Mind Your Own Business Part 1

Mind Your Own Business I. Scripture teaches us that it is God’s province to have full insight into everything we think or do. HEB 4:12-13. A. Do you know of a sinner who should be trusted to assume such power? Do you tinker with such power using technology? B. Man’s fall was brought on by a desire to know more than was appropriate. GEN 2:17; 3:5. C. Jesus Christ warned of a season when nothing would be covered: assumed privacy would be a faulty assumption. LUK 12:1-3. D. God actually preserves hidden things of darkness from being prematurely judged. 1CO 4:5. E. We have all been gradually enticed to offer up private information about ourselves and of others online, and it is far too easy to snoop where there is no clear and present call for a diligent inquisition, per DEU 13:14; 17:4; 19:18. 1. Mind that the calls for inquisition are based upon articulable (able to be distinctly pronounced or uttered) suspicion of a possible infraction, not upon sketchy speculation. 2. None of the calls for inquisition are based upon unnecessary snooping into private matters. 3. We are specifically warned against those who search for iniquities or dig up evil. ISA 29:20-21; PSA 64:1-6; PRO 16:27. F. The all-knowing internet has made mainstream what reasonable people would not do in person: stalking, peering through windows, invasion of privacy, etc. G. I am concerned that what we have all become familiar with is in the process of taking a giant leap forward with AI (artificial intelligence) which, while offering benefits for human improvement, will also manufacture false realities and accusations that will be virtually indiscernible from reality, will imperil human relationship, will presume to know more about the individual than the individual knows about himself, will facilitate increased isolation of individuals who manufacture their own realities with it, etc. 1. The system will flatter the foolish user and cater to his predilections and presuppositions, fueling an inflated sense of importance and confirmation. 2. Extortion will be widespread. Trust within marriages will be imperiled. 3. People will be afraid to speak or even to think, lest their innermost thoughts be used against them. Expect delusions and psychotic problems to increase. 4. You have probably already been “creeped out” as to the targeted advertising and predictive search suggestions you have seen. 5. Because of the potential for fraud and criminal intent that AI represents with its false realities, it could conceivably be the springboard for a “goof-proof” form of personal identification such as REV 13:16-17. 6. The importance of walking by faith, not by sight, will be evident. 2CO 5:7. H. Bible-believers should beware of the evil potentials of information overload and not be drawn into the spider’s web and end up contributing to the breakdown of personal privacy. II. Scripture sternly warns against being busybodies in other men's matters. 2TH 3:11; 1TI 5:13; 1PE 4:15. A. busybody: An officious or meddlesome person; one who is improperly busy in other people's affairs. 1. officious: 1. Doing or ready to do kind offices; eager to serve or please; attentive, obliging, kind. 3. Unduly forward in proffering services or taking business upon Mind Your Own Business 10-26-25 Page 1  oneself; doing, or prone to do, more than is asked or required; interfering with what is not one's concern; meddlesome. 2. meddlesome: Given to meddling or interfering. 3. meddle: To mix, mingle; to combine, blend, intersperse; To concern or busy oneself. Now always expressive of disapprobation, to concern oneself or take part interferingly. B. The busybodies of 1TI 5:11-15 have waxed wanton against Christ, have cast off their first faith, and are turned aside after Satan. C. 1PE 4:15 classes busybodies with murderers, thieves and evildoers. D. 2TH 3:11 sounds curiously like the basement-dweller who lives online. E. As a minister, I am concerned about the potential disruption and discord among brethren that snooping and meddling represent. God abominates those who sow discord among brethren. PRO 6:16-19. III. Strife is encouraged by meddling. A. (PRO 17:14) The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water: therefore leave off contention, before it be meddled with. 1. Envision a breach in the top of a dam holding back a full reservoir. Strife is easy to start but very hard to stop once it gets flowing. 2. Do not concern yourself with every look or remark that appears contentious. ECC 7:21-22; JAM 3:2. 3. (PRO 20:3) It is an honour for a man to cease from strife: but every fool will be meddling. B. (PRO 26:17) He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears. 1. He cannot let the strife go without being injured and it completely occupies him if he tries to hold on to it. 2. If you pass people engaged in a quarrel, do NOT concern yourself with it unless there is a clear, present danger at hand. IV. Totalitarian governments are busybodies. A. Governments that usurp the place of God must strive to become omniscient and omnipresent. PSA 139:1-10. 1. Total knowledge is necessary to total control. 2. A totalitarian government must allow its people no freedom from government-controlled groups. B. The reign of the beast denies the right of private commerce thus controlling the business of men. REV 13:16-17. C. Participation in discussion groups is a means of getting people to reveal their thoughts. 1. “...out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (MAT 12:34). 2. By this means a person's weaknesses can be discovered, thus paving the way to exploit and manipulate that person. 3. There are people who try to trap others in their talk. PSA 41:5-7; LUK 11:53-54; 20:19-26. 4. Group exposure thus becomes a means of control. D. Voluntary participation in discussion groups can be just as self-defeating in a surveillance- minded system of government as government snooping. If social-networking sites can be hacked and harvested by “geeks,” what makes you think that nobody in civil authority could or would do the same? Mind Your Own Business 10-26-25 Page 2 1. Even without the government factor, the wisdom of advertising one's weaknesses or too much of one’s interests in a public forum is questionable, at the very least. 2. A silent fool is better than a knowledgeable person without discretion. PRO 17:28; 26:12. Mind Your Own Business 10-26-25 Page 3