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Advent 2016, The Wise Way, Day 3

Wise Christians evaluate motivations and are not used by others for secret purposes. Are you trusting or cynical or careful in dealing with advice and requests? Have you ever been unintentionally used?

by David Joynt on December 27, 2016


THE  WISE WAY: EVALUATION
MATTHEW 2:3-8, 12

Openness is not the same thing as gullibility. The person who is willing to learn must also be careful not to be deceived. Wisdom seeks others' expertise, but is never naive concerning their motivations. The wise men do get help from the court of Herod, but they do not believe that this King, who was infamous for his murderous brutality, really wanted to worship the arriving  Messiah. The indication of his falseness, was secrecy. (Herod's desire to murder the Messiah would have been scandalous to any Jew in his territory.) The wise men do not fulfill their commission, and go home by an alternative route, avoiding Herod completely.

Wise Christians evaluate motivations and are not used by others for secret purposes.
Are you trusting or cynical or careful in dealing with advice and requests?
Have you ever been unintentionally used?

FAMILY TIME: How do we know someone is wise?

Tags: advent, wise

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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