Objective
To help students learn to differentiate between the wisdom of the Bible and the wisdom of men.
Activity
Listed below are common sayings. Many are from the Bible. Others are not. There are several possible activities that can be done with these saying. One option is to split each saying in half and put each part on a separate card. Make several sets for more than one team. You could also split them in half and put the entire list (scrambled) on a piece of paper for youth to match.
Have a competition to see who can correctly match the different halves of the sayings together first. After they have matched all the sayings have them identify which ones are from scripture and which are from the saying of men. You might be surprised yourself that some of our common expressions come from the Bible.
A gentle answer / turns away wrath (prov 15:1)
Too close / for comfort (not in Bible)
Pride goes / before destruction (prov16:18)
Too big / for your britches (not in Bible)
A good name / is more desirable than great riches (pr. 22:1)
Sticks and stones / may break my bones, but words will never hurt me (not in Bible)
As iron sharpens iron / so one man sharpens another (prov 27:17)
If you play with fire / you will get burnt (not in Bible)
Saved by the skin / of your teeth (job 19:20)
Better safe / than sorry (not in Bible)
Do to others / as you would have them do to you (Mt 7:12)
Innocent / until proven guilty (not in Bible)
It is not good / that man should be alone (Gen 2:18)
A land flowing / with milk and honey (ex 3:8)
Man does not live / by bread alone (Deut. 8:3)
A still small / voice (I Kings19:12)
Two heads / are better than one (ecclesastes 4:9)
You are / what you eat (not in Bible)
As he think in his heart, / so is he (Prov 23:7)
Whoever digs a hole / will fall into it (Eccl 10:8)
They have sown the wind and / will reap the whirlwind (Hosea 8:7)
Where your treasure is, / there you heart will be also (Mt 6:21)
No man can serve / two masters (Mat 6:24)
A wolf / in sheep’s clothing (mat 7:15)
A pearl / of great price (13:46)
The blind / leading the Blind (Matt 15:14)
You can lead a horse to water / but you can’t make him drink. (not in Bible)
A rolling stone / gathers no moss (not in Bible)
Oil and water / don’t mix (not in Bible)
A stitch in time / saves nine. (not in Bible)
A watched pot / never boils (not in Bible)
If at first you don’t succeed, / try, try, again. (not in Bible)
The squeeky wheel / gets the oil.(not in Bible)
Seek / and you will find (Mt 7:7)
He who hesitates / is lost. (not in Bible)
Beauty / is only skin deep (not in Bible)
A city set on a hill / cannot be hidden. (Mt 5:14)
Necessity /is the mother of invention. (not in Bible)
A friend in need / is a friend in deed. (not in Bible)
A bird in hand / is worth two in the bush. (not in Bible)
Silence / is golden. (not in Bible)
Children / should be seen and not heard. (not in Bible)
Don’t cast your pearls / before swine. (Mt 7:6)
What is good for the goose / is good for the gander. (not in Bible)
You can’t judge a book / by its cover. (not in Bible)
Don’t count your chicens / before they hatch. (not in Bible)
Cleanliness / is next to godliness. (not in Bible)
Where there’s smoke / there’s fire. (not in Bible)
Don’t cry over / spilt milk. (not in Bible)
People who live in glass houses / shouldn’t throw stones. (not in Bible)
The early bird / gets the worm. (not in Bible)
An apple a day / keeps the doctor away. (not in Bible)
All’s fair / in love and war. (not in Bible)
Look / before you leap. (not in Bible)
All work and no play / makes Jack a dull boy. (not in Bible)
Application
In the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon collected the sayings of the world and then compared them with the Word of God. It is important in our life to be able to distinguish what is from the world and what is from God. The Word of God is our guide for living our life.
MORE IDEAS? See “Creative Object Lessons”
200 page e-book that explains everything you need to know when planning your very own object lessons. It contains 90 fully developed object lesson ideas and another 200 object lesson starter ideas based on Biblical idioms and Names / Descriptions of God.