Luke 15:29 but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.

These are the words of the older brother. He is the firstborn. Jesus Christ is the firstborn of the children of God. Do his words sound like something Jesus would say? No, of course not. While the elder son is not Satan his words sure sound like something Satan would say.

For some time now I have been warning others not to listen to what others say, look to what they do. That goes along with “actions speak louder than words” but we do not always get to see others in their daily activities.

The elder son got angry when he discovered the celebration. Why?

From my point of view, me being a typical human, I can hear the elder son thinking. “That is my calf they slaughtered, they stole it from me.” Once again, that is me putting myself in the elder son’s place with my own set of emotional problems. That does not make it true, it just fits my own personal failings.

Here is one more personal thought which comes from me and my failings. The elder son was working to enrich his inheritance. He considered it his and not his father’s. An inheritance is either granted before death or left in a will upon death. The father had not died, all was still his, not the elder son’s. So the elder son was looking after his own self-interest. Selfishness.

When we speak, are we trying to glorify ourselves or God? OUCH? Yes I can say that from a place of my own personal failings. Sometimes it is just easier to sound good than be good.

When we share our own failings we are expressing lessons learned. That does not mean the listener is guilty of those same feelings. We may have similar flaws, maybe even the same ones, but when we discover them, it is not what we say that matters, it is what we do about it.

Perhaps that is why the proverbs are so effective, because we often find our own failing printed out for everyone to read. Be careful with that thought. Seeing the failings of others in a proverb does not give us the right to beat them over the head with it. The bible is not our own personal club.

And yes, that has happened to me.