Galatians 6:3-5 :

For if a man thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each man test his own work, and then he will take pride in himself and not in his neighbor. For each man will bear his own burden.

Here we have science in the Bible. God tells us by Paul’s letter that we should test our work before we take pride in ourselves.

This is a very interesting passage in that God is not against taking pride in work well done. What God doesn’t like is self deception. It isn’t good when we think we are bad when we are actually good or think we are being good when we are actually bad. This is where science is very helpful.

Science sets up a test and measures the result. Then you can assess yourself based on an objective or outside measure rather than on a subjective or internal one. We should test ourselves to see if we are really helping others with their burdens as I mentioned last time. Set up a test for yourself and see if you do anything for anyone else. Then think of yourself based on your actual behavior not on how you feel.

Notice that Paul speaks of two burdens in two very near verses. One burden is one that a person cannot carry without help, the other is the burden of helping others with their burdens. This is one that we are all expected to carry ourselves.

Notice that God is not a big fan of competition. He is more interested in an accurate assessment from His perspective. God gives each of us ability as He sees fit and it doesn’t make sense for us to compare ourselves with other people who have their own orders from God! If we compare yourselves to our neighbor, and God has given us a different task, we are taking pride in our neighbor’s inability to do our task! This is actually a very foolish thing to do because it hurts our neighbor while we are failing to do our job. One good thing about it is that if our neighbor bears our shame well, he will probably get a great reward in heaven at our expense!

Science: A good place to observe self deception is in some of what is called “science” today. God does believe in objective measure. He is not at all against science. In fact, the evidence of history indicates that Christianity helped science to become a benefit to mankind. What is passing as science in some areas today is not based on objective measure as you might assume. One such area is the biological evolution of life from non-living matter. This has never been observed, is not a part operational science and depends on interpretation of evidence. To make matters worse, some scientists reject evidence based on the fact that a witness observed something supernatural. Thus, their anti-supernatural belief is reported as science while leaving out key evidence from their discussion and assessment. This parsing of evidence is not objective but subjective based on a pre-determined requirement that the supernatural be excluded. The study of origins is history-science not operational science and depends on what you believe because the historical evidence must be interpreted. When a scientist chooses to leave out supernatural evidence, they demonstrate a blind faith in anti-supernaturalism. Unfortunately, this passes as science in the minds of many people in our culture today.