2 Samuel 15:4 English Standard Version (ESV) Then Absalom would say, “Oh that I were judge in the land! Then every man with a dispute or cause might come to me, and I would give him justice.”

Do you know the tale of Absalom? This is King David’s son. The inherent danger here is not in hopes of replacing his father on the throne but in becoming godlike just as Eve had done. She ate of the fruit of self-promotion and Absalom has followed in her steps.

The real danger here for all of us is not that much different. Knowing right does not make us right. The knowledge of right does not make us the judge of anyone. Right in the hands of those without wisdom to use that knowledge places all in danger of abuses.

If you know the tale of Absalom then you know he ordered his servants to kill his brother Amnon. Yes Amnon did wrong but that did not give Absalom the right to play God. What happened is closer to a kind of satanic fall. First Absalom hated his brother and then acted on it.

Our command from our Lord is to love one another and it is really hard to love one another if we go about judging every little thing we see. The inherent danger in fellowship is that as people open up to one another we will discover things we either disagree with or see as dangerous thoughts.

Seeing dangerous thoughts need to be addressed but must be addressed with wisdom not judgment.

What are dangerous thoughts?

For the sake of fellowship in Christ they should be seen as opposing the gospel and endangering the salvation of the innocent.

Having differing opinions about politics are not dangerous thoughts unless there is a proposed action to limit the rights in freedom of worship.

Wisdom must be used to approach dangerous thoughts because judgment does not sway them.

Ecclesiastes 8:14 English Standard Version

Man Cannot Know God’s Ways

¹⁴ There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.

These comment can take you back a little if you do not have a proper understanding about our righteousness. Our righteousness is in Christ. There is nothing vain in that but our interaction with the world often ends up being a hope and a prayer that our leaders in government and industry are doing the right thing for all of us.

It has to come down to the issue of involving God more in our lives than we once did. In our past we only turned to God when things went bad. We lived and when things went bad cried for help. What we should do as sons of the living God is to engage ourselves more into His plans for us and follow His instructions.

If you love me, keep my commandments, is not a law abiding effort, it is a relationship choice. Since He is the Head and we are the body, we should ask Him directly, where are we going and what are we doing today? He never leaves us nor forsakes us, but like little children at times we are more focused on our toys and all the excitement going on outside.

Vanity is thinking that everything is going to be fine even if we do not involve God. We should involve God in all that we do. If He should say “You can handle this!” then that is an indication that we have been trained up properly. In order to hear than from Him, we would still need to ask.

Do not say that God has more important things to do than involve Himself in my life that much.

That is vanity on my part, not His.