Proverbs 26:16 The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason.
Have you ever noticed that sometimes the people that do the poorest in some area are the ones that least know it? Here is a guy who thinks he can sing. Everyone knows he cannot, but he sings nonetheless. Now, I’m not against people serving where they can, and I’m not saying you have to be an expert at something before you can serve. What I am saying is that sometimes people have a very inflated view of their abilities whether it is music, logic, sports, or something else.
It is very easy for us to think we are better than we are. It is also easy for some temperaments to think they are poorer than they are. The bottom line is that none of us are really accurate in esteeming our own selves or our own abilities, but we can work at it.
Proverbs 26:16 says, “The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason.” A sluggard is someone who is lazy. You can be lazy with what you do or you can be lazy in what you think. This guy is lazy in what he thinks. He is wiser in his own eyes “than seven men that can render a reason.”
Reason is something you have to do before it is something you can have. I need to reason through the issue at hand. Then, reason is something I have. I am doing something for a reason. One Bible commentary says, “The thoughtless being ignorant of their ignorance are conceited.” That is a good way to put it. In other words, wisdom and understanding take work. They are not automatic. And the less you know, the more you think you know. This is something I have noticed in my life. The older I get, the more I learn and the more I realize that there are so many things I do not know. The more you know, the more you comprehend what it is that you do not know.
So, in the end, arrogance is ignorance almost by definition. Arrogance is an inflated view of self that keeps one from seeing self accurately. Such a person is not doing the work necessary to know what it is he does not yet know. Arrogance is ignorance.
On the other hand, humility is wisdom. If I want to know more than I know right now, I’ve got to realize that I don’t know everything. I may think I have a good voice, but I need to keep working on the voice I have. I may think I’m brilliant, but I need to keep thinking as accurately, logically, and theologically as I can. Don’t be absorbed by your own perception of yourself. The word “conceit” means “in your own eye.” In his own conceit a man becomes arrogant because he has no perspective but his own. There is nothing to balance him out.
God knows what is in my heart, and sometimes I am the last one to know. The bottom line is that humility is the path to wisdom and arrogance is the path to ignorance. It takes work to be wise. “The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason.”