The older I get the more I am made aware of the disconnect between my knowing what to do and my actually doing it. I have read countless books on leadership, prayer, evangelism, disciple making, communication, and many other topics that I hoped would result in me becoming the ultimate husband, pastor, friend, and father. For the most part, these insights were helpful and informative. Unfortunately though, my life is a testimony to the fact that knowing how to be better at something does not actually make one better. Not that knowledge is a bad thing (far from it), but knowledge in and of itself does little to make us into the person we were meant to be.
We live in a hyper-connected age where our minds are bombarded with advice, wisdom, and insight from every possible perspective. Some of it is good, much of it is bad, but none of it can bridge the gap between the person we are and the person God made us to be. You can’t know your way into heaven. Being informed or having right views won’t save your soul. Even the most biblically sound counsel will fall short if we try to live it out without the most essential element of true wisdom, a right relationship with God. It may seem narrow-minded of me to suggest wisdom is exclusive to God, but I would argue that is actually foolish to suggest otherwise. After all, we don’t live in a universe of our own making. If God, the author and sustainer of the universe, reveals himself to us and provides for us not only instruction on how we were to live, but an actual relationship with Him, wouldn’t we be fools to seek ultimate wisdom and knowledge elsewhere?
I believe Solomon was correct when he wrote;
“The fear (reverence) of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”
Proverbs 1:7
There is no true wisdom apart from God because everything originates from God. God is the only self-sufficient being, and wisdom can only truly begin with an acknowledgement of our dependence. I suppose the spiritually blind may occasionally stumble onto some piece of God’s truth (mistakenly assuming that the truth originated with them or was somehow discovered by them), but why choose wandering in darkness when the light of God’s Word is within our grasp? Why follow the blind who lead the blind when we can follow the one who gives sight? Why follow the ever-changing wisdom of the age, when Christ the eternal Son of God turns to us and says “follow me”? The optimist in me wants to believe that our fault is that we simply lack knowledge. If only we could fully see reality for what it is, then we would give up our foolishness and truly begin to seek wisdom from God. Unfortunately we rarely, if ever, see reality for what it truly is. In our hearts we are all fools. We cannot clearly discern good and evil on our own, a lesson we seem incapable of learning.
God’s Word tells us that the first temptation, which lead to the first sin, occurred when Satan tempted Adam and Eve to seek wisdom apart from God. Paradise lasted as long as mankind was content to trust God in all matters, but sin and death entered the world when this trust was broken (Genesis 3). Foolishness and sin inevitably lead to death, but the wisdom that comes from God leads to life.
Solomon was the wisest man of his day, but he was clear that his wisdom came, not from within, but from his complete dependence on God (Proverbs 3:5-6). Biblical wisdom is a top-down system. All wisdom originates from God, who is above all. Rulers, leaders, and people in positions of power like Solomon are called to take special care to receive wisdom from God and to rule/lead wisely. If the king was wise, then the people would prosper from his wisdom. However, if the King ruled foolishly – not seeking wisdom from the Lord – the people would inevitably suffer as a result. This motivated Solomon to chronicle his wisdom so that future generations might benefit in living wisely – resulting in greater righteousness, justice, and equity for all (Proverbs 1:3).
In this sense, the quest for wisdom is really a quest to rediscover the paths of life that were lost to us through the Fall, all the while understanding that we cannot ever truly un-break what is broken within us. Our best efforts to live wisely, at most, will serve as a type of damage control. Because of sin, there are barriers between God and man that we cannot bridge. There are walls between ourselves and others that cannot be torn down by human effort. More knowledge and understanding won’t solve the problem because we do not even follow God with what little wisdom we already posess. Each of us, regardless of our knowledge of God and his ways, will inevitably choose to go down paths that are hurtful, foolish, and which ultimately end in death. Our best efforts will always be overshadowed by our total inability.
Our only hope is, and always has been, Christ. He alone is our hope of salvation and the only source of everlasting wisdom. Christ draws near to us, in our sin and instability, and says “follow me.” He teaches us not just in word and in action, giving us a perfect model to follow. He justifies and redeems us through his atoning death and resurrection. He leads us and empowers us through his Holy Spirit, and he seals us for eternity. At every stage of the journey, Christ is key. It is only through Christ that our relationship with God can be restored, and it is only in relationship with God that we can find true wisdom that restores the harmony that sin disrupted. This renewed harmony or “shalom” that comes about through godly wisdom is for the whole self and the whole life. To be truly wise, we have to reject the popular idea of a divide between the sacred and the secular within our lives. The truly wise person will seek to follow, obey, and imitate Christ in every detail of life. Wisdom, rightly applied, will shape your life in unexpected ways. From the food you eat to the person you marry, biblical wisdom leaves no stone un-turned. And while the idea of a complete life overhaul may scare us, we should remember that wisdom is a process. We don’t become wise overnight, we grow into wisdom over a lifetime (Luke 2:52). We should also remember that wisdom is grounded in a relationship with our loving Heavenly Father, and like all good fathers, there is a patient understanding that growth will come with time.
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