Process the Paradox
Answer not a fool according to his folly,
lest you be like him yourself.
Answer a fool according to his folly,
lest he be wise in his own eyes.
(Proverbs 26:4-5 ESV)
One of my favorite movie lines comes from the 1963 western comedy McClintock!, in which G.W. McClintock (John Wayne) is caught in a compromising position by his wife, Katherine (Maureen O’Hara). Things look bad for G.W. and, of course, those in the audience know that what Katherine sees is not actually the truth of the situation. G.W. looks at his wife and says, “Now Katherine, are you going to believe what you see or what I tell you?” Katherine believed (incorrectly) what she saw, and not what G.W. told her. When she was confronted with a paradox she interpreted it as a contradiction.
We are constantly being confronted with paradoxes—apparent contradictions—in our walk with God—both in our reading of the Bible and in the circumstances of daily living. There are times in my life, for example, when the surface “evidence” available to my understanding all points to a certain conclusion. Yet, when I search out God’s Word for wisdom and discernment, I find that my “evidence” has led me to a false conclusion. Am I going to believe what I see or what God tells me?
Here is an example of a paradox from the Old Testament, an apparent contradiction that is not at all contradictory:
Answer not a fool according to his folly,
lest you be like him yourself.
Answer a fool according to his folly,
lest he be wise in his own eyes.
(Proverbs 26:4-5 ESV)
An initial reading of this passage may leave you asking, “How am I to do this and not do this at the same time? I don’t understand.” If you accept the paradox as an actual contradiction, you are no further ahead than before you read it. But before you even read this passage there is a clue to processing the paradox—the book of Proverbs belongs to a genre in the Bible known as Wisdom Literature. Here is a place where it is essential to make the connection. If a paradoxical passage is located within the Wisdom Books, then God must be presenting us with an opportunity to gain wisdom. Make the connection!
Let’s look at the first verse:
Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself.
If you respond to a fool in kind you are going to develop foolish habits. If you answer a fool by imitating the fool, you are apt to become a fool. (A foolish person in Scripture being one who lacks wisdom and spiritual understanding.)
Now, the second verse:
Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.
If you do not address the fool’s folly by bringing God’s Word and His wisdom to bear, his folly will be reinforced and he will be wise in his own eyes, which boils down to this: the fool will become more conceited and his folly will multiply. In other words, you do not answer a fool by employing his kind of wisdom (that is, folly), but you are to answer a fool according to his folly (that is, you must correct him in this specific area in such a way that he will be brought up short).
A further danger of not addressing a fool according to his folly is that other people may be enticed by his folly and be drawn in by the fool, coming under his influence, being led astray. So, a quick paraphrase would be, “Don’t respond to a fool in kind, but respond to his folly with godly wisdom and authority.” This passage may be a bit complex but it is not at all contradictory.
Here is a more detailed paradox from the New Testament in which apparently contradictory statements are made by two different writers, along with a statement made by Jesus:
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39 ESV)
Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:10-11 NIV)
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:27-30 ESV) [my emphasis]
First, is there a way to identify Jesus’ sheep? In Matthew’s Gospel we read of Jesus saying, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 7:21 ESV) [my emphasis] So, there is a requirement placed upon those of us who claim to be Christ’s sheep—we must do the will of God the Father. For this is the will of God, your sanctification…(1 Thessalonians 4:3 ESV, see also Hebrews 12:14)
Paul began his argument in Romans 8 with a question in verse 35, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? In the remainder of the chapter we read Paul’s assurance to believers that nothing can separate us from Christ. But then we read in 2 Peter that one needs to be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure, and that, if you do these things, you will never fall…. So which is it? Nothing can separate us from Christ? Or, we might fall if we don’t do these things? And, what about Jesus’ words recorded in John’s Gospel?
First, let’s establish what these things are that Peter refers to in verse 10. We find them listed in 2 Peter 1:5-8.
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Peter is referring to character traits, attributes or qualities displayed by disciples of Jesus Christ, and he is saying that it is not enough to possess these qualities—we need to attend to our souls and be certain that these qualities are increasingly influential in our lives. In this way, we will make our calling and election sure and we will never fall. But Paul says that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. Which is it? Is Paul saying nothing can separate us from the love of Christ except a lack of godly virtues? Is Peter saying that Paul was wrong? How are we to read these seemingly contradictory passages? Process the paradox, don’t run from it.
Paul is not saying now that we are saved we are free to do whatever we like. His discussion in chapter six makes this abundantly clear. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? (Romans 6:1-2 ESV) Paul’s argument assumes a humble heart that seeks to know God’s will and to do it—the very thing Peter is laying out in 2 Peter 1:5-8.
Peter is, in fact, agreeing with Paul, but he is coming at the issue of our secure position in Christ from a different direction, with a different audience in mind. In essence, Peter is saying that he knows that his readers have a sure calling and election. But, I believe the point of this passage for them and for us is this: Do not presume upon the grace of God. We are saved and our concern for the increase of these qualities in our lives is a sign that we are saved! These are not works that earn our salvation, but they are indications that we are, indeed, saved.
The truth of God’s Word provides clarity and direction for our lives. But there are times when we are confronted with things in the Bible that are not clear, that appear to be contradictory statements. We know that we are supposed to walk by faith and not by sight, but sometimes the Bible seems to present two or more opposing views on the same topic. Instead of helping us see clearly it seems that our vision is more blurred after we consult God’s Word than before. What are we to do? What are we to believe?
When you read God’s Word and get confused, ask God to help you to understand the unclear portions and those passages that appear to be contradictory. And use the clear teachings of Scripture to help you understand the less clear portions. Process the paradox. When you do, the apparent contradictions melt away, to be replaced by wisdom and understanding.
When you find yourself between a spiritual rock and a hard place, at least three options come to mind. The first option is to avoid God’s Word altogether and evaluate your situation based on your perception, your wisdom, or your feelings at the moment. In other words, simply act upon your initial impression of your situation. If you happen to find a verse of Scripture that seems to establish your view, all the better. One obvious problem with this option, however, is that it exalts the individual, making God and His Word subservient to finite, sinful men and women. Another difficulty with employing this option is that it reinforces a false view of discipleship. And your problem has been compounded: you still are confronted with the paradox, but you have distanced yourself from God, the only One who can help you unravel it!
A second option involves searching God’s Word for insights while dismissing difficult or apparently contradictory passages. This option will look for easier passages, ones which don’t trouble your mind or disturb your prejudices and presuppositions. While this may give the pretense of spiritual progress, like the first option it, too, retards spiritual growth and does not lead to deeper fellowship with God or provide insights into His Word.
So while these first two options may provide a degree of relief initially, they will not lead to peace or understanding ultimately, and they certainly will not contribute to deeper fellowship with God and with fellow believers.
The only valid option, in my view, is to process the paradox. By that I mean that you must be willing to go deeper into the Word of God, to commit yourself to the time and effort it takes to unravel any apparent contradictions in Scripture. This kind of commitment will require a disciplined approach to studying the Bible so that we learn to rightly divide the Word of Truth. Beware of a disposition of heart and mind that refuses to process the paradox, that pounces upon a paradox in Scripture and pronounces it a contradiction. This is a spiritually perilous position to take because ultimately this is a judgment against God and His character, saying that God is not consistent, His Word is not true, and that His will is not immutable.
You may be reading this and thinking, “It sounds as though life is one long line of paradoxes that I have to process!” Although we are not constantly being bombarded with paradoxes and don’t necessarily need to process every paradox we encounter in Scripture, I believe that learning how to work through a paradox is an essential aspect of mature Christian discipleship. Often the Spirit of God will lead us to pass over an apparent contradiction with a confident trust in the wisdom of God to bring understanding at the proper time. And there are some paradoxes in Scripture that we may never fully unravel in our lifetime.
The point is that of all the paradoxes found in God’s Word, there is not even one that is internally inconsistent or that is self-contradictory. In fact, when we trace back our misunderstanding of paradoxes to the root cause, we most often find that the contradiction is within our own hearts and minds. We believe certain things (about the world, sin, salvation, and so forth) must be true and when we find that they are not, or that God doesn’t see those issues as we think He should, it is offensive to us and it contradicts our desire for independence and control. We are suddenly confronted with a crisis of faith and the only way to process the paradox is submit to God’s wisdom and truth. At this point, we may not fully understand, but it is essential to our spiritual health that we yield our position to God. Not only will He help us to unravel the paradox, but He will also bring us through our crisis of belief into an enlarged understanding.
Unless we learn to unravel the apparent contradictions we encounter in God’s Word, we will never learn to unravel the apparent contradictions in our lives in a godly way. And the way that we learn to process a paradox in life is no different than learning to process a paradox when we find it in God’s Word: we seek God’s wisdom, we ask Him for His perspective (see Isaiah 55:8-9), we train our souls to hope in God (see Psalm 42: 5-6, 11) as we resist the urge to draw conclusions prematurely until we get God’s mind about our situation. When circumstances seem to force us to draw negative conclusions that are not based upon God’s Word and do not proceed from faith, we must process the paradox, working through it until we come to an understanding of God’s perspective of our situation.
And here is the good news for paradox processors—God wants to help us in our quest to understand His Word and to understand how He views the details of our lives. God cares for us.
Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! (Isaiah 30:17-19 NIV)
From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him. (Isaiah 64:4 ESV) [my emphasis]
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:15-16 ESV)
For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him. (2 Chronicles 16:9 ESV)
Finally, don’t be in a hurry when trying to process the paradox. When confronted with a paradox in our daily lives or in God’s Word, we are often tempted to act in haste, without thinking through the consequences of our actions. This is a natural reaction to unpleasant circumstances, to painful situations, and even to uncomfortable questions about God’s Word. Don’t be quick to jump to a conclusion based upon what your eyes see or your mind tells you.
Remember, God’s grace is sufficient and it is at this very point of tension—the time between encountering a paradox and arriving at a resolution through gaining God’s wisdom and perspective—that we mature as disciples of Jesus Christ. What has helped me most in learning to embrace the tension has been the realization that God’s paradoxes are vibrant with life and wisdom and energy and purpose. After all, God has not only allowed but ordained that many of the truths found in His Word be presented through paradox. I believe that one reason for this is to stimulate spiritual growth in His children.
There is a sort of pruning effect that occurs as we process the paradox. In the words of a brother who is wise in the ways of the Lord, “God offends the mind to reveal the heart.” But it is here, at the juncture of offending and revealing, that we must develop the habit of heart and mind that presses into the paradox, that embraces the tension, that rejoices in the privilege of mining the rich treasures found in God’s Word.
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
(1 Corinthians 2:14-16 ESV)
Soli Deo Gloria!