When I was about 18, I attended a Christadelphian fraternal gathering. The speaker was an older brother (60 or 65), and a dynamic (and learned) speaker. But on this particular occasion he made a fairly simple mistake (the details are of no consequence, except to say it was plainly not just a slip of the tongue — it was a real mistake). When the time came for questions and discussion, guess whose hand popped up first: “Brother, how could such-and-such be true when it says in so-and-so verse that etc, etc?”

I had him “dead to rights”… and I tell you, I can look back 30+ years and still feel a bit of the smugness I felt then. He was wrong, and he knew it… and now everybody else knew it too.

We all waited while brother X thought it over for a few seconds. Then, quite simply, he said: “You’re right; I was wrong.” Nothing more.

And that was it! Except I still carry the memory of a brother who was (indeed) well-versed in the Bible, and a wonderful communicator, and (justly) revered by many other brethren… who was nevertheless not afraid to say, “I was wrong.”

I think that was worth more than anything I learned that day… and a lot of other days as well.

Actually, come to think of it… that simple story says a lot more — to me at least — about:

  1. human nature,
  2. the pride of life,
  3. the nature of sin,
  4. the mind of the flesh,
  5. the mind of the spirit,
  6. humility, and
  7. a few other “deep” Bible subjects…

…than do a lot of quite erudite discourses.