Sophomoric: conceited and overconfident of knowledge but poorly informed and immature.
If you have ever been to college, you have clearly seen and understand why the different gradations of classes are named the way they are:
FRESHMAN are fresh meat…ready to be devoured by all the upperclassmen, they are naive, scared and gullible.
JUNIORS are not quite there yet, one year left, second on the totem pole.
SENIORS are the top dog, however, they are the most realistic about the world – – they are quick to admit they don’t know hardly anything because they know they soon have to get a job and provide for themselves.
But a SOPHOMORE? What exactly is a Sophomore? Someone who is sophomoric. But still, what does that mean? The root of Sophomore is taken from the group of intellectuals called the Sophists – – people who use reasoning and argument as a way to project an image instead of getting to true truth. Sophists think they know things when they actually don’t, and in the same way, Sophomores are people who have been through one year of college, learned some new things, and now they foolishly think they are smarter than the rest of the world.
Did you know you don’t have to be a Sophomore to be sophomoric?
Sophomores are a very dangerous breed of person because they unknowingly wear “pride as their necklace.” And pride is the one sin that blinds us to ourselves. Sophomores don’t see that they are standing on intellectual and moral shifting sand. If anyone disagrees with the sophomoric mind, pride inoculates them to the criticism. The Sophomore says to himself, “They don’t know anything because they are disagreeing with me, and I am the person who knows everything so clearly they are in the wrong.” What the Sophomore doesn’t know is that pride is Satan’s bait of choice to snare a person. Listen to how 1 Timothy 3:6 warns people against the Sophomore who wants to be a leader over others in the church, “He must not become a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.”
Puffed-up: this is the way of describing someone who is more concerned with their outward image as compared to their inward substance. This is the Sophomore curse as well as Satan’s playground.
If we were to honestly look around at American culture we are flush with Sophomores, people with a penchant for hype, image, raised on advertising, lured by photo-shop touch-ups, creating reality through Instagram, and thinking they can spark social change through Twitter feeds. Perception has become our new truth. That is why gender now trumps biology, and feel good psychology has more moral authority over the mind of the masses than traditional orthodoxy and houses of worship. Even our politicians are the creation of money hungry media manipulators – – they definitely are not our best and brightest. Could you imagine Trump debating Hamilton on Federalism? Or Hilary discussing law with John Adams? Historically speaking, our leaders are mere juveniles – – Lincoln argued the intrinsic worth of man, Trump and Hilary debate the definition of “Schlonged.”
The smarter we think we are, the more at risk we have become to the persuasive power of image and hype. That is why we are in desperate need of people who are humble. People who are open to criticism, and are willing to be self-critical. John Stott, the late Christian writer, once brilliantly penned the need for a new movement of humble and moral thinkers,
“Is not this submission of our minds to the mind of Christ an intellectual imprisonment? No more so than the submission of our wills to the will of Christ is moral bondage. Certainly it is a surrender of liberty (ie. Intellectual Freedom), for no Christian can be a “free thinker”. Yet it is that kind of surrender which is TRUE FREEDOM – freedom from our own miserable subjectivity, and freedom from bondage to the current whims and fancies of the world. Is it stunting to spiritual growth? No, it is ESSENTIAL to it, for Christian growth is nothing if it is not growth into Christ as Lord and head.” (In other words, just as a true Christian is to guard their actions from ungodly behavior, so too must we guard our mind from ungodly philosophies).”
If you want to grow and mature, stop being a Sophomore. Show some humility and learn how to learn from others. You don’t know everything and the moment you think you do you have set yourself up for Satan’s hook. The tempter knows how to play the proud, and the Sophomore is his favorite meal of choice.
