26/08/25

Most mornings I wake up and the first thing I do is scroll. It’s a bad habit, I know, but sometimes it throws something at me that actually makes me stop and think. One morning the very first video I saw did exactly that. The guy was talking about a phrase we all know: “Great minds think alike.” We usually say it as a joke or a compliment, as if the fact two people agree is proof they’re both geniuses. But apparently that’s not even the full saying. The real quote is: “Great minds think alike, but fools seldom differ.”

And honestly, that second half changes the whole meaning. It’s not really about being clever at all. It’s actually a warning. Just because a bunch of people all agree doesn’t make it wisdom. Sometimes it just means a bunch of people are wrong together. The irony is we’ve all shortened the saying to the part that makes us feel good and cut off the part that would’ve challenged us. That’s basically what we do with truth in general. We pick the bits that suit us and ignore the rest and culture does it all the time. 

For example, in my favorite TV show Suits, there’s a moment when Daniel Hardman, trying to claw back control of the firm, plays the “make people feel smart” game. Mike Ross, a first-year associate (and secretly a fraud who never even went to law school), comes up with an idea for a case. Later, Hardman lands on the same conclusion. Instead of presenting it as his own, he publicly elevates Mike, putting him on equal footing with himself. On the surface, it looks generous, like he’s empowering the new guy. But Harvey Specter sees right through it. From Harvey’s perspective, Hardman isn’t being clever at all - he’s actually proving himself foolish. Because if the best he can do is echo the same “rookie” idea as a first-year associate, then he’s not raising Mike up… he’s dragging himself down. What Hardman is doing is viewing half of the quote - great minds think alike, right? But Harvey seems to be observant of the full quote - that fools minds seldom differ.

Christians do it too. We love the verses that make us feel comforted or inspired. We reshape the message until it says what we wanted it to say all along.  The Israelites did the same thing. God gave them laws to set them apart, to make them stand out as His people in the middle of nations who lived totally differently. But again and again they ditched that calling and blended in with everyone else. They listened to the louder voices around them instead of the voice of God. They conformed when they were meant to be distinct.

That’s still the temptation for us. It’s easier to just go with the flow than to live with conviction. It’s easier to believe what everyone else believes than to wrestle with Scripture and ask God what’s actually true. Paul saw that coming when he wrote in Colossians 2:4, “I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.” Deception doesn’t always look obvious. Sometimes it looks smart. Sometimes it sounds reasonable. Sometimes it’s what “everyone” thinks. But popularity is not the same as truth.

And that’s why Paul says in Romans 12:2, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” If you do nothing, you’ll just end up like everyone else. Conforming is the default. Transformation, though, takes effort. It takes actually letting God reshape the way you think. That’s what struck me about this whole “great minds think alike” thing. Great minds don’t think alike because they’re just parroting what the crowd says. Great minds think alike because they’re aligned with God. The crowd is often loud, but it’s not always wise. Sometimes it’s just a group of fools who all agree because none of them are willing to stop and question whether they might be wrong.

So here’s the real question: how do we avoid falling into that trap? For starters, check the source. When something sounds good, stop and ask if it actually lines up with Scripture or if it just lines up with culture. Don’t settle for half the story either. Whether it’s a verse or a quote, the parts we cut off usually matter. Check the context, check the result. Don’t just go off what your pastor told you, discover the meaning yourself. Fill your mind with godly voices, not just the noise of social media. And probably the biggest one is this: stay humble. Fools seldom differ because pride locks them into the same thinking. Humility is what lets you admit, “I might be wrong. Maybe God’s way is better.”

One of the best ways to test whether something is true is to bring it to God in prayer. Ask Him to show you if what you’ve heard actually lines up with His Word or if it just sounds good. Scripture isn’t meant to be wrestled with in isolation either. Bring it into the community. Talk it through with other Christians who are grounded in the Bible, not just the ones who will tell you what you want to hear. When Paul commended the Bereans in Acts 17, it wasn’t because they blindly accepted teaching, even from an apostle. It was because they examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. That’s the model: prayer, Scripture, and community together.

Every day we’ve got a choice to make. Conform or be transformed. Go along with the crowd or let God renew the way we think. And that little quote about “great minds” sums it up perfectly. We love the version that makes us feel clever. But the full saying tells the truth. Numbers don’t equal wisdom. Following the crowd might be easy, but it’s rarely the way of God.

The real question isn’t whether we think like everyone else, but whether our minds are in line with Christ.