Oh, how I love your law!
I meditate on it all day long.

Your commands make me wiser than my enemies,
for they are ever with me.

I have more insight than all my teachers,
for I meditate on your statutes.

I have more understanding than the elders,
for I obey your precepts.

I have kept my feet from every evil path
so that I might obey your word.

I have not departed from your laws,
for you yourself have taught me. (Psalm 119:97-102)

Christians often flatter unbelievers and insist that, although they deny all the truths that God reveals to us, these enemies of the faith are still eminently intelligent and have much to offer us in terms of insights and instructions. It is a matter of wisdom, they say, to converse with demons so that we may become like the angels. And it is a matter of humility to learn from children of darkness so that we may become the children of light. This is treason against the Lord, and there is no wisdom or humility in it. Rather, the Bible teaches us to separate from them and to oppose them. God’s teachings are ever with us, and they make us wiser than the non-Christians, so that we may defeat their schemes, arguments, and unbelief.

The world respects human credentials and professionals, and this mentality has infiltrated the church to such an extent that Christians also categorize and evaluate themselves by the non-Christian system. However, if we become trapped in human measurements, we will become limited by human accomplishments. When we spurn man’s artificial system and commit our attention to God’s words, then we rise above what our teachers have achieved and decided, and advance to the realm of the mind of Christ. The world bows down to its doctors and professors, and Christians have implemented the same system so that they can also perform this exercise. But God tells me that I can have more insights than my teachers because I meditate on his words.

Then, experience is said to be the greatest teacher. But if experience is the greatest teacher, then it must be a greater teacher than God himself. So this is blasphemy, but it is a blasphemy that many Christians heartily affirm. What has happened? Lacking a sure guide, non-Christians have chosen for themselves substitutes, so that as a drunk man drives another drunk man home, they both crash into a wall and die. When God’s people are weak in their zealousness and reverence, the tendency is to follow the unbelievers. So Christians also think that experience is the best teacher. But God tells me that I can have more understanding than the aged and the experienced because I follow his precepts.

God has established the Bible as a reliable way for his mind to contact our minds, and for his thoughts to become our thoughts. The way to advance in Christ and in life is to think on God’s words all the time and follow his teachings. And because God is wiser than our enemies, our teachers, and our elders, we can be as well. We can break through the clichés that there is always something to learn from people, even those who deny our faith, that there is authority in human credentials and positions, and that there is superior wisdom in age and experience. I can advance beyond these because through the Bible, God himself has become my teacher.