You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
4 I have
not sat [yashab] with vain [shav'] persons [math], neither will I go in [bow']
with dissemblers [`alam]. KJV-Interlinear
4 I do not
sit with deceitful men, Nor will I go with pretenders. NASB
From the previous two verses we have already seen that an actual and legitimate evaluation is based on the content of the soul of the believer.
God performs evaluations, not people.
God’s evaluation is based on what truth or understanding or wisdom resides within the soul of the believer, as well as their application of that content to their daily life.
In this world there a lot of believers in Christ. Unfortunately most fit into the category of vain, or phony, or pretenders.
The word for dissemblers, means one who is hidden or concealed, and it applies to those who hide their true purpose or design from people, or who try to conceal their real character and intentions.
These would be people who talk the talk, but do not walk the walk. They know the vocabulary, they know all the right things to say, and they pretend to be things that they are not.
And here David makes it very clear that his spiritual life is legitimate and genuine, because it is based on knowledge and understanding and wisdom contained within his soul, as well as his following those practices in his daily life throughout his life.
This does not imply that David lived a perfect life, because he made lots of mistakes during his life. But during his life his numbers of mistakes were far fewer than the many, many years that he lived in accordance with God’s will.
What happens with children of school-age, who don’t read their assignments, don’t do their homework, cut class and basically just coast through their school years with emphasis on their social life or anything else except their daily homework?
By continuing that pattern they don’t know anything because they haven’t learned anything, and they become losers life. In order to get through life, you either have to change, or fake your way through life. And in this world if you rely on pretense or faking your way, then sooner or later your life will collapse.
It’s no different in the spiritual life. Most if not all people in this world know some scripture of some kind. Whether it is simply knowing the story of Adam and Eve, or Moses, or the baby Jesus, almost everybody knows something about the Bible. And this includes most unbelievers in the world.
As far as believers go, most have memorized some verses, and many, if not all, have a certain sincerity about them or they have good intentions about living a good life. So they base their Christianity on how they live their life, or how their life appears to others, rather than the measure of the content of doctrine in their soul.
And so they live their lives deceiving themselves, just as school-age children deceive themselves by thinking that they are doing enough, that they know enough, and all the talk about study and homework is a waste of their time.
And unfortunately, this is the way most believers think and conduct their lives. They do not want to be under instruction every day of their lives, they think they know enough to conduct a study on their own. And that in their eyes is sufficient.
And this would be well and good if indeed they practiced a genuine daily study, including research, so that they could know and understand what it is they were reading. But such is not the case, as most believers are inconsistent in their studies, if indeed they even have a study, and therefore they are inconsistent within the function of their spiritual life.
Without truth and understanding and wisdom acquired in the correct way, then all you have is pretense. Because if you don’t know something, and you present yourself as knowing something, then you are phony.
Attempting to evaluate yourself is what a fool does. God is the only qualified evaluator, and his evaluation is accurately based on what is or is not in your soul.
Therefore, if you genuinely desire a good evaluation from God, then you have to learn and grow in accordance with Gods mandates, not by means of your own designs.
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