because all it will know is good while the man experiences the evils of this world.

Furthermore, the real importance comes when we talk about what he is satisfied by. What is a “good thing?” From our perspective, there are a lot of things we consider “good.” Grades, jobs, cars, houses, kids, parents, restaurants, clothes, food, views…I think you get my point. But are those things actually “good?” From God’s perspective, not really. The things that are good are the things that are godly. If something is not in line with God’s character, it cannot be good. Put simply, this is because God is the only thing that is good.

So, if he is not satisfied by good, thus by God, then what happens to him to make a stillborn child better off? Verse 4-6 explain.

“For he comes in futility and he goes in darkness, and his name is shrouded in darkness. Though a stillborn child does not see the sun and is not conscious, it has more rest than he. And if he lives a thousand years twice, but does not experience happiness, do not both go to the same place?”

Now it’s time for me to test your memory of what I’ve been writing about all this time: what things can satisfy us? Nothing on this Earth can satisfy us. Nothing we do here that is spawned from here can light up the world around us. The only thing that can satisfy us is God and his goodness. Without that, there is not joy; there is no true happiness.

So, this man who lives a long time with a large family and incredible wealth is stumbling around in darkness if he does not allow God to satisfy him. Life is evil for him and there is no rest in this world for him. Everything he does has no meaning.

And from there, we can interpret verse six two different ways. The first is that the “same place” Solomon is referring to is the grave. As simple as that, he just meant they both die. On the other hand, he could be referring to a man who will go to Heaven just as that stillborn child will, but he did not enjoy life because he did not lean on Him strong enough. You can take your pick because the meaning of the comparison doesn’t change either way, but the imagery does get stronger depending on which interpretation you choose.

If the man does not get to Heaven because he did not believe in God, then the stillborn child is far better off. On top of the fact that it did not experience evil on Earth, it will never experience evil or suffering. On the other hand, the man will forever suffer on top of experiencing the evils of the world.

For the second interpretation, while both get to experience the ultimate good that is being in God’s presence, the man still had to go through the suffering and evil on Earth wile the stillborn child did not. Both ways, the stillborn child has it better.

The rest of the chapter pretty much just doubles down on this illustration, but there are a couple more verses I want to talk about in particular.

Verse 8 says, “What advantage then does the wise man have over the fool? What advantage is there for the poor person who knows how to conduct himself before others?”

I really like these illustrations Solomon uses because, to me, they indicate the great equalizer that the gift of salvation really is. The way to salvation isn’t to be wiser than someone else. You don’t get any advantage for that over someone who isn’t as intelligent. Likewise, knowing how to work social circles will not get you to the front of the line to receive salvation. No matter your lot in life on this Earth; poor, rich, wise, foolish, capable, incapable, strong, weak, whatever it may be, not one of these has a better chance at salvation than any other.

I like verses 11-12, too. “For when there are many words, they increase futility. What is the advantage for man? For who knows what is good for man in life, in the few days of his futile life that he spends like a shadow? Who can tell man what will happen under the sun?”

I read this almost as Solomon being facetious. It’s like he’s saying, “You can talk and talk and talk about what life’s purpose is and what happens after you die, but you don’t know, and you won’t figure it out by yourself.”

The only one who knows what is good and who knows what happens after we die is the one who created us. We can deliberate about it all we want, but unless we’re getting our information from God, we’ll never know anything good.

If you would like to read through a more complex argument for children going to Heaven than I included, you can check out the excerpts from an essay written on the topic at this link: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/do-all-infants-go-to-heaven/

Corruption of Wealth

I find it disturbingly ironic that the wealthiest king in the history of kingdoms hated wealth so much that he dedicated more page space to it than any other worldly pursuit of happiness in Ecclesiastes. Of all the things that Solomon could have pointed out as failures in attempt to reach the joy that only Christ can give, he spent the most time railing on wealth. The page space is ridiculously disproportionate.

Solomon even goes so far as to say, “When you see people being bribed and swayed by money to oppress others, don’t be surprised! If it gets them more profit, they’re going to do it.” In his actual words, it reads like this:

Ecclesiastes 4:8-9, “If you see oppression of the poor and perversion of justice and righteousness in the province, don’t be astonished at the situation, because one official protects another official, and higher officials protect them. The profit from the land is taken by all; the king is served by the field.”

And while I generally want to avoid talking about current times in an effort to make this blog friendly to all individuals and a break from the ridiculousness that is our world, there is no more perfect example than America’s current government. There really isn’t.

We’re dealing with judges who let rich kids get off easy for raping a girl after three months of jail time but sentence poor kids to years for a drug charge. We have a system designed to allow people to get away with murdering unborn children because it brings in more tax money. The upper government appears to be infested with a pedophile ring that covers for each other. (This is not a statement of my political affiliation or thoughts in any way, for the record. I will avoid stating any of that here. It’s merely a report of facts for the sake of proving Solomon’s point from Ecclesiastes.)

But really, you shouldn’t be surprised. We’ve been dealing with the wealthy and powerful breaking systems and taking advantage of others since the beginning of sin. Be righteously upset and work to end it, but don’t be surprised it’s happening. People will do anything for money, even though it never satisfies.

Verses 10-12 say, “The one who loves money is never satisfied with money, and whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with income. This too is futile. When good things increase, the ones who consume them multiply; what, then, is the profit to the owner, except to gaze at them with his eyes? The sleep of the worker is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of the rich permits him no sleep.”

There’s a lot to unpack there. Those who love and have money will never be satisfied with it because it is empty. What is money but paper? What is wealth but metal coins? It can’t buy happiness. It can’t buy salvation. It might as well be useless. At some point, even, you may end up with so much wealth that you can’t buy enough to put a dent in your stockpile of cash. Then what good is it for but to stare at?

Interestingly enough, too, another conundrum around wealth appears from verse 11. The more money you have, the more you need to spend. Think about it this way: the more money you have, the more luxuries you can afford, but the more money it costs to keep those luxuries functional, so the more money you need. As a further example, say you’re married, and you desire to make enough money to have a child. Once you get there, it requires money to continue to raise that child. The more you get, the more wants you can have, but the more you need to satisfy the upkeep on those wants. It’s a fairly futile circle if your whole goal for money is to satisfy your desires.

Another point Solomon makes is the satisfaction of a hard worker in contrast to the despair of the rich, who likely no longer needs to really work to maintain his riches. That’s a pretty simple connection; the harder you work, the better you relax. If you never work, you’re always high strung, especially if part of your wealth goes towards the corruption and oppression of people.

I don’t know about y’all, but I always sleep better if I had a busy day working my body and mind. It keeps me from wasting time in bed overthinking and gets me right to dreaming, whereas a day of relaxation gives me time and energy for my mind to worry and obsess over problems, making the relaxation pretty difficult. That’s the concept Solomon was aiming for. If all your time is relaxation, is relaxation really relaxing?

Another thing that plagues the rich is the heartbreak and disaster that can come from mismanaging wealth.

Verses 13-14 say, “There is a sickening tragedy I have seen under the sun: wealth kept by its owner to his harm. That wealth was lost in a bad venture, so when he fathered a son, he was empty-handed.”

A lot like the example of the prodigal son, mismanagement of wealth can be horribly detrimental, and many a wealthy person has found themselves without any money at all from a lack of discretion when it comes to spending.

Then Solomon attacks the popular Egyptian worldview of death again in verses 15-16:

“As he came from his mother’s womb, so he will go again, naked as he came; he will take nothing for his efforts that he can carry in his hands. This too is a sickening tragedy: exactly as he comes, so he will go. What does the one gain who struggles for the wind?”

The Egyptian idea of the afterlife was that anything you were buried with could be enjoyed in the next life, and this is a refuting of that idea. What is the point of hoarding your wealth? You can’t use it when you’re gone, and there’s no guarantee that your kids will manage it wisely either (not that this means you shouldn’t leave them something).

But the most powerful verse, to me, in this section of chapter 5 is verse 17:

“What is more, he eats in darkness all his days, with much sorrow, sickness, and anger.”

I could unpack this verse for a long time in a lot of detail, but suffice it to say that this is, once again, Solomon saying that without the joy of the Lord, everything is dark and futile, void of satisfaction. Literally speaking, if God is light, which He is, then believing that money is satisfaction and joy will literally leave you sitting in the darkness—that is, without God—living in sorrow, sickness, and anger at your lack of joy.

Solomon ends this section of his rant against wealth with a reminder that we shouldn’t take wealth or lack of wealth to extremes in verses 18-20:

“Here is what I have seen to be good: it is appropriate to eat, drink, and experience good in all the labor one does under the sun during the few days of his life God has given him, because that is his reward. God has also given riches and wealth to every man, and He has allowed him to enjoy them, take his reward, and rejoice in his labor. This is a gift of God, for he does not often consider the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with the joy of his heart.”

This is a great reminder that joy can only be found in God, but that He has also given us the opportunity to have some happiness in the things of this Earth. But we can only have fun with what’s here because we are not occupied with the existential dread that comes from worrying over wealth and other pursuit of this world.

Resisting the Devil

This last week has been a week preaching to my heart about resisting temptation. My pastor’s been teaching on it for the last three weeks, and though it wasn’t the focus of my Sunday School lesson last night, it did come up in the verses we covered, and I had a pretty neat revelation that I felt I needed to share (yeah, we’re doing Sunday School on a Tuesday because of Coronavirus, but it’s working quite nicely).

There is a small joke that has been running around the Gen Z-younger Millennial Christian community about being convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit and repenting from it. The joke that follows this line of thought regards being convicted of your “favorite sin,” and not wanting to give it up because it’s comfortable or feels good or whatever.

And let’s face it. We all have a “favorite” or “pet” sin that we constantly fall prey to. For some of us, it’s lust, for some it’s anger, for others greed, for others jealousy, for many, it’s gossip. Whatever it is, I feel confident in saying we’ve all got one; I’m sure you’ll find yours if you properly examine your thoughts, words, and actions.

I would argue, however, that it is less our “favorite sin” and more our most common, and easily given in to, temptation. It is the one thing that Satan can trick us with that he knows will get us more often than it won’t. Just as much as I guarantee you that you have a “favorite sin” as it were, I guarantee you that you are tempted by far more things than just that one you happen to give in to.

Just take a few moments to go through your day and all the things that happen in it; mark down all the times something that could have led to sin occurs. I’ll give you a typical example of what could happen by describing a potential day I could live through:

I could wake up in the morning and lie in bed until I’m almost late for work—laziness. I could rush out the door, jump into my car, and drive ten over down the road—Failed to be subject to governing authorities. I could get stuck at a stoplight and yell a few choice words—foul language. I could arrive to work late and tell my boss I got stuck in road work—lie. I could see a pretty girl at work and fantasize about her—lust, adultery. I could hear of my coworker getting a raise and bitterly wish he were fired because I was supposedly next in line for promotion—jealousy. I could arrive home and be short with my parents and refuse to do chores—disrespecting my father and mother.

See what I mean? You can be tempted hundreds or thousands of times a day. But you’re not likely to pay most of those temptations any mind thanks to the renewing of your mind by the Holy Spirit as a believer. This also serves to back up the point that temptation isn’t the sin. Even Jesus was tempted, as seen in Matthew 4:1-11. Temptation is something we cannot control; it’s our reaction to it that we have to work on. And that leads me to the verses that prompted this whole article: Ephesians 4:26-27.

“Be angry and do not sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger, and don’t give the devil an opportunity.”

First, let’s note that anger is not sin. Anger may lead to sinful behavior, but being rightfully upset by something is not, in and of itself, wrong. Even Jesus was rightfully, and righteously, angry at times—flipping tables in the temple comes to mind. But anger is a temptation to give in to incorrect behavior, just like all the actions I mentioned earlier are temptations to give in to sin.

The important part is not necessarily that you were tempted, but how you react to the temptation, and verse 26 gives us the method. It says to not let the sun go down on your anger. One of the most common things associated with the movement of the sun is the passage of time. So, how do we avoid falling prey to temptation? Deal with it in as short a time as possible. Don’t let it be present in your heart and mind for any longer than it takes you to recognize that it’s temptation. Turn away from the thought, separate yourself mentally from the setting, and turn to Jesus.

There are a number of methods to doing this, though the best is obviously having scripture at hand to quote and remind yourself of the God who can give you all things and provide for you in every way. Whatever works for you, do it. But don’t give Satan time to work, chipping away at your defenses.

If there is one thing the devil is, it’s an opportunist. He’s not omniscient, he’s not omnipresent, and he’s not omnipotent. But he is incredibly sneaky, quick, clever, and dedicated. His only goal is to make sure you suffer with him in Hell. And he’s great at taking advantage of any openings you give him to work at you. While he may not be able to punch a hole in the armor you wear for protection in one hit, give him enough time and he’ll find the hold and slip a blade through.

That’s why verse 27 is so important. To avoid giving the devil an opportunity, you have to make sure you give him as little time as possible to study you while you’re in duress from temptation. If a lustful thought comes across your mind, don’t play around with the idea and flirt with fantasies. Cast it away from you as quickly as you can. The longer you ponder that lust, the more likely you are to give into the temptation and actually commit adultery. (Doing inappropriate things with someone in your head is just as much adultery as doing it physically—Matt. 5:28.)

When your friends start gossiping, either get them to stop or remove yourself from the conversation so that you’re not convinced to join in. Even if your resolve is strong at first, you will break down eventually just to become part of the conversation. For every second you remain, you give Satan an opportunity to get you to sin.

Combat jealousy with encouragement, greed with thankfulness, anger with love and understanding. And do it quickly so that you don’t sit and stew in the feelings and opportunities to do what you know feels good temporarily, what appears to satisfy.

The reason I love verses 26-27 so much is because the whole picture lends itself to this lesson so easily. When you’re really angry at someone, it’s so easy to sit and stew in your emotions and imagine all the mean things you’d say or do to get back at them for how they wronged you. The longer you stew in that anger, the easier it gets for your “justice” to become harsher, and the harder it becomes to show them love and forgiveness as we are called to do.

It’s the exact same with sin and temptation. The longer you play with that temptation, the easier it is to give in to the sin, and the harder it becomes to do what you know is right. So, don’t let time pass in temptation. Hurry and turn to Jesus, rebuking Satan all the while so that you can be protected by the righteous shelter that is Christ.

Approaching the Lord

The first seven verses of Ecclesiastes chapter five express the need to approach God and your relationship with Him with caution. As with any significant relationship, our relationship with God is one that must be intentional and guarded so that we do not cause any undue issues.

And, in fact, this must be stressed more so with God because He is perfect and just and has a standard higher than we can ever reach, unlike our earthly relationships. You can’t afford to be lackadaisical when it comes to being righteous. Even though God forgives when we ask, the damage that it can do to you on Earth is significant.

The first verse opens up with how our relationship with God should look; it should not be something that is done by obligation, but by obedience and desire. It describes a mindset with which we should chase after God. “Guard your step when you go to the house of God. Better to draw near in obedience than to offer the sacrifice as fools do, for they are ignorant and do wrong.”

I’d like to note that my Bible version translates the Hebrew word “shama” differently than most versions, which use “to hear” or “to listen” in place of “obedience” in mine. However, the meaning remains the same. The use of obedience in my translation likely serves to highlight the difference between the “this or that” proposition Solomon was making here.

The two options when you approach God as Solomon presents them are “to hear/listen/be obedient” or “to talk/do/sacrifice.” You can either come to God with a heart of obedience that desires to do what He would have you do, or you can come before Him with a heart that says, “Look, I recognize that you’re God and all, but I’m just going to do what I want.” This is a cautionary statement to not let your own desires be placed higher than God’s calling for your life.

This is quite similar to the introspective actions we should take before partaking in communion, as indicated in 1 Corinthians 11:27-32. We must examine ourselves as we come to God, humbling ourselves before Him and recognizing who He is and who we are in comparison.

Verse 2 and verses 4-6 say, “Do not be hasty to speak, and do not be impulsive to make a speech before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. When you make a vow to God, don’t delay fulfilling it, because He does not delight in fools. Fulfill what you vow. Better that you do not vow than that you vow and not fulfill it. Do not let your mouth bring guilt on you, and do not say in the presence of the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry with your words and destroy the work of your hands.”

There are plenty of reasons why it’s important to not make promises to God beyond, but the main reason is that we can’t keep them. If you say, “I will not sin,” you will sin. If you say, “I will pursue you wholeheartedly for my entire life,” you will fail to do so in a moment of weakness. We’re not good enough to live up to our promises like that.

James 5:12 says, “But most of all, my brothers and sisters, never take an oath, by heaven or earth or anything else. Just say a simple yes or no, so that you will not sin and be condemned.”

But another reason is that God knows so much more than we do that it’s not worth trying to claim we will adhere to whatever our fickle minds decide on in this moment. Where our God is unchanging, we are constantly in a state of flux, moving from one desire to the next as fast as a hummingbird’s wings flap.

“God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few,” is pretty clear in meaning: you don’t know enough to make promises about what you will do. Let your words to God be, “Yes, I will do as you say.” You don’t need more than that. He knows your heart, anyway.

One final reason, if the first two don’t satisfy your curiosity, stems from the fact that God is omniscient, all knowing, and sometimes the consequences of your vows to satisfy your own desires don’t turn out for your benefit. A great example comes from Jephthah in Judges 11.

Jephthah, following pagan customs, proposed a bargain with God in order to win a battle against the Ammonites. Why, exactly, he chose to make this bargain when the Spirit of the Lord was with him is unclear to me, but the results of the vow were very clear. The bargain was that the first thing that came out of Jephthah’s house when he returned home from his battle with the Ammonites would be sacrificed to God. Unfortunately for him, the first thing that came running out of his front door was his only child, his only daughter.

Had he remembered who God was and what strength was given to him by the Lord’s divine power, he would not have lost his only daughter because he was too quick to speak to the Lord. (Granted, I’m not saying every time you make a promise to God, something like this will happen, but you should know that our God is a just God, and your words have power, meaning. Failing to go through with a promise is a lie to God, and His punishment must be just. I think I speak for us all when I say that I’m thankful He is also a forgiving God and Jesus is the sacrifice for our sins.)

There are a ton of verses on guarding your mouth, guarding your speech, guarding your tongue, but the one I like most is certainly in verse 6: “Do not let your mouth bring guilt on you.” Don’t let what you say make you guilty before God.

My dad is rather fond of this saying, and we can, and should, all take this to heart a little more: “Better to keep your mouth closed and let everyone think you’re a fool than to open it and prove that you are.” The tongue is a betrayer, it’s lashing at the bit to make you mess up—it cannot be tamed and made to say only what is good. Sometimes, the best thing for us to do is shut up.

Finally, verses 3 and 7 say, “For dreams result from much work and a fool’s voice from many words. For many dreams bring futility, also many words. So, fear God.”

This is fairly simple, yet complicated at the same time, but the essence of the message is that rewards come from effort, not from words. It’s very much like our common phrase “If you’re going to talk the talk, you need to walk the walk.” If you’re going to talk the talk of being obedient to Christ, you must then walk the walk He has set before you. The rewards come from actually doing what He says, not from saying you’re going to do it.

Verse 7 leans its meaning more towards the ideas expressed in verse 2 about God being in Heaven and us on Earth. Humans, especially compared to God, have an incredibly small attention span. It’s so small that I probably lost eighty percent of the people who clicked on this article by now. We are so easily distracted that when we try to decide what we’re going to do instead of listening to God’s plan, we change our minds 300 times in the span of our lives. Why? Because we don’t know what God knows.

We’re like a child who is presented with five of their favorite desserts but is told they can only choose one of them. That child is going to point at the first, then the second, then the third, and so on, over and over and over again without ever actually sticking to a choice. Then, that child will attempt to eat all of them instead of choosing.

We are too fickle to decide what we will do. That’s why, when we approach God, we should approach Him with obedience and our ears open to hear what He has to say to us, then we should endeavor to do as He asks with as much effort as we can give because that’s where the rewards come from.

Preparations for Courage

One of the things I love about reading the Bible is finding the parallels between New Testament and Old Testament scripture, even, and especially, when it’s not just a NT author quoting the Old Testament, but when the two align even though the reference may not have been intentional.

In the case of John 14 and 1 Chronicles 17:25, the parallel wasn’t quoting OT scripture, but it is very likely that Jesus made the allusion purposefully.

When you take a look at it, it’s actually rather neat how similar the covenants are that the Lord made with Jesus’s death and resurrection and with David. Of course, this makes sense because from the covenant God made with David came Jesus, who was of the house and line of David.

But what I want to talk about specifically is God’s promise to David to build and establish a house for him as he prepared to lead Israel and glorify God in his life.

1 Chronicles 17:25-26 says, “Since You, my God, have revealed to your servant that You will build him a house, Your servant has found courage to pray in Your presence. Lord, You indeed are God, and You have promised this good thing to Your servant.”

To really get into the feel of what I’m trying to teach, put yourself in David’s position. David was 30 years old when he became king, when he became the ruler of an entire nation. Keep in mind that he was a shepherd for a decent portion of his life—that’s not quite adequate training to be a monarch. Ruling the kingdom of Israel, and especially turning it back from its idolatrous ways under its previous rulers, would have been quite the daunting task.

Even someone groomed to become the ruler of such a nation would have been stressed and afraid of taking on that task. But these verses indicate that the covenant the Lord made with David gave him courage to work through that? Why? Because he knew something great would come of it. He knew that the Lord was before him, preparing the way for success and peace.

This is incredibly important to our understanding of John 14.

Verses 1-6 say, “Your heart must not be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if not, I would have told you. I am going away to prepare a place for you. If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come back and receive you to Myself, so that where I am you may be also. You know the way where I am going. ‘Lord,’ Thomas said, ‘we don’t know where You’re going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus told him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”

These verses are meant as encouragement. To the disciples, it was meant to give them peace about the days and weeks to come after Jesus’s death on the cross and the subsequent resurrection and return to Heaven.

But this is more than just timely encouragement for the disciples. This is meant to give us peace over the plan God has for our lives just as much as it was to give them peace about God’s plan for Jesus. It was meant to give us courage that, no matter what, we have a place prepared for us with the Father.

David was encouraged to go through all the trials of his kingship, all the wars and politics, all the idolatry of the Israelites, the troubles with the Ark of the Covenant, and anything that came up to oppose him because he knew that God would not let it fail.

Far too often, we Christians fail to fully understand that God does not fail. We’re afraid to tell the Gospel to a coworker because we might get fired. We’re scared to witness to a friend because he/she might refuse to speak to us afterwards. We don’t help the homeless guy who needs food because we’ll be late getting home, or we think he might go spend the food money on drugs. We don’t speak to the woman on the street who looks like she’s been down and depressed because we’re afraid of potential public outcry or that someone will perceive it the wrong way.

But why are we so scared? We know that God does not fail. We know that he always has our best interests at heart. We know that all things work together for the good of those who love Him. We know that this place is only temporary, that there is far better waiting for us. So, why are we scared?

But whatever you do, understand this: Jesus has a place prepared for all those who know Him. We should take heart and have peace in that statement. We should have the ultimate peace knowing that no matter what happens on this Earth, even if it is the worst torture imaginable, there is the ultimate peace and love waiting for us on the other side. Have courage because no one can take away that reward! No one can separate you from God’s love.

Go back to verse 1: “Your heart must not be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.” Don’t let any of the potential circumstances you could find yourself in stop you from reveling in the fact that your potential to do good is endless. Never stop relishing in your knowledge that to die is gain.

Yeah, even if things go wrong here and you’re killed for your faith, is that really that horrible? In some ways, no, it would not be good. We would hate to leave behind loved ones, but when you’re afraid of the small things like helping out a homeless person or showing love to a friend or even an enemy, keep in mind that to die is to gain all the benefits of being with Jesus. What’s a little fear in the perspective of eternity?

Success and Companionship

The second part of Ecclesiastes chapter 4 in my personal Bible is titled “The Loneliness of Wealth,” and I don’t know about y’all, but that hits deep.

There’s a song by Brandon Heath titled “It’s No Good to be Alone,” and one of the lines from that song says, “You know it doesn’t matter how high you climb if no one’s there to share the ride when you get there.” (You can listen to this song down below.) To me, this sums up the pursuit of wealth as an ideal, and really, the pursuit of a lot of things on this Earth. Humans have a need for companionship, for socialization. God knew this at the beginning. It’s why he created Eve for Adam.

We were designed to have perfect companionship with God and other people, but sin entered the world and that perfection in companions was lost. Things like jealousy began to intervene as soon as Cain and Abel. It’s interesting to me that Solomon touches on that subject right off the bat when he starts talking about wealth in-depth.

Verse 4 says, “I saw that all labor and all skillful work is due to a man’s jealousy of his friend. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.”

Why do you want to be wealthy? I don’t think anyone says they want to be wealthy for a pure, selfless reason, though I admire anyone who can truthfully say that’s the case for them. Likely, the reason you want money is to satisfy your desire for what you’ve seen others have. You want that nice car, the big house, the boat for the lake, a new set of golf clubs, your own personal library, an in-ground swimming pool, a massive yard, the ability to fly to Hawaii for a week-long vacation, or even something as small or simple as your friend’s easy to use and fantastically clever coffee machine.

Regardless, the point is that you want something you don’t have. You’re jealous of someone else’s possessions, so you work to get what they have that you don’t. But obviously such a thing is futile because getting what they have won’t satisfy you. Speaking personally, I’ve bought things my friends had because I thought they were cool, and within two weeks I was bored of it completely. After a brief honeymoon period with that item, it just became a waste of money.

Verses 7-8 say, “Again, I saw futility under the sun: There is a person without a companion, without even a son or brother, and though there is no end to all his struggles, his eyes are still not content with his riches. ‘So who am I struggling for,’ he asks, ‘and depriving myself from good?’ This too is futile and a miserable task.”

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “It’s lonely at the top.” And that’s a pretty true standard in the world we live in. It’s cutthroat. To get to the top, you often have to cut others down and climb the mountain of metaphorical bodies to reach higher than those who lost to you. It’s a grim image, I know, but it’s a grim reality. When you strive solely for wealth and career, you have to give up everything else, including making relationships with other people.

As Solomon often does, he recommends a middle-of-the-line approach to this because extreme reactions in this area tend to not work well. Verses 5-6 say, “The fool folds his arms and consumes his own flesh. Better one handful with rest, than two handfuls with effort and pursuit of the wind.”

You should neither be lazy in the pursuit of wealth such that you rely totally on others to take care of you, and you should not pursue wealth so fervently that you do not take time apart from that ambition to spend in other areas.
Rest is important to us. Taking time away from our goals is important. All you achieve when you refuse to take breaks is stress and failure. To put it this way, a guy graduated my high school with a 5.2 GPA and got a full ride to Yale, but by graduation, he had given up hours and hours of sleep, likely a large portion of his social life, and created undue stress for himself to the point his hair was graying as a high school graduate. There’s no satisfaction in pushing yourself so hard that you hurt yourself.

A lot of this chapter actually leans towards a saying many of us have heard often: “It’s about the journey, not the destination.”

Verses 9-12 say, “Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their efforts. For if either falls, his companion can lift him up; but pity the one who falls without another to lift him up. Also, if two lie down together, they can keep warm; but how can one person alone keep warm? And if somebody overpowers one person, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not easily broken.”

It’s about how you achieve your goals. How you overcome your struggles. How you lean on God and your companions. This is why you need others by your side in this life. We’re not capable of doing this life on our own. We’re just not. There will be times when we are unable to stand under our own power, but by sharing our burdens with our friends, we can lift the weight pressing down on us. But if you don’t have anyone there when you’re being crushed by a burden, you’ll be saddled with that weight for good.

The cord example Solomon provides is actually such a great illustration even today. Let’s expand on it:

Now, I’m not the most knowledgeable when it comes to ropes and cords, but I do know that, essentially, the more strands a rope has, the stronger it is. That’s because, to break a cord made of three intertwined strands of rope, you have to create a force greater than the strength of all 3 strands combined, rather than just the individual strength of one strand because the strands compensate for each other and share the burden of weight. So, if one rope can hold ten pounds, then a cord with three strands that rope can hold 30 pounds, basically.

This works because of the distribution of force and tensile strength. I won’t get into a detailed explanation, but I’ll try to express the essence of it. A rope fails at a point that gets stretched too far for it to hold onto itself any longer. This weak point, however, can be negated, in a cord with multiple strands of rope. The multiple strands of rope work to distribute the force better such that the tensile strength of each individual strand increases. That weak point on each strand gets stronger because when one strand takes up too much force, it can pass some of that force on to the second and third strand.

So, bringing that back around to the comparison: where you would snap under the load, intertwining yourself with a companion or two will help you hold strong under weight you wouldn’t be able to carry alone. Now that I’ve beaten that horse six feet under, let’s move on.

One of the more important functions of companionship is the ability to have a somewhat objective view on decision making. Your friends serve as people whom you can and should be accountable to and who can help you see things from perspectives that you wouldn’t consider. This idea is all over the New Testament and within the Christian community, so I don’t need to touch on it too much, but Solomon mentions it here in verse 13, “Better is a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer pays attention to warnings.”

It’s better to be have good friends who can advise you than it is to be wealthy and think the advice of others is beneath you. To broaden it a bit, it’s better to avoid thinking wealthier or more influential people are superior to others because of their lot in life. A poor man can be just as wise as a rich man. A mildly successful friend is just as good as a wildly successful friend.

But even more so, Solomon stresses the idea that recognition does not come from wealth. Verses 14-16 say, “For he came from prison to be king, even though he was born poor in his kingdom. I saw all the living who move about under the sun follow a second youth who succeeds him. There is no limit to all the people who were before them, yet those who come later will not rejoice in him. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.”

Even the most heroic stories of prevailing against unfortunate circumstances won’t get you true companionship by its own merits. As soon as one successful person is gone, another will rise up in their place and the people will jump on that bandwagon. That’s why good, loyal companions are more valuable than wealth. People who will never abandon you are a rock on which you can find strength, even if they aren’t the rock on which your foundation should be built. Wealth can be lost in a moment, but a good companion will stick by you through rich and poor.

Listen to It's No Good To Be Alone on Spotify. Brandon Heath · Song · 2011.

Body of Christ

To me, one of the most frustrating things about certain groups of Christians is their insistence on the importance of denomination. I grew up a Baptist, and I still attend a Baptist church, but it’s not like I hold any kind of pride towards being a Baptist over being a child of God.

But that’s something that far too many Christians do. We act like our denomination is of singular importance, as if we owe allegiance to it. Some denominations do it worse than others, but almost all of us are doing it completely wrong. We’re buying into a division that God didn’t put in place. We’re separating the Body of Christ because we can’t fight our own sin nature and Satan’s meddling to split us up and weaken us. We have so much infighting over doctrine that doesn’t really matter that we’re not being as capable of bringing the Kingdom of God to Earth as we should be.

Doctrinally, at least seven of the major Christian denominations: Anglican/Episcopal, the Assembly of God, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic all hold to almost the same fundamental beliefs. All express the same view of the Trinity as one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All believe Jesus was fully God and fully man on Earth and that he died to redeem us and save us from our sins.** And while there are some discrepancies between things after that, the important stuff we all believe.

What does it take to be a Christian? Let’s analyze that before we go any farther. A Christian is a follower of Christ. A Christian is one who believes the following:

That God is the only true God who created the Heavens and the Earth and all life on Earth. He formed mankind out of clay and breathed life into us, making us in His image. In the Garden of Eden, mankind sinned against God and brought death into the world through disobedience. Yet, God graciously sent His own son who was fully man and God, born of a virgin, to live a perfect life on Earth, die and suffer God’s wrath for our sins, and resurrect three days later, fully alive. Upon His return to Heaven to be with the Father, He left us His Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, to reside in and with us. In His sacrifice on the cross, He provided eternal payment for the sins of anyone who chooses to accept the gracious gift of salvation such that they may have eternal life. It is not by any person’s own merits that they might be saved, but fully by faith in the God who provided the sacrifice.

That’s it. I know it’s kind of a long paragraph, but that one paragraph is literally all there is to it.

Let me point you to a verse real quick that Paul wrote concerning the church in Corinth: in 2 Corinthians 11:3, he says, “But I fear that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your minds may be corrupted from a complete and pure devotion to Christ.” Contextually, Paul is referring to false teachers here, but I want to just leave the hint that, perhaps, the denominations are the false teachers, the deception that is keeping us from the pure and complete devotion to Christ. And if you hold devotion to your denomination over Christ, you can be assured that you are resting your salvation in your denomination and not Jesus.

Now, listen, I’m not writing this to vilify any denominations of Christianity. There are some differences in them that are somewhat important to how you live your life, and if you want to be a Baptist because you prefer how they interpret verses regarding drinking and women as pastors and deacons in the church, go ahead. If you want to be Pentecostal because you believe speaking in tongues is perfectly normal, go ahead. But never make your loyalty to your denomination such that you make it an idol and despise Christians from other denominations because of it.

Because anything besides the tenets of salvation are extraneous beliefs. They serve to supplement the faith that we have in God such that we can do better work for Him. Believing it’s okay or not okay to drink doesn’t change your salvation. Believing it’s okay or not okay for women to be pastors doesn’t change your salvation. I like what Paul says about these kinds of things in 1 Corinthians 8:7-9.

“However, not everyone has this knowledge. In fact, some have been so used to idolatry up until now, that when they eat food offered to an idol, their conscience, being weak, is defiled. Food will not make us acceptable to God. We are not inferior if we don’t eat, and we are not better if we do eat. But be careful that this right of yours in no way becomes a stumbling block to the weak.”

And then let me give you a few verses before that in 1-3: “About food offered to idols: We know that ‘we all have knowledge.’ Knowledge inflates with pride, but love builds up. If anyone thinks he knows anything, he does not yet know it as he ought to know it. But if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.

Okay, now do me a favor and let me have a little bit of a creative expression teaching moment here. Let’s substitute the phrases that have to do with idolatry and food with denominations. Read it like so:

About denominations: we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge inflates with pride, but love builds up. If anyone thinks he knows anything, he does not yet know it as he ought to know it. But if anyone loves God, he is known by Him … However, not everyone has this knowledge. In fact, some have been so used to denominations up until now, that when they devote themselves to their denomination, their conscience, being weak, is defiled. Denominations will not make us acceptable to God. We are not inferior if we join one denomination over another. But be careful that this right of yours to join a denomination in no way becomes a stumbling block to the weak.

We all know about the unsaved that, when they are judged by Christ at the judgment seat, that they will be told, “I never knew you; depart from me.” So, keep that in mind as you go back and read 1 Cor. 8:3. “But if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.” Those known by Him are those who will reside with Him in Heaven.

It never says, “Well, because you’re Baptist and not Catholic, I don’t know you, go away!” or “Well, you’re a Presbyterian and not an Assembly of God believer, so I’m afraid you don’t get into Heaven.”

If you love God, you are known by God, regardless of anything else.

Satan loves to twist the Word of God. And even more than that, he loves tripping us up in doing so. He tried tripping up Jesus in this way, as seen in Matthew 11. What makes you think he’s not doing it to us? What makes you think he’s not trying his absolute hardest to split up the Body of Christ so that we are less successful in showing lost souls the only way to Heaven.

We are all one body: the Body of Christ. There is no Lutheran Body or Anglican Body. No Catholic Body or Orthodox Body. There’s just the Body of Christ. The churches Peter started are no better than the churches Paul started. The churches James led are no better than the ones Timothy led.

I’ll leave with this: 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 says, “For as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body—so also is Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”

** My source for the denominational beliefs: https://www.learnreligions.com/comparing-christian-denominations-beliefs-part-1-700537

Are we Animals?

This is a topic often considered when discussing apologetics with those who believe in Darwin’s evolution theory. Are we just animals? Or are we something more? What does it mean if we are just animals? How many differences are there if we are no different, no better than the soulless creatures that roam the Earth around us, that we were given to command?

Well, God says we are different, special. We were formed out of clay by God’s hand as he breathed life into us while he merely spoke animals into existence from the earth. We were designated as God’s special creation while animals were not given such a position. We were made in the image of God while animals were not.

And in creating each in the manner they were created, God designated an important distinction between human and animal: one has the character of God imprinted in its very nature—humanity—one has earthly character imprinted in its nature—animals. It doesn’t seem that important at first, and I’m sure many of us have just glossed over these verses in Genesis before, but they are incredibly valuable when we talk about our nature, and especially in the argument of morals and death.

Solomon had to deal with this in his time thanks to Egypt’s worship of animals, and he does so in a form of mocking, but there are some important things to take from his mocking of Egypt’s mythology in Ecclesiastes chapter 3.

First, let’s establish the relationship of animals, humans, and God. Animals are representative of a sin nature. They lack the likeness of God and as such they can only perform in a manner of sin (you’ll see what I mean later). Humans, now, sit in this middle ground. We have the capability to live and be like God in our behavior, but we also have the ability to act like animals. And God is the ultimate good. He only acts within His character.

Now, we must ascribe a spectrum of morality because that is the key difference separating each of these three groups. Animals have no morals. They act to benefit themselves or their offspring. There is no altruism in animals. Humans have the capability to be animalistic—acting selfish—or Godly—acting selfless. And God is the ultimate morality. Everything He does is morally perfect. He was the ultimate morality when Jesus died on the cross for us.

Ecclesiastes 3:16-18 says, “I also observed under the sun: there is wickedness at the place of judgment and there is wickedness at the place of righteousness. I said to myself, ‘God will judge the righteous and the wicked, since there is a time for every activity and every work.’ I said to myself, ‘This happens concerning people, so that God may test them and they may see for themselves that they are like animals.’”

As with all things in Ecclesiastes, the purpose of this is to remind us that we need God. Earlier, I said that animals are a moral representation of sin. They only act to benefit themselves. They have no moral system. If an animal kills another of its kind, no other comes to punish it. If an animal steals, it receives no justice. Revenge, perhaps, but certainly not justice. But especially, there is no quandary that occurs when an animal does something morally incorrect like killing or stealing. An animal does not concern itself over whether it does right or wrong because, to it, nothing is objectively wrong. Everything is subjective to its place.

But humans have an innate moral compass. This was imprinted on us because we were created in God’s image. A person will feel perplexed when confronted with a situation that would have them compromise that compass, such as killing or stealing. And upon performing such an action, a human will feel convicted that they did wrong, ideally.

But because of sin, we have injustice just like the animals. We have people who can kill, steal, lie and do all manner of harm and not feel as though they have done wrong. But, even worse, we are all capable of doing wrong and feeling no remorse. It is only through just judgment that we see through God’s character that we have done wrong. That’s what Solomon is describing. When we see that we are like animals, we see that there is a God who can help us to be more like Him and less like soulless beasts.

So, no, we are not animals, though we certainly can act like them at times. The existence of our morality is clear evidence there is a distinction between us and God’s other creations. That distinction is important because there is no hope without it. If we are animals, there is nothing after life here. There is nothing but a meaningless life and then death, as Solomon describes in verses 19-20.

“For the fate of people and the fate of animals is the same. As one dies, so dies the other; they all have the same breath. People have no advantage over animals, for everything is futile. All are going to the same place; all come from dust, and all return to dust.”

Again, this is Solomon picking at the Egyptian worldview that when you die, life after is the same as life here. But at an even larger scale, this is Solomon talking about existence without God. Without God, the reality of these verses is all you have to look forward to. You live and you die. You are meaningless dust. If we are merely animals, this is all there is.

Personally, I thank God we are not merely animals, but that we are special creations of one who loves us.

God Works Differently

Have you heard the phrase, “God answers prayers in three ways: yes, no, and not yet?” It’s fairly accurate and a good way to comfort those who feel like they aren’t hearing from God at a time when they feel lost or are asking something of Him.

But sometimes God doesn’t answer our prayers the way we expect. Sometimes, His yes looks different than our own. Occasionally, He points our lives in directions we never even considered to go. Often, when we expect giant miracles, we overlook the small, but equally useful, ones God provides. And when that happens, we can respond one of two ways: we can accept His direction and receive the blessings that come, or we can rebel against it because it’s not what we thought he was going to do.

This is the situation that a man, Naaman, in 2 Kings found himself in when he went to the prophet Elisha to be cured of a skin disease. Naaman’s story is a classic example of how we often find ourselves dealing with God.

When Naaman heard of a way to have his skin disease healed, he immediately took off to find Elisha and receive that healing, but when he got there, Elisha told him something he didn’t expect.

2 Kings 5: 10-12 says, “Then Elisha sent him a messenger, who said, ‘Go wash seven times in the Jordan and your flesh will be restored and you will be clean.’ But Naaman got angry and left, saying, ‘I was telling myself: He will surely come out, stand and call on the name of Yahweh his God, and will wave his hand over the spot and cure the skin disease. Aren’t Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?’ So he turned and left in a rage.”

Naaman’s expectation was that of a showy miracle the likes of which Elijah had performed when he called down fire in the challenge against the prophets of Baal. As the Bible says, he was expecting Elisha to make a big show of things to heal him. He was expecting something different, out of the ordinary. But what he got instead was, essentially, “go take a bath.” It would have been considered a ritualistic bath, but it was a bath nonetheless. And, contextually, the river Jordan might not have been the cleanest river to go bathe in, anyway.

So, because Naaman didn’t get what he expected, he basically stormed off in a rage. For a lot of people, the story would end here. Many of us would likely have a prayer answered in a way we didn’t like and we’d ignore the answer, missing out on all the blessings that would have come from it. Thankfully for Naaman, he had some very good servants.

Verse 13 says, “But his servants approached and said to him, ‘My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more should you do it when he tells you, ‘Wash and be clean?’’”

They basically called him out on his idea of what a miracle should look like. The weird thing about all this is that if Elisha had asked him to do something ridiculous to be healed, like, for example, to catch and kill 37 chickens and cut off one toe from each foot, slather them in oil, pin them together and wear them as a headdress for three years, Naaman would likely have done it without hesitation. But because it was something so simple as “go take a bath,” he thought it wouldn’t do anything and wasn’t worth his time.

But his servants convinced him, and verse 14 says he went, dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, and was healed of his skin disease.

But it’s not just one person, or even just a few people, who do this. When Jesus, the son of God was born and walked the Earth, people refused to believe he was who he said he was, not because he didn’t perform miracles, but because they expected God to grant them a warrior king who would slaughter Israel’s enemies and bring about the restoration of the Israelite nation. But because they got the Jesus who wanted to save and not the Jesus who wanted to destroy, they refused to acknowledge his claim as the son of God.

I’ve said similar before, but as believers, we are far too willing to lean on God working miracles in the fashion of deus ex machina, wherein He does these massive miracles that are grandiose and spectacular in every way when, really, God works intricately for the good of those who live Him. We expect God to step in and fix all the bad things that go on in the world like he didn’t place millions of tiny miracles, His people, on Earth to do it for Him.

We are all too ready to ignore the small things because they don’t necessarily look like what we expect God to do for us. And we are all so reluctant to do small things because they don’t seem grandiose enough. But what if we didn’t? What if we stepped up when we were called? What if we stopped looking for what we want God to do and start looking for what He is actually doing?

If you change your mindset about how God works, you’ll find that you’re far more blessed than you think you are. You’ll see God doing so much that you never would have noticed. He’s always working; you just need to be looking in the right place.

As a final note, take a listen to the song attached below. Strive to change your mindset to think of life this way, to realize that you are one of God’s miracle workers who is here to do the good He has called you to do. Do something with that.

Listen to Do Something on Spotify. Matthew West · Song · 2012.

The Appropriate Time

Ecclesiastes chapter three expands upon the latter statements in chapter two, wherein Solomon indicates that it is a gift of God to enjoy the things of this Earth. But, chapter three also provides some context in an important caveat to remind us that, even though many things are appropriate for enjoyment, they are only appropriate in the right time.

When we study the Bible, we know that context is absolutely key to understanding what is written and ensuring we don’t misunderstand what was being written for us. Of course, this is true for any teaching, as many sentences on any single subject can be misconstrued if removed from their appropriate setting. But context is especially important with Ecclesiastes—I’d even argue that it is the book of context in that each chapter builds off itself to show us a narrative of Christian behavior and thought processes we should adhere to.

That being said, on to the verses! The first eight verses talk about “an occasion for everything, and a time for every activity under heaven.” Notice a change in word choice here. When talking about activities we partake of in this life in the first two chapters, Solomon continuously referred to them as being “under the sun.” Now, however, we’re talking about activities “under heaven.” This distinction is important.

I don’t think there’s any clear, definitive separation between “under the sun” and “under heaven,” but contextually, there is a separation of drastic importance. Culturally, there are many parallels between the style of Egyptian literature and the style of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, both of which were written by Solomon, who would have had a view and understanding of Egyptian culture due to marrying Pharaoh’s daughter. Egyptians worshiped Ra, the sun god, as their most important, most powerful deity; therefore, “under the sun” could have referred to the pagan religion of the Egyptians. This would lead “under heaven” to mean “under God.”

But, even within the book of Ecclesiastes itself, there is a contextual difference between the two. “Under the sun” invokes things that are sinful in nature, while “under heaven” invokes things that are of God. You’ll likely notice that each time “under the sun” is mentioned, it is in a negative tone to refer to sinful actions that do not satisfy us. The first verse of chapter three is set in direct context to that as a tone shift.

So, with the background set, chapter three is meant to contextualize and clarify some of the final statements in chapter two, mainly the idea that it’s okay to enjoy some of the things we have to experience in this life. It does this by first separating things that are inherently under the sun—evil—and under heaven—good.

The things that are inherently evil are not listed in chapter three, but it’s pretty simple to determine what those things are. Merely take those things that God commands us not to do and understand those are evil and there is no time or place for them. The good, however, are those things which God has gifted to us: friendships, marriage, sex, money, knowledge, entertainment, food, happiness, etc.

All these things, which are not inherently sinful, have their place. Sure, overindulgence or an idolization of these things can lead to sin, but they are not sin in and of themselves. That’s what Ecclesiastes means by things being appropriate in their time. If you were to have sex outside of marriage, that is sin. If you have sex in its time in marriage, it’s not sin. See where I’m going with this?

There are also double and triple layers to the information provided here. There are three important separations within the listed activities: one group is a list of actions where one must happen before the other; the second is one that requires understanding of one to truly understand the other; and the third are antonyms—direct opposites.

An example of one leading into another is verse two, “A time to give birth and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot.” You can’t die before you are born, and you can’t pull up a plant that hasn’t been planted. In other words, some things are only able and appropriate to occur after something else has, so trying to do them out of order makes them inappropriate, i.e., marriage and sex.

The second group involves things like in verse 4, “A time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance.” We’re doubling down on context here: you can’t fully understand the extent of happiness until you have experienced sadness. For you to know the full measure of one, you must know the other.

And the third is as in verse 8, “A time to love and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace.” Yes, there are appropriate times and things to hate and war against. Love and hate are complete polar opposites, but they each have their place. Even God loves and hates things. He loves us but hates our sin. These are to let us know that there are times even for actions that we don’t necessarily like.

The appropriate context of actions is stressed so heavily in Ecclesiastes to, once again, remind us of the limitations of our life here. As Solomon says in verse 11, “He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also put eternity into their hearts, but man cannot discover the work God has done from beginning to end.”

I’ll point your attention mostly to “He has also put eternity into their hearts, but man cannot discover the work God has done.” As I’ve said time and time again, our problem with these actions comes about when we try to use them to fill what only God can fill. We try to take these contextualized things and fit them into eternity because we know we need something for eternity, but we cannot understand the vastness of what God has done. So, in its time, the things we do are appropriate. Just don’t take them out of their place and put them in the place of God because there is no adding to or taking from God.

Value of Wisdom

A lot of people, even a number of Christians, try to find satisfaction in life through the things they do or own: work, partying, sex, money, houses, cars, pets, a spouse, kids, etc. Last week, I wrote about Solomon’s experience trying all of these things to achieve that satisfaction and realizing exactly how unfulfilling they are.

The way Solomon makes it sound in Ecclesiastes is as if living life and achieving things here have no meaning, then, but that’s not the case either. At the end of my last article on Ecclesiastes, I left you with this:

See, as Christians, we can have happiness in the things we do here because we have the joy of Christ in knowing that, once we’re done here, there is everlasting joy to look forward to. We can enjoy the things of this world because we are already satisfied by Christ. We will never be satisfied by the things of this world, but we can have a little fun doing the things that are not sinful. There’s nothing wrong with pursuing some of these empty things if you’re already full.

Solomon tackled the why behind this in verses 13-17, but specifically, I want to point your attention to verse 14. “The wise man has eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness.”

See, we’re all, prior to Christ, walking around on the road of life. None of us know where we’re going or how to get there. It’s like we’re stumbling around, trying to feel the road with our feet, or grasping for a guardrail that lays alongside it. That’s the fool walking in darkness. The worst part: the fool even has the ability to see. The fool has eyes, but either does not know how to open them or willfully refuses to do so.

The wise, on the other hand, have had our eyes opened by God. We see clearly the road that lies ahead of us and know exactly where to put our feet. We have no need to feel the road with our feet or grab onto the guide rope or a guardrail to go in the right direction. God is above us shining brightly on the entire road so that we can always see to follow it.

But the rest of verse 14 says that the same thing happens to us all: “Yet I also knew that one fate comes to them both.” But at the end of it all, whether you can see the road you travel or not, every person will eventually come to the end of their life on this Earth and find an eternal existence. There is an end to the road of life.

Think of it this way: the road of life isn’t a very nice road. There are portions of the path that are overgrown with vines and trees and thorned plants. Some parts have giant holes with a thin beam of wood stretching across it. Some portions of the road are guarded by wild animals. But just as much as it has bad parts, the road has good parts, too.

At one section of the road, there’s a quaint restaurant giving away refreshing drinks and food. At another, the road changes from hard asphalt to a nice, soft grass so you can take your shoes off and walk barefooted. At one point, you even get to take a ride in an air conditioned limousine. And if you make it to the end? You walk off the edge and fall to your death. But afterwards, you are resurrected to live eternally with God.

But some people walk along this road and, because they cannot see, they stumble into the nasty traps laid out on it. Some may get past a few obstacles, but if their eyes remain closed, they will eventually succumb to one of the traps and die. Instead of finding eternal life in Heaven, they are condemned to an eternal existence of suffering in Hell.

But all of that isn’t the real point of this section of Ecclesiastes. The real point is made to those of us who had our eyes opened to see the road. Some of us who are blessed with wisdom take it far too seriously.

When we come to the restaurant handing out drinks and food, we walk by it without partaking because we’re suspicious it’s poisoned. When we reach the soft, grassy section, we keep our shoes on and step gingerly, afraid of potential spikes hiding in the soft grass that could pierce our feet. When we get to the limousine, we ignore the chauffeur telling us to get in out of fear that it would turn off the road into disaster.

When I say we take it too seriously, I mean it. There are some believers out there who don’t allow themselves to have fun with anything, and that’s just not it. Yes, our absolute, primary goal is to turn people to Christ, but what good is it to walk this life on Earth just to die without enjoying some of the pleasures that God has put here for us to experience?

Solomon realized that, as he says in verses 15-16. “So I said to myself, ‘What happens to the fool will also happen to me. Why then have I been overly wise?’ And I said to myself that this is also futile. For, just like the fool, there is no lasting remembrance of the wise man, since in the days to come both will be forgotten. How is it that the wise man dies just like the fool?”

See, there’s no special reward for ignoring the restaurant, the grass, and the limousine. You don’t get an extra commendation from God because you forsake the pleasures He provided for us on the path we walk. Not everything that exists on this Earth is a lie from the pit of Hell meant to distract you from Christ. You can build up some things on this Earth without it being sinful.

The important thing about each of these enjoyable parts of the road of life is the perspective of the one experiencing them. For the believer, we know that it is just a blessing on the road to our final destination: Heaven. We know that there’s no point in putting our stock in those enjoyable activities. We partake and continue on, preparing for our eternal life.

Wisdom, sight, is valuable not because it is the be all end all but because it can give you perspective for each situation. It allows you to determine that the pits and thorns are surpassable. It shows you that the restaurant, soft grass, and the limousine are not the end of the line.

Foolishness, blindness, however, blocks the perspective of those who come across the obstacles and pleasant experiences on the road. While a believer might eat a meal at the restaurant and move on, the nonbeliever will sit at the restaurant for days, stuffing himself with food believing that the death that comes from overeating is the fulfillment of the road.

Whereas she with sight might see the grass and feel the softness of it on her feet until she crosses to the next section of the road, she who is blind might frolic in the grass until she dies of starvation thinking that the ultimate joy of life is to experience the softness of it on her feet.

While the wise man might ride in the limousine to the stop, exit, and thank the driver for the ride, he who is foolish might ride in the air-conditioned limousine long after he was supposed to get out, reveling in the coolness of the air and the comfort of the leather seat until it careens off the edge and takes him to his death.

And that’s what Solomon is saying in verse 13, “And I realized that there is an advantage to wisdom over folly, like the advantage of light over darkness.”

See, on the road of life, we all get to experience some hardship and some happiness. The advantage believers have is that we know that neither the hardships nor the happiness are the end of the line, but that the end of the road is us being smothered in absolute, never-ending joy as we experience an eternity of worshiping Christ.

Wisdom and Commission

Wisdom, and the knowledge of faith, are somewhat undervalued in today’s Christianity. With that, I also believe that we undervalue living life separate from the world and how that impacts the people in our lives, and even those who are not part of our lives.

Many Christians today live far too much like the culture we find ourselves in. With the exception of some standouts, so many of us live as a part of the world five or six days a week and only turn to God on Sundays and Wednesdays. But people talk about that all the time. I’m just going to give you an example of what happens when you don’t.

If you’ve ever read 1 or 2 Kings, you’d know the current king of Israel had a huge impact on whether or not his people followed God or turned to idolatry. Solomon was no different. In 1 Kings 10, a foreign queen appeared in Solomon’s court after hearing about his fame and wisdom in connection with God. When she arrived, she tested him with numerous, difficult questions about his faith, and she found answers to all the questions she had. It was so different and amazing that the Bible says it took her breath away.

In our faith, we do not get to specialize. We cannot allow ourselves to only be consistent and good at one part of our walk with Christ. You have to be able to walk separate from the world just as well as you can speak about the gospel. You have to be able to defend against questions just as easily as you can recite John 3:16 from memory. Why? For situations such as the one Solomon found himself in. It’s an integral part of the Great Commission.

1 Kings 10:1 says, “The queen of Sheba heard about Solomon’s fame connected with the name of the Lord and came to test him with difficult questions.”

Here’s the first part of the equation to having a well-rounded walk with Christ. Solomon was doing something so different that a queen who lived roughly 3,000 KM away from him heard about his wisdom and kingdom and its connection to God and traveled the entire distance with a massive retinue just to speak with him. Even by camel, it would’ve taken her roughly 75 days just to travel that distance as the crow flies—it might have been longer depending on travel routes.

Verse 2 says, “So Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too difficult for the king to explain to her.”

This is pretty impressive. The last part of verse 2 says that the queen asked Solomon about everything that was on her mind. Solomon could’ve been answering questions as complicated as space travel, how God exists outside of time and the connection of that to free will, quantum physics, or more. Okay, some of those could be a little exaggerated, but the point is that no matter what she asked about, Solomon had a satisfactory answer.

Now, you’re not expected to know everything about every subject; none of us come close to the wisdom of Solomon. But you are expected to know as much as possible about the Bible. We are supposed to read, understand, know, and use the knowledge and Wisdom God gives to us. Not just the NT or the OT. Not just the gospels or Paul’s letters. ALL of it.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

It even says why: so you may be equipped for every good work. So you can be prepared for any situation God presents you with. If you follow step 1 and live your life separate from the world, at some point, you will have to defend your faith, so make sure you’re prepared to do so.

Step 3 is to provide for those whom you lead. Our faith is not one that can be lived and practiced in isolation. Where it exists in you, it must also flow out to others.

Verses 8-9 say, “How happy are your men. How happy are these servants of yours, who always stand in your presence hearing your wisdom. May the Lord your God be praised! He delighted in you and put you on the throne of Israel, because of the Lord’s eternal love for Israel. He has made you king to carry out justice and righteousness.” Verses and 4 and 5 also touch on Solomon’s care for the kingdom of Israel.

See, by virtue of Solomon’s faith and life lived for God extending beyond himself, it became evident that this wasn’t something that only Solomon could have. Solomon had the wisdom, but he was not the only one who had the love and providence of God. And because all the people of Israel had the love, joy, and providence of God, the queen of Sheba recognized this was something she could have as well.

Now whether the queen converted or not, the Bible is not fully clear. The verses seem to indicate that she could have, but we know for sure that she recognized God as a divine power because of Solomon’s life, wisdom, and actions towards the people of Israel.

The Great Commission says to go and make disciples, so go and make disciples. But how much more effective could you be in spreading the kingdom if, in addition to going to make disciples, you lived a life so clearly for God that you made people come to you just to see how you do it?

Israel is located near the town Gaza, while the queen of Sheba’s country is labeled “Saba.”)

Life is Empty

Ecclesiastes chapter 2 expands upon the pointlessness of earthly pleasures, going so far as to call everything achieved in this life emptiness. My personal Bible has subheadings for parts of the chapters, and three of them in this chapter are titled “The Emptiness of Pleasure,” “The Emptiness of Possessions,” and “The Emptiness of Work.”

It’s really interesting how Solomon hits on the three main things that we consider the largest vices in today’s times: pleasure: sex, partying, and the like; possessions: money, a house, nice cars, etc.; and work: a solid career, things built by your own two hands, and more. These three things are the trifecta of unfulfilling tragedy.

Let’s start examining the emptiness of these with pleasure. Verses 1-3 say, “I said to myself, ‘Go ahead, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy what is good.’ But it turned out to be futile. I said about laughter, ‘It is madness,’ and about pleasure, ‘What does this accomplish?” I explored with my mind how to let my body enjoy life with wine and how to grasp folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom—until I could see what is good for people to do under heaven during the few days of their lives.”

Sounds dreary, doesn’t it? It might even sound untrue to many. Because, surely, laughter can’t be madness! It’s happiness in a sound. It’s contentment. It’s joy. And pleasure absolutely accomplishes something! It gives happiness, comfort, and contentment. But do these things really do that? I say no, and here’s why.

Look at laughing from an outside perspective: how long does it last? When you laugh, you may go on for as many as few minutes, but when you’re done laughing, the effect is gone. Your eyes uncrinkle, your lips settle back into a relaxed position, and the sound of merriment is snuffed out. As soon as the moment has passed, so too has laughter. So too, has any benefit. It’s fleeting.

And what about pleasure? Parties, alcohol, foolishness. It all feels great temporarily, but what happens when you leave the party? When you sober up? When you face the consequences of your foolishness? All of what you experienced in the midst of these actions is gone. You break free of the monotony for a few moments, and then it comes right back.

Next is possessions. Verses 3-10 described all that Solomon gained in his life. He had houses, vineyards, gardens, parks, every kind of fruit tree, a whole irrigation system to water his trees, tons of servants, more cattle and sheep than he knew what to do with, silver, gold, and all kinds of treasures, his own private musicians, more than 700 wives and 300 concubines. As he says in verse 10, “All that my eyes desired, I did not deny them. I did not refuse myself any pleasure, for I took pleasure in all my struggles. This was my reward for all my struggles.”

So, if there was any person to ever exist who could have found joy in things he owned, it was Solomon. Yet, he didn’t. Verse 11 says, “When I considered all that I had accomplished and what I had labored to achieve, I found everything to be futile and a pursuit of the wind. There was nothing to be gained under the sun.”

Even though he worked hard to get all those things, they weren’t worth it. I find that this part of Ecclesiastes fits really well with Mark 8:46, “For what does it benefit a man to gain the whole world yet lose his life?” Clearly, it benefited Solomon in no way. As we know from the book of 1 Kings, he had the kingdom he presided over taken away from him and given to David for the things he owned and did.

And finally, we get to the emptiness of work. In verses 18-19, 23, it says, “I hated all my work that I labored at under the sun because I must leave it to the man who comes after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will take over all my work that I labored at skillfully under the sun. (23) For all his days are filled with grief, and his occupation is sorrowful; even at night, his mind does not rest. This too is futile.”

Man, talk about dreary, yet again, with Ecclesiastes. But really, take some time to think about this. Personally, I’ve had those moments where I’ve thought deeply about my life on this Earth, having to wake up early in the morning, drive to work, work all day, drive home, work at home, and then sleep, just to do it again the next day. If I think too hard about it, I nearly have an existential crisis worrying about how meaningless those actions are. Just thinking about the monotony of it could drive me insane, and I doubt I’m the only one who has considered this.

Don’t you spend some nights wherein you consider just giving up going to work because you’re not accomplishing anything, anyway? That’s what Solomon’s talking about here. Solomon was wise and skilled at many things, and he dreaded the idea of passing on the achievements of his work to someone who would not do it as well as him. He dreaded it to the point that he dreaded doing the work, and he realized that there’s no point to it all.

Here’s the conclusion: Everything about this Earth and life on it is empty. Your happiness is empty because it cannot hold you up. Your possessions are empty because they are worth nothing in the grand scheme of things. Your work is worth nothing because after you’re gone, someone else will come along and ruin it. Not to mention that there’s nothing satisfying about the monotony of 50 years of a career.

As I’ve mentioned before about Ecclesiastes, its whole job is to drill it deep into your heart and mind that the things on this Earth cannot and will not satisfy you or bring you joy because its goal is to point you to the only one who can: God.

Let me tell you that I did not write all this down and post it online to disenfranchise you about life to the point you decide to do nothing with yours, and neither did Solomon write Ecclesiastes for this reason. In fact, now that I’ve made the point that you can’t find joy and satisfaction in these things, I’m going to tell you to go out and do those things anyway. Because while you can’t find joy and satisfaction in them, you can find happiness.

This is about perspective. In the long term, yes, this life means very little. But in the here and now, God has given us time here to do these things. I think Solomon says it best in verses 24-26:

“There is nothing better for man than to eat, drink, and enjoy his work. I have seen that even this is from God’s hand, because who can eat and who can enjoy life apart from Him? For to the man who is pleasing in His sight, He gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy, but to the sinner He gives the task of gathering and accumulating in order to give to the one who is pleasing in God’s sight. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.”

See, as Christians, we can have happiness in the things we do here because we have the joy of Christ in knowing that, once we’re done here, there is everlasting joy to look forward to. We can enjoy the things of this world because we are already satisfied by Christ. We will never be satisfied by the things of this world, but we can have a little fun doing the things that are not sinful. There’s nothing wrong with pursuing some of these empty things if you’re already full.

Bring Your Best

Many times, God calls us Christians to give Him our best in all that we do for Him because He doesn’t want anything less.

A couple examples: the difference between a good sacrifice and a bad sacrifice for Cain and Abel wasn’t meat versus plants, but it was the spirit in which it was given. Abel gave the best of his flock, whereas Cain gave only some of his produce.

The woman who gave two copper coins for her offering was considered as giving the better offering because she gave all that she had. It didn’t have anything to do with her offering being less valuable and the offerings of the wealthy being more valuable monetarily. It had everything to do with the position she was in.

I think we often get it in our head that what we give to God has to be equal to what other give, that our lives and abilities for the kingdom must be compared with others. I’ve already touched on this in another article, but it bears mentioning again. The life of a Christian is not meant to be one of synonymous walks with Christ. It’s meant to be one of uniqueness. Your walk, and your best, is different than every other person’s.

So, with that said, what does it mean to give your best? I have two parts of scripture to discuss to get at that answer. The first is Malachi 1:8. “‘When you present a blind animal for sacrifice, is it not wrong? And when you present a lame or sick animal, is it not wrong? Bring it to your governor! Would he be pleased with you or show you favor?’ asks the Lord of Hosts.”

The important thing to learn here is that your best requires a sacrifice on your part. Giving something to God doesn’t hold any meaning if it’s something you didn’t want in the first place. See, sacrifices must be something of value, and what value is an animal that is blind, lame, or sick? These animals were not valuable. They could not serve as good breeding stock, nor could they take care of themselves. They only used up resources the farmers could use for other purposes, so giving them up wasn’t a sacrifice at all.

Similarly, we must give our best to God. The best of our time; the best of our energy; the best of our skills. If you only give time to God when you have it spare, what good is it as a sacrifice to God? It isn’t any good because you didn’t have to give up anything. It was useless to you, and thus it is a useless sacrifice to God. This is part of the reason why we’re encouraged to give the first part of our morning to God because, for many people, it’s far more of a sacrifice to wake up 10 minutes early than to stay up 10 minutes later.

Your skills and energy are the same way, too. God doesn’t want you to say, “I’ll serve you in this way, but I’ll keep my career to myself.” Your career is part of your best, and thus, it’s part of giving yourself up to God.

But why should you give your best? Because you made a promise that you would when you accepted the gift of salvation and gave your life to Christ. Malachi 1:14 tells this to the priests who were accepting bad sacrifices, but this isn’t just an Old Testament thing. When you pronounced Jesus as Lord of your life, you gave a vow that He could use you as He wished to accomplish God’s will.

It says, “The deceiver is cursed who has an acceptable male in his flock and makes a vow but sacrifices a defective animal to the Lord.” Even now, you are hurting yourself by giving a valueless part of your life as a sacrifice to God. You’re holding yourself back from potential blessings, and you’re breaking the promise you made to God.

Here’s the final note about bringing your best and your relationship with Christ. For this, I’m taking you to Revelation 3: 15-16, “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of My mouth.” This actually says that you are better off being unsaved than being a “lukewarm Christian.” See, being a “lukewarm Christian” means that you’re deceiving yourself into believing you’re a follower of Christ and will be receiving the rewards that follow that when you’re actually not.

There is no such thing as a “lukewarm Christian.” You’re either with God or not with God. You’re either filled with God’s righteousness, with the Holy Spirit, or you’re stuck in your sin nature. You have the gift of salvation or you don’t. There’s no in-between. You can’t choose to accept salvation and then give up nothing.

So, you have to bring your best because doing anything less is indicative of a life lived as an unsaved individual. It sounds harsh, but there is always the reminder that bringing your best is not something you can succeed at all the time. God’s grace allows for us to fail at that. While there is no in-between saved and unsaved, there is an allowance for our imperfectness, thankfully. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be giving God your everything, though. That’s how you become a “lukewarm Christian.”

Building Godly Character

We have an extremely clear process we are to follow to grow in our faith and build Godly character. Peter was kind enough to write it down in the first chapter of his second letter in a step-by-step list of character traits you should have. This list provides us with the process to grow closer to God and the necessary characteristics we need to be encouraging in other believers.

Firstly, Peter affirms that we have been given everything we need. It’s the spiritual equivalent of the promise God made to satisfy our physical needs. He has done this by granting us His own righteousness and nature so that we can escape the grasp of sin.

2 Peter 1: 3-5 says, “His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. By these He had given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desires.”

Notice that verse three says God has provided us everything that is required for two things: life and godliness. Not only has He given us the key to escaping sin and pursuing Him and His character, He has also granted us all we will need to get through this life on Earth.

2 Peter 1: 5-7 says, “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.”

That’s the process. It all begins with faith in Jesus Christ’s death, resurrection, and the salvation of sinners who accept the free gift. But, we must build on our faith, first with goodness. Let the faith that you have in Christ manifest itself in your actions so that you do genuinely good things. The first step is to be good like God is good.

The second step is to supplement that goodness with knowledge. You must know why you are to be good. To know why you are to be good, you must know why God is good. And to know why God is good, you must understand God’s character. This knowledge, then, should spur you on to greater acts of good for the kingdom of God. Those greater acts of good will add to your faith in Christ as you see what good He does in you and through you.

The third step is self-control. This is both control of your own actions and words, and the control needed to hand over control to God to handle our lives. It’s a step that goes against our very nature, which is one wherein we desire to choose for ourselves what we do. So, let your self-control supplement your knowledge of God by choosing to hand over control to Him because you know you can’t do it on your own.

The fourth step is endurance. The race we run is one of endurance, not of speed. Especially when it comes to self-control, it’s not a one and done thing. You must consistently hand over control of your life to God. To do this requires the will and the strength to continually make decisions that are against the sin nature that is prevalent all around us.

The fifth step is godliness. Endurance is useless if you put your will towards the wrong beliefs, thoughts, and behaviors. You must endure consistently against trials that seek to turn you away from God. The only way you can do that is to be filled with godliness through the character and righteousness of Christ.

The sixth step is brotherly affection, and this is less of a build-up on the first five steps and more of a manifestation of the character that should be filling you at this point in the process, though it does still supplement godliness. Brotherly affection is the love you have for your family in Christ. It builds upon godliness as a manifestation of Christ’s character. To exemplify godliness, you must love your brothers and sisters in Christ, and to love your brothers and sisters in Christ as God loves us, you must have His character.

The seventh step is the culmination of all the steps. It is the most important of all. Out of faith, hope, and love, the greatest is love. The greatest commandment is to love. We are only capable of love because Christ first loved us. So, we must have the first six qualities to love fully as we should. And in addition, we are better able to love others through our faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, endurance, godliness, and brotherly affection as we love like Christ. Love is the last step because God is love.

The most important thing, though, Peter emphasizes after listing these qualities in verse 8. “For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Note that Peter doesn’t say that moving from step one to step two means you no longer have to work on step 1. In fact, once you have these qualities, you must ensure they are always increasing. To do otherwise would be to fall away from God.

In verse 9, Peter says, “The person who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins.”

The best way to explain this verse is to compare it to the parable of the sower. Those who lack these qualities are like the seed on rocky soil. It bursts up quickly but dies out just as quickly because it doesn’t have the right nutrients to grow.

Verse 10 says, “Therefore, brothers, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you do these things you will never stumble.” I feel it’s prudent to mention here that no one will ever achieve the perfection of Godly character required to not stumble in your walk with Christ. Though, if you could avoid stumbling perfectly, this would be the process by which to reach that point in your relationship with God.

In verse 11, which says, “For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly supplied to you,” Peter confirms that this is a checking process for salvation. We know that we can only be gifted salvation through the grace of God, so verse 11 isn’t saying that you’ll get into Heaven by loving others or following this guide. It’s saying that this is a way we Christians can check ourselves for our own salvation, to make sure our hearts are in the right place.

I’m sure a number of us have worried about whether our salvation is real, and this checklist can answer that question for you by presenting you with, and then answering, this question: Have you chosen to follow God and give up your life to Him by chasing after His character?

So, if you’re chasing after God because you want a relationship with the one who saved you, then you’re on the right track. This list just shows you where the track is.

Winning isn't Necessary

Getting the last word in all the time isn’t just unnecessary, it’s downright wrong and completely uncalled for as far as us Christians are concerned. We’ve probably all had those arguments where we just go round and round for ages because we refuse to concede defeat.

But I have to challenge you, and myself: what are you conceding defeat for? What will you lose if you don’t browbeat the other person into submission? Does your point suddenly become meaningless because the other person had the last word? Do you die because you lost the argument? No. You have only your own pride to lose and only yourself to disgrace. And is that really what you’re fighting for? Useless, sinful feelings?

The Bible, specifically Proverbs, has a lot to say about the subject of speaking, arguing, and pride. Sometimes, it’s better not to say anything. Sometimes, it’s fine to say your piece and move on. But, it’s always important to keep a guard on your emotions and the words that come out of your mouth.

Let’s go in chronological order for an argument, shall we?

Proverbs 21:23 says, “The one who guards his mouth and tongue keeps himself out of trouble.”

And Proverbs 13:3 says, “The one who guards his mouth protects his life; the one who opens his lips invites his own ruin.”

It’s a lot easier to avoid sin if we don’t entertain the actions that lead up to sinful behavior. That’s running away from temptation. And, a lot of times, you’re better off just not saying anything at all. Some people are out there just trying to start trouble—you know the people I’m talking about. They aren’t in the conversation to learn and listen; they just want to make you angry. So, as my dad says, “It’s better to keep your mouth shut and let them think you’re a fool than to open it and prove them right.”

Next up is Proverbs 10:19, which says, “When there are many words, sin is unavoidable, but the one who controls his lips is wise.”

This one’s pretty clear. The more you speak, the more likely you are to sin. Particularly in an argument, the more you say, the longer you argue, the more incensed you get, the more likely you are to say something out of anger or hate and sin against God and the person you’re arguing with.

So, say your piece and move on. Let me let y’all in on a little secret: you’re never going to convince someone they’re wrong in the middle of an argument. Emotions run too hot for that, and a lot of the time, people don’t even bother to listen to the other side any more than it takes to refute their point. Winning an argument comes after it’s all said and done, when you have the time to sit back and think about all that was said. You don’t win the argument. The other person loses the argument against themselves.

But, if you do get in an argument and you have something you feel led to say, there’s a way to say it that is in line with how God would like us to act.

Proverbs 17:27 says, “The intelligent person restrains his words, and one who keeps a cool head is a man of understanding.”

And Proverbs 15:1 says, “A gentle answer turns away anger, but a harsh word stirs up wrath.”

Two key points come from these verses: keep calm and speak softly. Don’t attack someone’s character. Don’t raise your voice and yell. Speak in a kind, yet not condescending manner, as if you’re having a conversation with a friend, and nicely refute the points they make with your own points backed by facts.

I’ve learned more and more that it’s impossible to hate someone who’s nice to you all the time. In the same way, it’s impossible to keep up the energy to yell, scream and say mean things when the other party is calm as can be.

And finally, sometimes, you just need to let it go. Let the argument go. Let your pride go. Losing an argument is not the be all end all. Getting the last word in for the sake of your pride is losing far more than letting the other person think they’ve won.

Proverbs 11:12 says, “When pride comes, disgrace follows, but with humility comes wisdom.”

And Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride comes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall.”

If, in your arrogance and pride, you go until you get the last word in, the only one to suffer and lose is you. Not only has your character, as seen by other people, been disgraced because of your actions, but you’ve sinned against God in your prideful behavior.

And in terms of sharing the Gospel, there has never been a single person who was converted by a Christian getting the last word in during a heated theological argument. Defend the faith, yes, but tell them the Gospel, tell them the facts, and then let them stew on that. It’s not always your job to grow the seed you planted.

Seriously, take it from someone who was as habitual about getting the last word in as most people are about their morning coffee. It doesn’t matter. Let them have the last word. Move on. You won’t even notice you “lost the argument.” Your character won’t disappear. In fact, you’ll likely feel better than if you had said the last word.

I’m going to adapt the phrase I quoted from my dad earlier: It’s better to let them believe they won than to say the last word and hand them the victory.