Romans 2:19
19 And [te] art confident [peitho] that thou thyself [seautou]
art [einai] a guide [hodegos] of the blind [tuphlos], a
light [phos] of them which are in [en] darkness [skotos],KJV-Interlinear
19 and if you are sure that you yourself are a
guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, ESV
The worst type of fool, is one who believes sincerely
that he is wise and not the fool. And so
Paul continues the reprimand of the local Jews, who were proud, wicked and
hypocritical, never for a moment believing that they were these things.
There are three types of fool.
The first is simply not interested in the Bible and
therefore by rejecting truth, is subscribed by default to the lies of the world
and therefore becomes a fool for believing and depending on the nonsense of the
world.
The second type of fool, is one who makes a front or a
pretense of the Bible or God or such things, but never learns the inaccuracy of
their beliefs, and never pursues a learning process in order to learn the
truths of life.
The third type of fool, is one who studies diligently,
but incorrectly, but misapplies what they learn thus arriving at the wrong
conclusions. This is where the Jews
were. They studied the Law diligently
but they missed the whole point of its purpose, believing that its works were a
means of salvation, instead of the proof of ones inability to work for salvation
and therefore needing a Savior to do all of the work for them. They missed the principles of salvation, the
principles of confession, the principles of the spiritual life and so forth.
Today, most Christians are in the those second and
third categories of fools. They know all of the words and stories, but miss the
whole point of spiritual growth and development.
Most Christians today, as with the Jews of Pauls day,
believe they are right, believe that they are sincere enough, and believe that,
that is quite enough for them to be acceptable to God. And they are wrong.
Unfortunately, most will not discover the error of
their ways, because they simply do not look for the errors within themselves.
They do not abide by Gods mandate to learn by being taught through study daily,
they do not confess regularly and thus remain perpetually out of
fellowship. They do not promote doctrine
because they do not know it. They do not
support Bible study, because they are subtly selfish.
Yet they will see themselves as wise in their own
eyes, and whatever it is that they do, is quite sufficient as far as they are
concerned.
And in the next couple of verses, we will see that they
teach or promote their wrong beliefs, never pausing for a moment to check
themselves or the accuracy of their own beliefs.
You cannot know if what you believe or know is right
or wrong, unless you constantly compare or test it against a standard.
And the spiritual life, being constantly hammered by
the world throughout your entire life, demands that you be constantly on guard
and alert. And that comes by means of a
daily study.
