Vanity of Cleverness

The Vanity of Cleverness displaying sharp intelligence or mental alertness in the biblical usage which includes the ability to understand and learn quickly. We must grow up in our Salvation for one we don’t know the time or day Jesus shall come. Therefore we must learn and grow up in our salvation to tell others. A concept shared from the beginning of time even before time had begun. Here is where we must learn the vanity of clearness. How to display it in sharpness of the moments that we encounter with people who are lost. Ecclesiastes 1:2 the words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher, "Vanity of vanities! All is vanity." What advantage does man have in all his work which he does under the sun? This approaches the chief Old Testament understanding that human life apart from God. We have no ultimate significance in this world if we are traveling through and are not telling others about Jesus. To let those we encounter know that hell is real and there is a consequence.  However a consequently when we are apart from our heavenly father there is a tremendous feeling of lacking something missing in our lives. For those of us who are call out to do His good pleasure and will have a sense of emptiness when we don’t apply the principles of His undying love which is stain in our heart. Philippians   2:13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. We tend to think of cleverness as the ability to get away with something in a negative sense. In keeping with the cultural stereotypes of his time, The Apostle Paul in all of the trials of his final years never had a lawyer. Jesus was his heavenly advocate, but he represented himself before both Jewish and Gentiles judges. It was certainly a great embarrassment to them to be outwitted by Paul's cleverness. I suspect it is an embarrassment to many Christians even that Paul was so clever in his escape. The reason is that the Christian is often conditioned to think that being clever is more in tune with following Satan than the Savior.  We see satanic cleverness at its best in his temptation of Jesus. He came to a starving man and urged him to use His power to make bread of stones. He came to a man who was lonely and in need of fellowship seeking to entice Him to jump off the temple and have the cheering crowds at His side. He came to a man who felt weak and powerless, and offered him the kingdoms of the world if he would bow down to him. Satan is a master of cleverness, but we are blind indeed if we think he is the king of cleverness. Jesus outwitted him at every point and takes the throne as king of cleverness. From that victory in the wilderness Jesus went on to His public ministry where He had to outwit the Scribes, Sadducees and Pharisees time and time again. Then He had to outsmart the devil even in death, and gain control of his realm by getting the keys to death and hell. Jesus not only outwitted the best minds of His day, He outwitted the serpent himself and became the greatest example of the power of sanctified cleverness in overcoming the forces of evil. Instead its main demonstration of intelligence lies in its characters' ability to plan, scheme, and maneuver strategically around others as with Satan. The cunning serpent was able to deceive Adam and Eve into choosing death for life, and by his cunning he has deceived the majority of mankind.  If you are going to win any battle against the forces that promote prejudice, racism, discrimination, and all forms of injustice in the world you must develop the virtue of cleverness In which he testified against us and followed vanity, becoming vain acting as the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them. 1 Corinthians 1:17 For Christ did not send me to baptize the young boy who asked his teacher, "Would you punish someone for something they didn't do?" When she said, "Of course not," he said, "Good, because I didn't do my homework. This was not only cleverness of vanity. It was deceit and also this boy’s character. And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. ³I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, ⁴and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power Paul cleverness as preach the gospel not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. Now I did baptize also the household of Stephan’s; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized any other. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void. The gospel must not in any way appeal to their pride or perverted interests. It would be like sprinkling an evangelistic message with prurient humor. Many people try to live Godly have rejected the statutes and the covenant they made with God. They have also forgotten the testimonies of Jesus Christ that we were overcome from. His blood and testimonies wash and cleans us from sin. And allow us to travel through this world not ashamed of the gospel but walking of love in the gospel of Jesus Christ. How we tend to forget the loving kindness and Gods great mercy when things in our lives cause us to lose focus on the meaning of Gods agape love.