I did not object to the stories the teachers told that related to the text. Many were great illustrations. However, the stories were not given as illustrations of the truths found in scripture, they were offered to validate what was written.
Think for a moment…
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.—2 Timothy 3:16 (NASB)
But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, 21for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.—2 Peter 1:20-21 (NASB)
We accept that the Bible is the inspired word of God. That means that ultimately, even though written by the hand of men, using the style, language and vocabulary of men, the Bible was authored by God through the Holy Spirit.
We may have questions about the inspiration of the Bible, yet we do not wonder if it is God’s word. For that reason we must adopt and maintain an attitude of reverence toward the word of God. We really should imagine in our minds that God is speaking to us through the many writers of scripture.
Now, back to the classes on Proverbs and Ecclesiastes…
The personal stories were offered to validate the things written in scripture. Does that seem backwards to you? It is one thing to use an illustration to clarify a difficult proverb. It is quite another thing to evaluate the truth of the proverb on the basis of one’s life experience.
God did not speak to mankind and then ask, "What do you think about that; do you think it's true?" We must not take the word of God and then compare it our own understanding of the sum total of human experience and knowledge. Remember…
In the beginning...God.
God is the starting point of man’s existence. He is the backdrop against which we must discover ourselves and find meaning. His word is the standard by which we evaluate our lives.
Applied to the wisdom of the Proverbs, we must accept the truth of God’s word and then evaluate our own life experiences. It is the truth of God’s word that validates my life, not the other way around. If my personal experiences are necessary to validate God’s word, then ‘I’ have become the standard by which truth is known and understood. We should use human experiences only to illustrate and perhaps to help explain the existing truth of God’s word.
Do not be wise in your own eyes;Fear the Lord and turn from evil.—Proverbs 3:7 (NASB)
We need to be a people who listen to God’s word. We need to accept it at face value. We need to adjust our lives to conform to God’s word, not make it conform to our lives.
Mark Stinnett
July 13, 2025
