Titus 3:9 But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain. The writer remembers calling, late one Saturday evening, on a friend, an able theologian, whom he found seated at his writing table, evidently almost in a state of despair, and with tears in his eyes. "Why are you so sorrowful?" he said to him. In reply, the theologian only smiled sadly, and pointed to his wastepaper basket, which was full of torn up manuscript. "See," he said, "the remains of eighteen quires of paper, which I have written all over since Monday morning, endeavouring to get my thoughts into order for my sermon tomorrow. But now I am more stupid and perplexed than when I began. I wanted to show how the two truths can be harmonised, that God knows everything and is the cause of everything, and yet that man is a free agent." It was no wonder that, notwithstanding all the intense thought and all the expenditure of paper, pens, and ink, that sermon did not get itself finished; for the more earnestly a man ponders on such problems the deeper and darker does the Divine mystery become. He who does not wish to lose his senses will postpone the consideration of such unanswerable questions to eternity, and then there will be no fear of his wanting occupation there. (Otto Funcke.) Parallel Verses KJV: But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain. |
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