We must strive for the truth and accurate understanding of what God intended to tell us. We cannot put God in our own man-made box of thinking. There has been many people who put up complicated theology, intriguing imaginations, and man-made rules that people must follow! They are like the Pharisees of the old – the one whom have myriad of rules. They think by possessing the right rules, having royal bloodline (the Jews), and having Abraham as their father that they are saved. Instead they burden people with cumbersome rules that no one can live up to. It is only by God’s grace and mercy that we are saved.

They will tell you that they are right and everyone else are wrong. But once people profess they have all the answer and the knowledge, they stop learning. Their mind is closed to further inquiry and additional learning. How can they learn more if they are assured they have the answers? I can point out some examples, some people who believe their church only possesses the correct ‘truth’, correct ‘theology’ and that everyone else is wrong. Some believe their bible translation is the only correct one, and others are not as ‘pure.’ (Whenever translating from one language to another, something get lost in the process. It could be the meaning, the context, or combination of both. This is why when we study the bible, we should not rely on only one translation but several translations and also to dig deep in the Word. Not only that, I do believe that Holy Spirit will speak to our heart regardless of any limitation translation may have.)

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting we should adopt moral relativism (which is a philosophy that suggests there is no truth, instead it is only relative depending on a person’s perspective). There are only one Truth, and only one way to God – that is through the blood of Christ. If we are to learn the truth, we must remain humble and be open to God’s voice. Sometimes pride could get in the way of hearing God’s gentle whisper because we have a man-made idea of what ought to be rather than the actual reality and the way God see it.

We should be of one body and one mind. He was not divided just as the churches are! These days, there are too many divisions in the churches. They are divided because we haven’t given up ourselves over to God. There are pride, quarreling, judgmental attitudes, those who water down God’s sacred word, and more! This is not what God intended. We must be of one mind, one in Christ. We can only do this if we decrease in Self and let Christ increase in ourselves so we can remain in Truth.

Lots of snares! I saw one, two, and multiples of them! There’s the snare of Pride, thinking that we are better than others, more important, more worthy.. These are stubborn and pops up too easily. The flesh doesn’t like when we humble ourselves and consider others higher than us. We have to keep remember that Jesus was worthy to receive Glory, Power, and more! But yet he humbled Himself to the point of sacrificing His blood for us, even when He was worthy of infinitely much more! He washed disciples’ feet and we can at least follow His example!

Another thing to help with pride issue is that all of us have sinned and probably have hurt someone at some point in our lives. Do we deserve to be treated well after what we done? Even one ‘tiniest’ sin is still considered abhorring in God’s sight. But in His infinite love, His blood sacrifice has covered multitudes of our sins and the least we can do is give Him our love and treat others well. Remember before you judge someone else or try to think yourselves better than other, look at your heart and what have you done before? Jesus said that let those without sin be the first to cast stone against the prostitute. Love God and love one another, if someone is sinning then rebuke that person gently but do not consider yourself better because of that person’s sin lest you think you are self-righteous like Pharisees of the old.

There are many snares out there, and I only mentioned one of them. Be alert and vigilant! Put on the full armor of God!

Ephesians 6:10-18 (NIV)
¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.