Passage of the Day - May 25, 2011

Ecclesiastes 7:16-18

 ¹⁶Do not be excessively righteous and do not be overly wise. Why should you ruin yourself?

 ¹⁷Do not be excessively wicked and do not be a fool. Why should you die before your time?

 ¹⁸It is good that you grasp one thing and also not let go of the other; for the one who fears God comes forth with both of them.

Curious.  Interesting it says to not be excessively or overly except about being a fool.  Never, ever, be a fool.  We can be wicked, just not a fool.  How weird.  What is meant by not being excessively righteous and not excessively wicked?  Let’s start with wicked.  Is there some sort of allowable wickedness?  Of course not.  However, we are inherently wicked.  We should not pursue additional paths of wickedness above and beyond what we struggle with currently.  Ok then, what about excessively righteous.  Was Jesus excessively righteous?  Is God?  Excessive righteousness appears to mean more like legalism or stagnation from fear of committing sin.  God tells us to focus on loving and serving God and our neighbors, not to be a do-gooder goody-two-shoes.  Finally, overly wise.  What does that mean?  Another term for that is “Fat Christian”.  We consume all the wisdom and knowledge that can be gleaned from scripture and do absolutely nothing with it.  We will know the right thing to say or do in any situation, but focusing too much on gaining excessive amounts of wisdom doesn’t allow us the time or energy to serve others.  What good is that?  God can’t be overly righteous or overly wise because He isn’t constrained by temporal forces. We, on the other hand, are.  If we choose to fully conquer A, we can never attack B or C.  God can conquer A thru Z all the time.

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®,
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