¹⁹ … and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, ²⁰ a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth …

Spiritual blindness of the religious can be the danger of propagating the truth they have discovered. Pride is always knocking at the heart’s door. Once they know the truth, they so easily become quite proud of themselves. In speaking to the Jews, Paul heaps on false praise, a sort of sarcasm. One wonders if he is speaking against the propensity he remembered from his pre-conversion days. He wrote to the Philippians, “…I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless” (Phil 3:4–6). He had the audacity to think of himself as blameless—that’s how he viewed his attitude before Christ. However, now as a believer, he saw that “… whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ” (Phil 3:7). But he could still see clearly, after all these years, that his old mentality was endemic to religious thinking—he knew it well because he had epitomized it in his past.

Religiosity carries the false confidence of being able to see clearly what others are ignorant of, and to set those others straight. Although Paul is not speaking directly to Christians, the net spreads wide to include all religious people. Christians are in danger of acting in similar ways. In the typical Christian church, we hear the Word of God preached from the pulpit (in many churches twice on Sundays), taught in Sunday school, proclaimed at mid-week services or in the plethora of small groups, memorized for Bible quizzing competitions or a discount on Christian camp fees. Our minds are flooded with radio, Internet and blog teachings, social media assertions, and Christian verses framed on walls or taped above our sinks or on our dash boards. We have heard testimonies, stories and illustrations over and over again. We have the Word of God all around us—and we begin to think that since we know it, we are experts in living it. We even become “experts” at agreeing or disagreeing with interpretations, siding with this preacher or that preacher.

Paul took aim at the pride of knowledge, the pride of position, the pride of theology, the pride of our principles and the pride of biblical knowledge. The Gospel cuts across all these with the message of grace, as we shall see.

Lord, I confess my pride. Teach me to humbly follow Your way of grace.