Considering Proverbs 4:5-9

⁵ Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.

⁶ Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee.

⁷ Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.

⁸ Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her.

⁹ She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.

When Jesus walked the earth, He showed the world His wisdom and they killed Him for it. Should we, as Christians, expect any different? Even so, we should not be consumed with fear. We should learn more of Jesus and His wise teachings, learn to live according to His teachings, and our lives will instruct others along the way.

Jesus had a lot to say. Both His teachings, the miracles He performed, and the testimony of His life, death, and resurrection provide us with a wealth of understanding that helps us order our lives according to the wisdom of God.

If we love Him and trust in Him, then we should consider His sayings deeply—not just in terms of what we hear from others, but through individual reflection and time spent communicating with Jesus Himself in Spirit.

It is easy for Christians to become some-what complacent. We hear the same stories and the same scriptures over and over, and for some that leads to a kind of desensitization. We lose our zeal for the Word of God. We listen to the teachings of our church leaders, and we assume that the popular view must be the right view. When we see a scripture that seems to contradict, or if we question a teaching in general, we assume that our perspective must be wrong because the majority must be right.

If we consider Jesus and the things He said about His ways not being our ways, if we consider Jesus and how He walked independently of the religious leaders of His day, if we consider the ways of the early church that thrived in persecutions and had no prominent building that exalted one man above all but instead viewed each Christian as a member of a body that worked together and gave more honor to the weaker members, if we remember that the greatest of all is servant of all—and the servant of all cannot be servant of His or Her own biases, maybe we can stop and think. Maybe what we think is right is just another tradition.

It is okay to hold whatever view we like so long as we do not depart from the teachings that matter most: Jesus Christ and Him crucified for the forgiveness of sins and resurrection from the dead—ideally considering this teaching not just in a letter-of-the-word manner but in spirit also—understanding that we too must “take up our cross” as we die to sin and sacrifice pleasures in this life so that we can experience the resurrection of a more righteous life that honors Jesus and His sacrifice.

We need to humble ourselves. If we think that our denomination is right and others are false, and therewith we begin to accuse our brethren in our heart or begin to feel superior to them, if we then begin to condemn them, do we not know that “with what judgment you judge you will be judged?” Do we not know that hypocrisy has no place in the Kingdom of Heaven?

If we were honest with ourselves and considered the ways of Jesus with an open heart—and not as old wine skins—then maybe we would see that indeed His ways are not our ways.

Every denomination of Christianity has a truthful aspect to it. Every denomination of Christianity has some misunderstanding. God is merciful and He is wise to keep us some-what separated so that no central authority forms over us all; He knows that we desire a king just like His people always have.

Yet. It should not be so. It will not be so when Jesus returns. Will we be angry with Him when He comes speaking against our traditions? Will we allow Jesus to rule over us, or will we gnash our teeth because He tells us that our beloved leaders were wrong about many things? We will gnash our teeth because He finds us accusing our fellow servants?

The teachings of Jesus contain so much wisdom that the words of a book cannot contain it. That is why we have the Holy Spirit. Look at His teachings with a willing heart and consider what He might have to say. Do not be as one who has “left your first love.” Love Jesus first, and do not deceive yourself saying that you do love Jesus first when you place your traditions higher than He—whether you realize it or not.

It is not an easy thing to let go of the comfort of tradition. It can feel scary and confusing. However, the reward is worth it. Jesus is alive. The Word is alive. We can learn of Him.

This does not mean we have to leave our church necessarily or start tearing them down. Many people need these places and there is much good wrought of them. It is good to live in a land that still allows us to have church. However, we also need to know that we are heading for a new Kingdom and our ways of church in the west and modern Christianity in general will perish with this world—especially as our ways of church around the world continue to be corrupted by the world—and this corruption includes false teachings, making sin acceptable, our pride, our resentment of other believers, our accusations of other believers, and our resistance to hearing what Jesus really has to say.

Let us follow Jesus more closely. Let us hear what He has to say. Let us find wisdom. “Let no man steal your crown.” If Jesus is King over our hearts, then we become ruled by Him and we bring Him forth. If man rules our hearts, then they are stealing our crown, even if Jesus is on their lips.

If we want a crown of honor, we must first wear a crown of thorns as He did. We must cast our crowns of pride before Him. We must die to self and to this world. If you do so, if you overcome, then Jesus will give you a better crown. He said: “He that overcomes, to him will I give to sit with me on my thrown, as I also overcame, and am sat down with my Father on His thrown.”

I like to end these writings with my own personal reflection, but I will not contrive one. Rather than reflection, I have testimony. I am not trying to boast of myself or what I have done (or rather what Jesus has done, because many confuse stating what Jesus has done with boasting). However, I as well as others have been brought up outside of traditional western Christianity for a reason. I do not think we assume ourselves to be better, but instead we feel rejected, and all the more as we learn to love all and serve all rather than serve biases.

I know it is hard to walk the less popular road. I also know somewhat of the reward. There is more traveling to do and more to gain. I am here for any who want someone to talk to, but I am not your Lord. Jesus is.