Scandalous: 14 The Discipline to Say No

Scandalous Scripture: The Bible We Don't Read in Church Part 14 - The Discipline to Say No 

Solomon may have looked like one of the most disciplined men in Scripture. He governed a kingdom, built the Temple, accumulated extraordinary wealth, became internationally famous, and received remarkable wisdom from God. But accomplishment is not the same thing as self-control. 
In Part 14 of Scandalous Scripture, Pastor Gene Simco follows Solomon from the succession crisis after David through his wisdom, wealth, Temple, divided loyalties, and eventual idolatry. Along the way, we see that God had already warned Israel’s kings about horses, wealth, wives, pride, and divided hearts—and Solomon eventually violated nearly every warning. 
The lesson reaches far beyond Solomon. Biblical discipline is not simply being productive or successful. It is the ability to bring our desires under God’s rule and tell ourselves “no” when obedience requires it. Scripture calls self-control fruit of the Spirit, requires it of Christian leaders, and reminds us that true wisdom is demonstrated by the way we live. 
Solomon had wisdom, wealth, influence, and accomplishment, but none of it could save Solomon from Solomon. 
Jesus said, “Something greater than Solomon is here.” 
Don’t trade Jesus for junk. 

Reader's Version

Scandalous Scripture, Part 14 

The Discipline to Say No 

Sermon by Gene Simco — Reader’s Version 

A few messages back, I told a story about the junk drawer. What led to that was our conversation about furniture instructions. We were asking a simple question: Do we actually follow the instructions when we put furniture together? 

We built that into the larger biblical idea of following the instructions God has given us and why that matters. We learned that when we do not follow the instructions, the result is usually junk. With furniture, the result is often a junk drawer filled with leftover pieces. With our lives, the result can be the kind of mess many of us are trying to sort through later. 

Most of us understand the concept of a junk drawer because most of us have one. It is usually somewhere in the kitchen, and it tends to contain a fairly entertaining collection of things. There are probably some Allen keys in there, maybe some loose screws. Maybe you have some screws loose. There might be one of those flat metal wrenches that comes with furniture, some glue, a few mystery pieces that nobody remembers purchasing, and almost certainly some rubber bands. 

In my junk drawer, we have a rubber-band ball. 

That thing provides a surprising amount of entertainment because a rubber-band ball has a very interesting bounce trajectory. It is completely unpredictable. You throw it one direction, and somehow it ends up somewhere else entirely. This makes it great fun with our dogs, although our dogs are fairly lazy, so it usually amounts to about two minutes of entertainment before everybody decides that was enough exercise. 

When I was ordained, there were several other pastors present, and one pastor with a lot of experience wanted to give me some advice. He told me that pastoral work is a lot like going through a junk drawer, especially when you are counseling people. You are dealing with somebody’s junk, somebody’s mess, and you are trying to find the useful pieces, put them together, and hopefully construct something that can actually help the person. 

After years of pastoral work, I have discovered that this is largely true. 

I have also discovered that perhaps he was trying to go easy on me. 

Because pastoral work is indeed like dealing with a junk drawer, but it is probably more like taking the junk drawer, dumping it onto a trampoline, and then trying to find the useful pieces while everything is still in midair. 

And if that is what your life feels like too, welcome. 

Life gets complicated. 

Today we are going to look at a life that becomes incredibly complicated: Solomon. 

At first glance, Solomon looks like perhaps one of the most disciplined men in Scripture. He administers a kingdom, writes wisdom, builds enormous projects, constructs the Temple, manages vast resources, becomes internationally famous, and accumulates almost unimaginable wealth. 

The man can get things done. 

But that raises the question for today: 

Is accomplishment the same thing as discipline? 

Biblical discipline is not simply proving that you can do difficult things. Discipline is being able to bring your desires under God’s rule and tell yourself no when obedience requires it. 

And Solomon is going to show us something frightening: 

You can be disciplined enough to build an empire and still not be disciplined enough to govern yourself. 

Before we get into his story, a quick callback to where this series has been taking us. In Part 12, we learned not to confuse appearance with qualification. In Part 13, we learned not to confuse giftedness with godliness. 

Now in Part 14: 

Do not confuse accomplishment with discipline. 

David’s Failure to Discipline 

Last week we ended in Second Samuel. Today we enter First Kings, and we can pick up the story beginning in 1 Kings 1:5–6: 

“About that time David’s son Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith, began boasting, ‘I will make myself king.’ So he provided himself with chariots and charioteers and recruited fifty men to run in front of him. Now his father, King David, had never disciplined him at any time, even by asking, ‘Why are you doing that?’ Adonijah had been born next after Absalom, and he was very handsome.” 

Remember Part 13. David’s problems as a father did not end with Amnon and Absalom. We saw the rape of Tamar, Absalom’s murder of Amnon, and eventually Absalom’s rebellion against his own father. Now another son decides, “I will make myself king.” 

Notice what Adonijah does. He gets chariots, horses, and fifty men to run ahead of him. That should sound familiar because Absalom did essentially the same thing. Another son, another impressive public display, another attempt to take the throne. And First Kings gives us two details that are worth noticing. Adonijah is very handsome, so Part 12 walks right back into the room: appearance. Then Scripture tells us that David had never disciplined or even rebuked him by asking, “Why are you doing that?” 

That is not filler. The writer wants us to know something about David and something about Adonijah. David never made him answer for himself. He never stopped him. He apparently never even asked him, “Why are you doing this?” 

Part 13 showed us that David could be a disastrous father at critical moments, and now the consequences are carrying directly into Solomon’s story. David may have thought leaving Adonijah alone was easier, but refusing to discipline somebody is not necessarily love. Sometimes it simply leaves them completely unprepared to hear no later. 

We will come back to that. 

Nathan and Bathsheba intervene because Solomon had already been designated as David’s successor. David confirms that Solomon is to be king, Solomon is publicly anointed, and Adonijah’s first attempt at taking the throne collapses. 

David’s Final Instructions 

At this point we get a window into David’s final days. He is very old and unable to keep warm, so a young woman named Abishag from Shunem is brought in to care for him and keep him warm. The text makes a point of telling us that David does not have sexual relations with her, which becomes important shortly afterward when Adonijah asks to marry her. 

Then David gives Solomon his deathbed instructions, and they are an interesting mixture. 

First, David tells Solomon to remain faithful to God: follow the LORD’s decrees, commands, regulations, and laws so that he will prosper in what he does. It sounds very much like the charge given to Joshua: obey what God has commanded you and walk faithfully before Him. 

Then David starts talking about people. 

He reminds Solomon about Joab, his general, and essentially tells him, “Do with him what you think best, but do not let him grow old and go to his grave in peace.” Then he brings up Shimei, the man who cursed David when David fled Jerusalem during Absalom’s rebellion. David tells Solomon, “You are a wise man. You will know how to arrange a bloody death for him.” 

So David leaves the earth with this strange mixture of genuine faith and a terrible lack of forgiveness still hanging over some of his relationships. Even at the end, David remains complicated. 

Can Solomon Discipline Solomon? 

Now we are going to move fairly quickly through 1 Kings 2 because another irony begins developing almost immediately: Solomon seems perfectly capable of disciplining everybody else. 

David dies, and Solomon begins securing the kingdom. Adonijah asks Bathsheba to arrange a marriage between him and Abishag. Solomon understands the request as another move toward the throne, and Adonijah is executed. Abiathar is removed from the priesthood. Joab runs to the altar and grabs hold of it, but Solomon still orders his execution. Shimei is given very specific boundaries about where he may live and what will happen if he violates them. Eventually he crosses those boundaries, and he too is executed. 

Solomon can enforce consequences. He can establish boundaries. He can impose order. He can discipline a kingdom. 

The rest of Solomon’s life is going to answer a much harder question: 

Can Solomon discipline Solomon? 

Wisdom With Cracks Already Showing 

Now we come to a part of Solomon’s story that almost everybody knows, and rightly so. But before we get to his famous request for wisdom, notice that the cracks are already there. 

First Kings 3:1–2 says: 

“Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and married one of his daughters. He brought her to live in the City of David until he could finish building his palace and the Temple of the LORD and the wall around the city. At that time the people of Israel sacrificed their offerings at local places of worship, for a temple honoring the name of the LORD had not yet been built.” 

The first thing that should catch our attention is Pharaoh’s daughter. 

Huh? 

What is Solomon doing marrying Pharaoh’s daughter? We are going to come back to Deuteronomy 17 shortly, because once we place Solomon beside the instructions God had already given Israel’s kings, these details become much more significant. 

Then 1 Kings 3:3 tells us that Solomon loved the LORD and followed the instructions of his father David, except that he continued sacrificing and burning incense at the high places. At this point, those high places are not necessarily evidence that Solomon has already plunged into the outright pagan idolatry we will see later; the Temple has not yet been built, and Solomon himself worships the LORD at Gibeon. But the narrator still gives us that little word: except. 

Even Solomon’s beautiful beginning contains an exception. 

Then God appears to Solomon and tells him to ask for whatever he wants. Solomon does not ask for long life. He does not ask for wealth. He does not ask for the death of his enemies. Instead, he asks for an understanding and discerning heart—literally, the idea of a listening heart—so that he can govern God’s people well. 

That is good. God is pleased with the request, and God genuinely gives Solomon extraordinary wisdom. So we should not turn Solomon into a cartoon villain from the beginning. He really does love God. He really does receive wisdom from God. He really does become extraordinarily gifted. 

But remember the language of the heart. Early in Solomon’s story, he asks God for a listening heart. Later, that same heart will be turned away. 

That is the tragedy we are going to watch unfold. 

Solomon Looks Like the Real Thing 

Not long afterward we get perhaps the most famous demonstration of Solomon’s wisdom: the case of the two women and the baby. Two prostitutes give birth, one of the babies dies during the night, and the women dispute which one is the surviving child’s mother. Solomon calls for a sword and orders that the living child be divided in two. 

Of course, the real mother immediately protests. She would rather surrender her child than see him killed. The other woman is willing to accept the judgment. That response reveals the truth, and Solomon gives the child to his actual mother. The story becomes an immediate demonstration that God really has given Solomon remarkable discernment. 

From there, the résumé becomes astonishing. We read about his administration, government districts, systems of provision, international trade, proverbs, songs, knowledge of plants and animals, international reputation, enormous building projects, the Temple, his palace complex, and a massive labor force. The guy is impressive. 

If we repeated the Part 12 résumé exercise, Solomon gets the interview. 

He looks disciplined. He looks successful. He looks unbelievably organized, and much of it is real. But this is where we need to make the distinction that will become central to his story: productivity is not necessarily self-control. 

A person can become extremely disciplined at accomplishing things that ambition already wants. The real test of discipline comes when obedience requires us to deny an appetite rather than satisfy one. 

That distinction becomes increasingly important with Solomon because the magnificent kingdom he is building also carries a cost. His administration requires enormous resources, heavy provision and taxation burdens, and a substantial labor force. Those burdens do not disappear when Solomon dies. They will eventually catch up with his son Rehoboam, when the people come to him and complain about the heavy yoke Solomon had placed upon them. 

For now, however, Solomon looks extraordinary. He has wisdom, organization, wealth, influence, and accomplishment. 

The question is still waiting underneath all of it: 

Can the man who governs all of this govern himself? 

Solomon Builds the Temple 

Now Solomon builds the Temple in 1 Kings 6–8. Remember how desperately David wanted to build it and why he was not permitted to do so. David had become a man who had shed too much blood, so that honor now goes to Solomon, the “man of peace” David had been promised would come after him. 

Solomon finally builds the Temple, and in chapter 8 the Ark is brought in, the glory of God fills the Temple, and Solomon offers his prayer of dedication. This is one of the great moments in Israel’s history. Once again, God really is using Solomon. We should not lose that simply because we know where his story eventually goes. 

But there is another interesting detail in the middle of all this. Solomon spends seven years building God’s Temple, and then 1 Kings 7 tells us that he spends thirteen years building his own palace complex. One major building in that complex, the House of the Forest of Lebanon, has a footprint more than four times that of the Temple itself. So even while Solomon is accomplishing something magnificent for God, we can already begin asking questions about where his priorities are moving. 

Then in 1 Kings 9, God appears to Solomon again and gives him an unmistakable warning. First Kings 9:6–8 says: 

“But if you or your descendants abandon me and disobey the commands and decrees I have given you, and if you serve and worship other gods, then I will uproot Israel from this land that I have given them. I will reject this Temple that I have made holy to honor my name. I will make Israel an object of mockery and ridicule among the nations. And though this Temple is impressive now, all who pass by will be appalled and will gasp in horror. They will ask, ‘Why did the LORD do such terrible things to this land and to this Temple?’” 

The warning could hardly be clearer: walk faithfully and obey. If you turn away from God and begin worshiping other gods, judgment is coming. Even this magnificent Temple—the building Solomon has just spent years constructing—will not protect Israel from the consequences of abandoning the God for whom it was built. 

That means everything that happens next in Solomon’s life comes with one enormously important fact in the background: Solomon knows better. He has Scripture. He has wisdom. He has experience. God Himself has appeared to him and warned him directly. 

Solomon’s problem is not ignorance. 

Put Solomon Beside the King’s Job Description 

Now let’s go back to Deuteronomy 17 and put Solomon beside the job description God had already given Israel’s kings. Deuteronomy 17:14–17 says: 

“You are about to enter the land the LORD your God is giving you. When you take it over and settle there, you may think, ‘We should select a king to rule over us like the other nations around us.’ If this happens, be sure to select as king the man the LORD your God chooses. You must appoint a fellow Israelite; he may not be a foreigner. 

“The king must not build up a large stable of horses for himself or send his people to Egypt to buy horses, for the LORD has told you, ‘You must never return to Egypt.’ The king must not take many wives for himself, because they will turn his heart away from the LORD. And he must not accumulate large amounts of wealth in silver and gold for himself.” 

This is really the centerpiece of Solomon’s story because God had already told Israel exactly what a king was not supposed to accumulate. Do not multiply horses. Do not send Israel back toward Egypt to acquire them. Do not multiply wives, because they will turn the king’s heart away. Do not accumulate excessive silver and gold for yourself. And if we continue reading Deuteronomy 17, the king is supposed to keep God’s instruction close, read it continually, learn to fear God, obey Him, and refuse to exalt himself above everyone else. 

Now read Solomon. 

By the time we reach 1 Kings 10–11, we can almost work down the list. Horses? Yes. Chariots? Yes. Where are they coming from? Egypt. Gold? Six hundred sixty-six talents annually. Before we make too much of that exact number, it is certainly interesting, but the larger point is the staggering accumulation of wealth. Wives? Seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines. 

And what exactly had Deuteronomy warned? 

Do not multiply wives because they will turn his heart away. 

Then 1 Kings essentially gives us the fulfillment of the warning: his wives turned his heart away. The warning becomes the biography. 

At some point, you almost want to ask, “Solomon, have you read Deuteronomy?” 

Of course he knows. That makes it worse. This is not ignorance. This is appetite overpowering obedience. The wisest man in the room can still behave like the fool if he cannot tell himself no. 

But someone might reasonably ask, “Wait a minute. Didn’t God give Solomon wealth?” Yes, and that matters. Wealth itself was not the violation. God explicitly gave Solomon riches and honor in 1 Kings 3. Deuteronomy warned the king not to multiply silver and gold for himself. There is a difference between receiving a blessing from God and allowing that blessing to become an appetite you refuse to restrain. Solomon was given wealth, and then he began accumulating it. He was given influence, and then he began building security through horses, Egypt, alliances, and excess. 

The blessing was not the problem. His inability to tell himself enough was. 

Solomon Knew Better 

Solomon knew better not only because he had Deuteronomy, but because there is another painful irony in his story: the wisdom tradition associated with Solomon repeatedly praises the very kind of self-control his own life increasingly lacks. 

Proverbs 16:32 says: 

“Better to be patient than powerful; better to have self-control than to conquer a city.” 

That is almost Solomon’s biography arguing with Solomon. 

He can conquer. He can build. He can govern. He can administer. He can tell everybody else what wisdom looks like. But can he govern himself? 

Knowing wisdom is not the same thing as walking in wisdom. 

Solomon’s Love Changes 

Now watch the literary movement in Kings. In 1 Kings 3:3 we are told that Solomon loved the LORD. By the time we reach 1 Kings 11:1, the wording has shifted: Solomon loved many foreign women. 

Eventually, the things Solomon loves begin directing the heart that once asked God for wisdom. 

First Kings 11:1–3 says: 

“Now King Solomon loved many foreign women. Besides Pharaoh’s daughter, he married women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon, and from among the Hittites. The LORD had clearly instructed the people of Israel, ‘You must not marry them, because they will turn your hearts to their gods.’ Yet Solomon insisted on loving them anyway. He had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines. And in fact, they did turn his heart away from the LORD.” 

This is bigger than sex. It is about affection. What owns him? What does he cling to? Where does his loyalty finally settle? 

His wives turn his heart toward other gods, and then the man who built the Temple for Yahweh begins building high places associated with Chemosh, Molech, and the gods of his wives. 

First Kings 11:4–8 says: 

“In Solomon’s old age, they turned his heart to worship other gods instead of being completely faithful to the LORD his God, as his father, David, had been. Solomon worshiped Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech, the detestable god of the Ammonites. In this way, Solomon did what was evil in the LORD’s sight; he refused to follow the LORD completely, as his father, David, had done. On the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, he even built a pagan shrine for Chemosh, the detestable god of Moab, and another for Molech, the detestable god of the Ammonites. Solomon built such shrines for all his foreign wives to use for burning incense and sacrificing to their gods.” 

And when Scripture mentions Molech, we should understand how dark this has become. Elsewhere in the Old Testament, Molech worship is explicitly connected with the sacrifice of children—“passing” sons and daughters through the fire—and Israel had been directly forbidden to participate in it. Leviticus 18 and 20 condemn giving children to Molech, and later texts connect the same kind of worship with child sacrifice in places such as the Valley of Hinnom. 

First Kings 11 does not explicitly tell us that Solomon personally sacrificed one of his own children. We do not need to claim that. The scandal is already enormous. Solomon built and supported a place of worship for a god whose cult was associated with this horrific practice. At the very least, the king who had been entrusted with God’s wisdom was now legitimizing and facilitating worship connected with something God had explicitly condemned. 

This is not merely a man who became a little spiritually distracted. 

The king who built the Temple of Yahweh is now building shrines for other gods. 

And the man who once asked God for a listening heart has clearly stopped listening. 

When Everything Starts Breaking 

After this, everything Solomon has spent his life building begins to break apart. God becomes angry because Solomon’s heart has turned away despite the fact that God had appeared to him. Adversaries begin arising—Hadad, Rezon, Jeroboam—and God announces that the kingdom will eventually be torn apart. Solomon spent his life building, organizing, administering, and strengthening this kingdom, and now it is ready to fracture. 

There is an important lesson already sitting there: lack of self-control can eventually destroy things that discipline worked very hard to build. 

This is where we will stop the Old Testament narrative and move into the application. 

We started today talking about junk—a junk drawer. So let’s talk about another kind of junk: junk food. 

This is where we all become theologians. “I worked out today, so I earned McDonald’s.” No, you didn’t. “I got the Diet Coke.” Wonderful. That definitely cancels out the Big Mac and the large fries. “I parked farther away.” Excellent. Fourteen additional steps. You are basically an Olympian. 

We laugh because we do this. We use one disciplined-looking behavior to excuse another undisciplined behavior. “I went to the gym.” Great. Then you went to McDonald’s. So are you disciplined? Kind of. 

When I was growing up, we really were fairly disciplined about junk food. We did not snack around the house whenever we wanted. Certain treats were kept up high, and we were not allowed to just help ourselves. We had to finish dinner before we were allowed dessert. Going to McDonald’s was an actual treat. And if my dad took me to a place called Carvell, the instruction was sometimes, “Don’t tell your mother.” 

So let’s go back to where we began today: Adonijah. 

Discipline Is an Expression of Love 

Scripture specifically tells us that David never disciplined Adonijah, and that failure did not help him. It helped produce a man who apparently had great difficulty accepting boundaries. When we get to Hebrews 12, the writer gives us the opposite picture and explains that God disciplines the people He loves. Hebrews 12:5–9 says: 

“And have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as his children? He said, 

‘My child, don’t make light of the LORD’s discipline, and don’t give up when he corrects you. For the LORD disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.’ 

As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father? If God doesn’t discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all. Since we respected our earthly fathers who disciplined us, shouldn’t we submit even more to the discipline of the Father of our spirits, and live forever?” 

There is a severity to that passage that we sometimes soften. Hebrews uses the ordinary language of παιδεία (paideia), discipline, correction, and training, but verse 6 intensifies it with μαστιγόω (mastigoō), “to scourge.” It is the same verb family used elsewhere for physical scourging. So Hebrews is not describing a sentimental version of parenting in which love means never allowing discomfort. Biblical discipline is not the opposite of love. Proper discipline is an expression of love. 

Parents, sometimes the loving answer is no. Leaders, sometimes the loving thing to do is correct somebody. And Christians, sometimes God’s loving response to us is correction. David avoided that with Adonijah, and eventually everybody paid for it. 

At the same time, we need another distinction because Christians can easily begin interpreting every difficult experience as God disciplining them for something they did wrong. Romans 5 gives us another category. Paul writes in Romans 5:3–5: 

“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials [θλίψεσιν — thlipsesin, tribulations, pressures, afflictions], for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.” 

Not every tribulation is discipline. Romans 5 uses θλῖψις (thlipsis), language of pressure, affliction, distress, even the sense of being squeezed or crushed by circumstances. Hebrews 12 uses παιδεία, the language of fatherly training and correction. They are not identical categories. 

But even if some of what we are experiencing really is God’s discipline, Hebrews tells us that discipline is not evidence that God has abandoned us. It is evidence that He loves us enough to train us. And notice that tribulation can produce something very similar in us: endurance, character, and ultimately a stronger hope grounded in the love of God poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. 

So sometimes we may call something “tribulation” when God is also using it to train us. Whether the difficulty comes as correction or simply as suffering through which God is forming us, Scripture does not teach us to waste it. 

Sometimes Love Lets Us Learn 

That brings us naturally to the parable we usually call the Prodigal Son in Luke 15. Most people remember the basic story. The younger son asks his father for his share of the inheritance, leaves home, and squanders it. Eventually he reaches the bottom. He is feeding pigs and becomes so desperate that even the food given to the pigs begins looking good to him. 

Then he comes to his senses. 

He rehearses what he will say to his father: “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.” He plans to ask simply to return as one of the hired servants. 

We remember what happens next. We remember the father seeing him from a distance and running to him. We remember the embrace, the robe, the ring, the feast, and the older brother becoming angry because his father has welcomed this son home. We remember the beautiful conclusion: this son was lost and now he is found. 

But there is another detail we often forget. 

The father let him go. 

A good parent does not always rescue a child from every consequence. Sometimes love allows somebody to learn in the far country. The father lets the son leave, but he never stops being his father. And when the son finally comes home, the father is ready to receive him. 

That gives us an important perspective when we are going through difficult seasons. Sometimes we are experiencing discipline. Sometimes we are experiencing tribulation. Sometimes we are simply encountering the consequences of choices we have made. But Scripture repeatedly shows that God can use those difficult places to produce endurance, character, repentance, maturity, and ultimately to turn our attention toward our real hope, which is found in Him through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Where Are You Only Disciplined Because You Like the Result? 

Now we need to ask another question: Where are you only disciplined because you like the result? 

Over the last several messages, I have been weaving parts of my own story into the applications. Last week, when we talked about David, I mentioned years of training in martial arts and music. David was obviously a far greater warrior and musician than I ever was, but I do know what it is like to be extremely disciplined in those areas. I also know, because I have told you this part of my story too, what it looks like when discipline begins turning into an idol. 

That is an important distinction because some behavior that looks disciplined is simply helping us get something we already want. Someone works eighty hours a week. Are they disciplined? Maybe. Or maybe they simply love success, money, recognition, or the feeling of being indispensable. Someone exercises constantly. Are they disciplined? Maybe. Or maybe appearance has become an idol. Someone studies constantly. Maybe they really do love truth. Or maybe they simply love being the smartest person in the room. 

Real discipline is tested when obedience requires us to deny something we actually want. 

So instead of asking only, “Where am I disciplined?” ask a harder question: Where can I not tell myself no? 

That is where self-control is actually tested. 

Can You Govern Yourself? 

That brings us back to Part 12. We asked what Scripture actually tells us to look for in leaders. Not degrees, charisma, platforms, institutional pedigree, or an impressive résumé, but character. And one of the qualities that appears repeatedly is self-control. 

Galatians 5 identifies self-control as fruit of the Spirit. That means self-control is not merely a personality trait possessed by naturally restrained people. It is evidence of what the Spirit is producing in somebody’s life. Then when Paul gives qualifications for church leadership in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, self-control appears again. It is not an optional bonus for Christian leaders. It is part of the essential job description. 

Then Paul gets personal. 

If we go back to 1 Corinthians, remember how the letter develops. The first major problem in Corinth is what we might call pastor worship. The church is dividing itself around personalities and leaders. Paul later deals with sexual sin and a whole collection of other problems, and by chapters 8–10 he is working through the issue of food sacrificed to idols and the use of Christian freedom. 

The larger issue is whether I am willing to surrender something I have a right to enjoy for the good of somebody else. Paul even uses his own right to receive financial support as an example of something he willingly gives up. In that context, he compares the Christian life to athletic training and says in 1 Corinthians 9:27: 

“I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.” 

Paul disciplines his own body and brings it under control because he refuses to preach self-control to everybody else while failing to exercise it himself. 

That sounds almost like an answer to Solomon. 

Solomon can teach everybody else wisdom. He can administer a kingdom. He can tell other people what wise living looks like. Paul says, in effect, I refuse to preach to everybody else and then fail to govern myself. 

Part 12 asked whether a person can lead the church. Part 14 adds another question: Can that person lead himself? 

If you cannot tell yourself no, why should anybody else trust you to lead them? 

And that applies far beyond pastors. It applies to parents, employers, managers, husbands, wives, and anybody with influence. Human beings are remarkably good at telling everybody else what they need to do. The harder question is whether we can govern ourselves. 

Jesus was especially severe toward people who demanded righteousness from everyone around them while refusing to examine themselves. Matthew 23 contains some of His strongest denunciations, and Matthew 7 gives us the image we have returned to repeatedly: before becoming obsessed with the speck in somebody else’s eye, deal with the log in your own. 

Put down the picket sign and pick up the mirror. 

Biblical discipline begins there. 

What Kind of Wisdom Are We Living By? 

Now, about being the smartest person in the room. Solomon may very well have been, but the real question is whether he obeyed the wisdom he had been given. 

James gives us an interesting way to think about this. In James 1:2–8 we read: 

“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. 

“If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.” 

Notice the progression from what we were just talking about. James begins with difficulty, testing, and endurance, and then moves directly into wisdom. But he also tells us where our faith is supposed to rest: in God alone. A person whose loyalty is divided between God and the world becomes unstable. 

That describes Solomon remarkably well. 

Wisdom itself was not Solomon’s problem. Solomon asked God for wisdom, God praised the request, and God genuinely gave it to him. Wisdom is good. Godly wisdom is a gift. The problem is believing that simply possessing wisdom will automatically produce obedience. What matters is not merely whether we can call something “wisdom,” but what kind of wisdom we are actually living by. 

James develops that idea even further. Earlier in the letter he tells believers to be doers of the Word and not merely hearers, and then in James 3:13–17 he gives us a way to test wisdom by its results: 

“If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying. For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind. 

“But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere.” 

James does not ask us merely whether something sounds intelligent. He asks us to look at what it produces. True wisdom produces a life. 

And now we have come full circle back to Galatians 5. Look at the qualities James associates with wisdom from above—purity, peace, gentleness, mercy, good fruit—and compare them with the fruit of the Spirit. Paul and James agree. Godly wisdom does not merely make us sound smarter; it produces a different kind of person. 

That means there really are different kinds of wisdom. And when our loyalty becomes divided between God and the world, we can begin operating by the world’s definition of wisdom even while convincing ourselves that we are being very smart. 

That is exactly where Solomon’s story becomes especially relevant. 

The Wisdom of This World 

This also brings us back to Corinth and the issue we have discussed before about pastor worship. The Corinthians were impressed by the kinds of things the world tends to find impressive—eloquence, personalities, status, human wisdom—and Paul deliberately overturns those measurements in 1 Corinthians 1:18–27: 

“The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God. As the Scriptures say, 

‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.’ 

“So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe. It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom. So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense. 

“But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength. 

“Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful.” 

Here is the problem we begin seeing in Solomon. Not everything the world calls “wise” is wisdom. 

Paul says the cross looks foolish according to the world’s measurements. The Jews wanted impressive signs, the Greeks wanted impressive wisdom, and the world admired philosophers, scholars, power, wealth, and status. But God overturned those measurements. Christ crucified is the power of God and the wisdom of God, and God deliberately uses what the world considers weak and foolish to expose what it calls strong and wise. 

Now keep reading. 1 Corinthians 2:1–7: 

“When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn’t use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God’s secret plan. 2 For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling. 4 And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. 5 I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God. 

6 Yet when I am among mature believers, I do speak with words of wisdom, but not the kind of wisdom that belongs to this world or to the rulers of this world, who are soon forgotten. 7 No, the wisdom we speak of is the mystery of God—his plan that was previously hidden, even though he made it for our ultimate glory before the world began.” 

Paul now shows us what that looked like in practice. When he came to Corinth, he did not depend on impressive rhetoric, intellectual status, or persuasive human wisdom. He centered everything on Jesus Christ crucified and depended on the power of the Spirit. 

That is the difference. Human or worldly wisdom measures by what looks impressive, strategic, powerful, and successful. God’s wisdom is revealed in Christ, shaped by the Spirit, and often looks foolish by the world’s standards. 

That is Solomon’s problem. He received wisdom from God, but increasingly began living according to what the world considered wise. 

The world calls accumulation wise: more money, more influence, more alliances, more security, more connections, more power. From a purely worldly point of view, Solomon’s decisions may have looked brilliant. Political marriages build alliances. Horses and chariots strengthen military security. Wealth creates influence. International connections make a kingdom look powerful. 

But Solomon increasingly begins living according to exactly those measurements, while God had already told Israel’s king not to build his life that way. 

God’s wisdom is different. 

Paul ultimately tells us where true wisdom is found: Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. So the point is not that wisdom is useless. The point is that wisdom must be godly, and wisdom must be obeyed. 

You can ask God for wisdom. You can receive wisdom. You can know exactly what the right thing is. And you can still behave like a fool if you refuse to live according to what you know. 

Solomon proves it. 

Don’t Trade Jesus for Junk 

Finally, we come back to the junk. 

Solomon gives us a picture of divided loyalty. Look at everything he accumulated: money, horses, chariots, political alliances, women, buildings, influence, knowledge, prestige, and international reputation. In other words, he accumulated nearly everything the world tells us will make a life secure. 

It was a lot of very impressive junk. 

And none of it could save Solomon from Solomon. 

So we need to ask ourselves what we are actually trusting. Is it our money, career, education, accomplishments, intelligence, influence, appearance, political access, physical strength, or even our discipline itself? Sometimes the thing that eventually begins destroying us started as a perfectly legitimate gift from God. Money is not inherently evil. Success is not evil. Wisdom is not evil. Influence is not evil. Relationships are not evil. But an undisciplined appetite can take something good and turn it into an idol. 

That is why the question is not simply whether we have good things. The question is whether those things have us. 

Are we putting our hope in junk, or are we putting our hope in Jesus? 

We cannot trade Jesus for junk, because Jesus is the greater Solomon. 

Someone Greater Than Solomon Is Here 

Jesus Himself gives us the ending. In Matthew 12, some of the religious leaders come to Him asking for a miraculous sign. Jesus tells them that the only sign He will give them is the sign of Jonah: just as Jonah was in the great fish for three days and three nights, the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. 

Then Jesus says something especially important for Solomon’s story. Matthew 12:41–42 says: 

“The people of Nineveh will stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah. Now someone greater than Jonah is here—but you refuse to repent. The queen of Sheba will also stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for she came from a distant land to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Now someone greater than Solomon is here—but you refuse to listen.” 

Someone greater than Solomon is here, but you refuse to listen. 

That takes us all the way back to the beginning of Solomon’s story. Solomon asked God for a listening heart. God gave him extraordinary wisdom, but over time Solomon stopped listening. So the question at the end of his story becomes our question as well: Are we listening to the wisdom of God, or to the “wisdom” of this world? 

Solomon possessed extraordinary wisdom, but Jesus is the wisdom of God. Solomon accumulated horses and chariots, while Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey. Solomon accumulated wealth and power, while Jesus emptied Himself and took the form of a servant. Solomon accumulated wives, while Jesus gives Himself for His bride. Solomon’s heart became divided, while Jesus obeyed the Father completely, even to death. 

Solomon built the Temple, but Jesus is greater than the Temple and builds God’s people into God’s dwelling. Solomon’s kingdom began tearing apart almost as soon as his life ended, but the Kingdom of Jesus will never end. 

Last week we saw that David could kill Goliath, but David could not save David from David. This week we have seen something similar in Solomon. Solomon could understand wisdom, teach wisdom, build with wisdom, and govern with wisdom, but Solomon could not save Solomon from Solomon. 

Wisdom could not save him. Achievement could not save him. Money could not save him. Power could not save him. Even the appearance of discipline could not save him. 

Solomon still needed someone greater than Solomon. 

And so do we. 

Don’t trade Jesus for junk. 

________________________________________ 
©️Copyright 2026 Gene Simco Most Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. Scriptures in brackets reflect the original Biblical languages.

Scandalous Scripture: The Bible We Don't Read in Church

Part 14 - The Discipline to Say No

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