Beware of biblical specialists

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.      Matthew 23:23 

In 2016 I went to get some medical tests done and I was  been struck by how little medical "specialists" know about other areas of medical practice. I also noticed, in many cases, a tendency towards a mocking attitude that these specialist have towards ideas, especially in relation to their specialties, that are presented to them that they have not considered themselves. I found that medical specialists, trained in pharmaceutically funded university medical programs know a lot about a very narrow range of medical issues related to either surgical procedures or about symptoms of diseases related to the drugs sold to suppress those symptoms. I’ve found that they know little to nothing outside their specialized areas and so must pretend to be medical authorities about many aspects of health which they know nothing about. This seems to be why the whole medical system in the United States has revealed itself as the fraud that it has grown into. 

Likewise, I have also seen that people in general focus on the areas in life where they have affinities. There might be one person who is especially good in math, or science, or computers, or relationships, or business, or literature. The cultures of the world each of us live in encourage us to specialize in areas that match our God given gifts. When we do this we get a sense of carnal worth in the comparison of our expertise with the expertise of others (exalting ourselves, without even being aware of this self-exhalation, over those who don't share our gift). 

The other aspect of this phenomenon is that we use our self-exaltation our strivings to develop our natural strengths to avoid addressing aspects of our lives that are sinful. This, it seems, is one main issue God is pointing out in  the Matthew 23 verse.  

“For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people to whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear…..” Isaiah 28:10-12 

We are taught that there is an effective methodology that we can utilize to learn about God's Word. That through our diligence in studying the Bible God may reveal the meaning of His Truth to us (according to His good pleasure and in His good time).  

I've also thought, however, that using this methodology to specialize in one area of God's truth at the cost of other areas might be a snare for some readers. He/she might develop an understanding of a particular area and then, instead of continuing to following God's lead of "here a little there a little", this “expert” might using his “connection” to Gods Word, not to further grow in his personal relationship with God but, instead, to use this insight to impress and start gathering others to himself….. 

“As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.”    Galatians 6:12-13 

…. to exalt himself in the particular gift or insight he has acquired, deciding that if others do not share his point of view they are not saved. In doing this, which, all of us have a sinful inclination to do, can move a reader or listener further away from the all-important process of God convicting him in his sin. 

“Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people: Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his! how long? and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay!”  Habakkuk 2:5-6 

“Thick clay” is groups of people. It seems to me that as soon as we start judging each other personally for not agreeing with us in whatever insight God may have given us, we are falling into the Biblical "specialist" snare.  

In this time of judgment we see that the only "correction" that a believer is subject to in truth is by God, Himself. God gives us fellows who have gifts to aid us in God's guidance of us and it is the love and respect of each other of like mind that is the context of God's correction of each believer in this time of judgment, not the false "correction" of other men as was one of the hallmarks of the church age. 

Beware of the leaven of the  Pharisees. May God continue to protect us from following the leaven of men rather than God, by His Word, directly.