Who Is Wise And Understanding Among You? Series

“Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.”(James 3:13)

"Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you. Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding." (Proverbs 4:6-7)

Our age is eager in its pursuit of knowledge. It professes to be a truth-loving, and a truth-seeking information age. It is quite awake to science, and thoroughly in love with its marvels and mysteries. It has obtained a far insight into the dark processes of that which is called "nature." It has witnessed one substance, and another, yielding up their hidden wonders; it has seen earth, and sea, and air giving out their treasures; What a insight of miracle there is contained in every ray of light, every drop of dew, every pebble of the brook, every fragment of rock, every blade of grass; what an exemplification of order and law there is revealed in every natural process– the motion of earth, and sun, and stars, the shock of earthquakes, the flow of tides, the rush of the breeze, the braiding of the rainbow on the cloud, the change of seasons, the springing, growth, blossoming, and fruit-bearing of flower, and shrub, and tree!

These are the works of God, the laws of God, the daily miracles of God. In all of them wisdom is seen; divine wisdom; wisdom as profound as it is perfect, as incomprehensible as it is glorious, as magnificent in its minuteness as in its vastness, in the grain of sand as in the mighty mountain, in the blush of the unnoticed desert-flower as in the splendor of a new-lighted star. In all this there is wisdom; wisdom which we do well to study. Yet all these are but parts– mere fragments; and, even when gathered together, they still form but the minutest portion of a whole, whose dimensions are vaster than the created universe– a whole, of which nothing less than the infinity of Godhead is the measure.

Wisdom Literature

In Bible the book of Job, the Psalms, and the Proverbs are in the part of the Old Testament known as Wisdom Literature. This is because these books of the Bible purport to set forth practical knowledge and understanding regarding day-to-day living. The first principle of wisdom literature is this: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Job 28:28; Psa. 111:10; Prov. 9:10). The reason you find this principle in all three of these books is simple. All wisdom begins with God as He is the source, par excellence, of how the creation works. After all, He is its creator, and no one knows better how something operates than the one who made it.

The English word wisdom is derived from an old Anglo-Saxon word meaning to see (hence also the origin of the term "I see" when one understands something).True wisdom is a moral quality, not necessarily a measure of intelligence i.e. there are some very intelligent people in the world who do some very unwise things, while conversely there are some people of lesser intellectual ability who have wisdom that is superior to people with supposedly greater intelligence (intelligence itself is manifested in two sometimes-conflicting forms, greater thinking power on one hand, and acquired knowledge on the other - activities that do not mean the same thing e.g. some worldly information-gathering management "intelligence" services have been known to do some very unintelligent things).

Man’s wisdom and God’s wisdom

There are only two kinds of wisdom in the world: man’s wisdom and God’s wisdom. Unfortunately the wisdom of man is today’s prevailing guide for most philosophy and practice. The wisdom of man is usually, though not always opposed to the wisdom of God. For instance, consider the human fabrication known as evolution with its explanation for the origin of man. This theory is built upon man-made science which denies the existence of God. The REAL reason men deny the existence of God is not based on intellect or evidence or lack of evidence, but a deceptive spirit of independence and rebellion. If there is a God, then all men must depend on God and Interdependent and be accountable. Solution to the God problem: get rid of God by denying His existence and offer an alternative for the origin of man and the existence of the universe. In our own wisdom, we have kicked God out of our lives, taking up pride in our achievements, forgetting that God was the chief engineer in our success.

After getting rid of the existence of God, the obvious result is moral relativism, followed by lawlessness. If God, the divine lawmaker who established the standard for right and wrong does not exist, then neither do any absolutes exist. Nothing is ever right or wrong. Man’s wisdom produces illogical solutions to man’s problems, which are ultimately caused by man’s sin of rebellion against God the higher power. The approach for studying God’s Word, understanding the natural world, and living our lives for the Lord rests upon a very important question: “Should I use man’s wisdom or God’s wisdom?” The desire for man’s wisdom as opposed to God’s wisdom within the scientific community has resulted in the tendency to look to man’s wisdom on the science of origins and disregard God’s wisdom. We must be careful how we interpret the natural world and use the Bible as our guide to help us discern between man’s wisdom and God’s wisdom. We should always trust God’s eternal Word over man’s wisdom and ideas.