A Pig, a President, and the Apostle Paul

“To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.” – Theodore Roosevelt

You have probably heard the illustration before, but it bears repeating…

Take a pig out of its pen, wash it, dress it, squirt it with perfume, and then let it go. One hundred times out of 100, it will return to the mud and the muck, rolling over and over until it is caked with grime.

That, my friend, is a perfect description of the unregenerated mind. Without the saving power of Jesus and the cleansing power of the Holy Spirit, we are governed by our carnal nature, which demands to be satisfied at all costs.

As Teddy Roosevelt said, feeding our intellect without feeding our spirit and our soul is an exercise in futility. It is also dangerous because a well-educated sinner lacks the direction and discipline to properly apply that knowledge. Look no further than Ivy League colleges or the halls of Congress to see what happens when unregenerated men and women are placed in positions of power and prestige. The same goes for much of corporate America.

Even the Apostle Paul – a Pharisee of Pharisees who was educated by Gamaliel, the most revered rabbi of his time – struggled with subduing his sin nature (see below).

And so, as we begin a New Year, let’s follow the wise counsel of Paul… and the 26th President of the United States.

“We all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:6 (BSB)

“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do... I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I keep on doing the evil I do not want to do… What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Romans 7:15, 18-19, 24-25a (BSB)

- Rev. Dale M. Glading, President