Separating from Others

A few months back, Cyndi Armstrong and I were discussing community issues. She ran across this commentary by Faussett:

Proverbs 18:1- "A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire; he rages against all wise judgment."

The desire of the fool is not to gain wisdom for the sake of being more righteous and just, but rather is through a proud desire to exalt self by being thought wiser than others, and so, looked up to as above the generality of men. In his own mind, the fool separates himself from others, as being superior to them. All his efforts to gain wisdom with such a attitude, is simply an endeavor to glorify himself. All heresy has more or less originated in the self-conceit which leads men to separate themselves from the congregation of the Lord (Ezek. 14:7; Hosea 9:10; Heb. 10:25).