Bad Advice 2021 04 11
Proverbs 19:27
When it comes time for an important decision, it can be very wise to seek advice. Right now, we are in the midst of a world-wide catastrophe, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. The end is in sight, it seems, yet there are many who are rejecting the best advice available, instead listening to what they want to hear, rather than the best available information. They are listening to bad advice, which will likely do nothing more than make this bad situation go on longer. Good advice has great value. Bad advice can be very appealing to the ears, but catastrophic in practice. Good advice can save your life. Don’t listen to bad advice.
Proverbs 19:27
We read in 1Kings 12:6 – 16 of Solomon’s son, King Rehoboam, who first went for advice to those who had the knowledge and experience necessary to give wise counsel. They were the men who had served as advisers to King Solomon. They were the wise men of Solomon’s kingdom, old men with years of experience. They gave him good advice, but he didn’t like it. Then he went to his friends, the inexperienced and spoiled young men he grew up with. Their advice was rash, brash, and cruel, but it appealed to the young king’s pride, so he followed it, bad as it was. The result was the division of Israel into the southern kingdom of Judah and the northern kingdom of Israel. It was bad advice!
I Don’t Listen to Bad Advice
- Don’t listen to the instruction of those who teach error. In business, it can be a bit of a mine field, trying to determine who to listen to and who not to listen to. Financial advisers make mistakes, regularly. And so do scientists…
- But in life, there’s no need to sit under someone who teaches error. The Bible has clear instructions that will never lead you astray. Jeremiah 6:16 “Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls….” Don’t be like the people of Judah who said. “… We will not walk therein.”
- Don’t be like Jeroboam. Jeroboam had some good advice from the same, proven, experienced men who advised his father, but he chose instead to listen to advice from his inexperienced peers. Unproven conspiracy theories! The result of listening to errant instruction was the division of the kingdom that his father and grandfather had worked so hard to unite. “Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge.” Don’t listen to bad advice. The specific warning in this proverb it to cease from listening to advice that appeals to your proud heart, your fleshly temptations, rather than honouring God.
II Test the Spirits
- Sometimes it seems really difficult to determine what the right plan is. Circumstances many press in on us, or people may pressure us to follow their lead (also called “peer pressure”). But the Bible tells us how to test the spirits, how to see if the advice we are getting is from God or some other source. “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” 1 John 4:1 – 3
- Any spirit that disagrees in any way with the word of God is antichrist, because it is denying Christ, who is the Living Word.
- We test the spirits by the Word of God. In other words, the place for us to go for advice is the Bible and any advice we receive must agree with the Bible.
- The Bible says, “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” Galatians 5:19 – 21
- It’s easy to see where Rehoboam went wrong, just in glancing at this list. The advice he took from his peers was hateful, wrathful and guaranteed to cause strife. Drunkenness could easily have been involved. (Wine is a mocker, says the Bible). The young crowd may well also have envied the prominence of their elders and probably wanted a name for themselves. If Rehoboam had taken his father’s advice, as written in the proverb, today, he would have easily recognized the bad advice coming from his friends. “Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge.” Don’t listen to bad advice.
- The Bible says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22,23
- Here is a true statement: If the advice that someone is giving you is contrary to the fruit of the Spirit, it is bad advice. Even if the fruit of the Spirit seems contrary to common sense in the particular situation you find yourself in, do not follow the bad advice of the one who would argue with God. God is never wrong.
- If Rehoboam had remembered the words his father wrote by the inspiration of God, he would have remembered Proverbs 15:1 “A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.” or perhaps Proverbs 25:15 “By long forbearing is a prince persuaded, and a soft tongue breaketh the bone.” Meekness is not weakness – it is the power of God when it is in obedience to God.
- There are many verses, just in the book of Proverbs, that warn us to practice the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, not the world’s ways.
- It is not God’s way for us to be aggressive. It is not God’s way for us to stand up for our supposed rights. That is God’s business. Jesus said, “But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” Matthew 5:39. That’s the correct advice. “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.” Proverbs 3:5 – 7
Conclusion
- Evil is increasing in this world and it will until the fullness of time, when Christ returns. Christians will be singled out unfairly, more and more. Already, there are those in high places who say that Christians who believe the Bible are a threat to national security. Christians who just want to worship quietly in our own facilities are being singled out as being the ones responsible for spreading disease. A church in Alberta, Canada, has been closed and a security fence has been placed around it, simply for doing what God commands, gathering together as the local church. There is no evidence of any kind that churches, save a couple of anomalies, have been spreading anything but love. Other venues where more than one disease IS spread have been open almost continuously. We are advised to tolerate sin, to go with the flow, and to keep our faith to ourselves. Yet this is bad advice, the very worst advice, because it so clearly contradicts what God says, “… Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Matthew 16:15
- Don’t follow bad advice – follow Christ. Be busy about the work of the kingdom, until He comes.