Proverbs 2:10-12
When wisdom enters your heart,
and knowledge is pleasant to your soul,
discretion will preserve you;
understanding will keep you,
to deliver you...
Throughout the Proverbs, the wise father is instructing his young son to keep away from two kinds of people--perverse men and immoral women. And he says that when wisdom, knowledge and understanding have been made realities in our lives, they will keep us from those things.
A perverse man is one whose ways are twisted, who doesn't think like he ought to think. Solomon describes him as one who is always scheming to do sinful things, who walks in darkness and rejoices in unrighteousness. The world is full of people who just love to sin, and encourage and entice others to sin with them. Wisdom will deliver us from such men.
An immoral woman is one who seduces and flatters to get what she wants, forsaking her vows and her covenant with God to pursue unrighteous living. Solomon continually warns his son--to go to her is to go to your death. Wisdom will deliver us from such women.
A man is known by the company he keeps, or so they say. An old French proverb says, "Bad companions bring bad luck." Solomon put it another way--Bad companions corrupt good manners. For most of us, hanging around perverse men and immoral woman would bring about compromise in our lives, and yet even a cursory glance at the life of Jesus shows that those are exactly the kind of people he came to minister to. Yet the wisdom of God embodied in him kept him free from their influence, leaving him freer still to minister to their needs.
Once we learn how to be in the world but not of it, separated and secured by the abiding wisdom of God, but empowered by the inwelling presence of the Holy Ghost to reach the world around us, we will be so much closer to fulfilling the will of God for our every day existence.
3 comments:
Cassey, I just tried to post a huge comment about this and when I tried to publish it I got disconnected from the internet and lost the entire thing. Fiddelsticks!!!
I guess I need to start being more like Jesus and saving my work.
In a nut shell this is a great post and you have got me thinking more deeply about the relationship wisdom should have in our lives.
You have also got me thinking about the terminology "spirit of wisdom" that we find being used in passages like Isaiah 11:2 and Ephesians 1:17. I am wondering what the difference might be in the characterization of wisdom in the old covenant vs the new. Might you have a "word of wisdom" on this my friend.
Peace,
My question is rather ambiguous so if it doesn't make sense let me know.
Will, at its most fundamental, wisdom is simply knowing what to do and when to do it. It is the most basic component of the godly life, and it begins with "the fear of the Lord."
I don't think there is a lot of difference between OT & NT wisdom, though in regard to having the "spirit of wisdom", I think there is the element of the Spirit Baptism in the NT that wasn't there in the OT; Stephen and the deacons of Acts 6 were men "full of the Holy Ghost and of wisdom". The church needed those kind of leaders to know what to do and when to do it, especially regarding the "practical" things of the church.
The gifts of the Spirit named by Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 are not also defined by him there, but I believe we find examples of them throughout the book of Acts. We also gain understanding from the practice of such gifts in the modern church. The word of wisdom was the proclamation of what to do and when to do it.
The spirit of wisdom in both OT & NT is perhaps referring to the fullness of the Holy Spirit and the wisdom such a relationship should bring into a person's life.
Unfortunately, in either sense, wisdom is something that must be sought, developed, practiced, tried, and in the case of failure, tried again until we learn it completely.
It's late and I've been kinda tired, so I'm hoping this makes as much sense as your original question!
Be blessed.
Thanks for taking the time to respond. You make perfect sense and have inspired me to write about it sometime in the future.
Blessings,
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