The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge
"Jews demand
signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ
crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to
Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and
Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.."—1
Corinthians 1:23-24.
“The fear of the LORD is the
beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.” (Prov. 1:7)
People today run
after two things: miraculous signs and knowledge. It was no different in Bible
times. The apostle Paul acknowledged that “Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek
after wisdom”. Many of the
Corinthian converts carried their spirit of philosophical factionalism into the
church. Some of them still held onto beliefs of their former pagan philosophy.
They were divided regarding philosophical viewpoints. They could not get over
their love for human wisdom. Although they had trusted in Christ and recognized
their redemption by grace through the cross, but they wanted to add human
wisdom to what He had done for them.
The Jews
required a sign, the Greeks seek after wisdom." If you met the Jew who
believed not on Christ in the apostle's day, he said, "I cannot believe,
because I want a sign;" and if you met the Greek, he said, "I cannot
believe, because I want a philosophic system, one that is full of wisdom.
Both
these objections are untenable and unreasonable. If you suppose that the Jew
requires a sign, that sign is given him: Christ is the power of God. The
miracles that Christ wrought upon earth were signs more than sufficiently
abundant; and if the Jewish people had but the will to believe, they would have
found abundant signs and reasons for believing in the personal acts of Christ
and his apostles." And let the Greeks say, "I cannot believe, because
I require wisdom: O Greek, Christ is the wisdom of God. If thou wouldst but
investigate the subject, thou wouldst find in it profoundness of wisdom—a depth
where the most gigantic intellect might be drowned. It is no shallow gospel,
but a deep, and a great deep too, a deep which passes all understanding. Your
objection is ill-founded; for Christ is the wisdom of God, and his gospel is
the highest of all sciences. If you wish to find wisdom, you must find it in
the word of revelation."
Becoming a Christian does not give us
all the answers to everything—certainly not in the areas of science,
electronics, math, or any other field of strictly human learning. Many
nonbelievers are more educated, brilliant, talented, and experienced than many
believers. If we want our car fixed we go to the best mechanic we can find,
even if he is not a believer. If we need an operation we go to the best
surgeon. If we want to get an education we try to go the school that has the
best faculty in the field in which we want to study. As long as they are used
properly and wisely, medicine and technology and science and all such fields of
human learning and achievement can be of great value. We should thank God for
them.
But if we want answers to what life is
about—answers about where we came from, where we are going, and why we are
here, what is our final destiny? About what is right and what is wrong—then
human learning cannot help us. If we want to know the ultimate meaning and
purpose of human life, and the source of happiness, joy, fulfillment, and
peace, we have to look beyond what even the best human minds can discover.
Human attempts to find such answers apart from God’s revelation are doomed to
fail.
We do not have the resources even to find the answers about ourselves, much less about God. In regard to the most important truths—those about human nature, sin, God, morality and ethics, death, the spirit world, the transformation and future of human life—philosophy is bankrupt. We have become a planet without law of wisdom and order. When I use the word law, I am not referring to the laws that we have created. Whatever laws we create, we can always change. I am referring to the divine laws of God that have been set in motion and in place in His very own creation. We have to learn these laws and submit to them, study them, and obey them in order to experience God’s promises and benefits. Unfortunately, even many individuals who claim to believe in God have no fear of Him or His laws. God’s desire is that His law is written on the tables of our hearts (2 Cor 3:2-3). We need the law of God back in our hearts so that we can go into a new day with a strict, clear distinction of right and wrong.
Without exception, Human wisdom elevates the self and lowers God. It always, no matter how seemingly sincere and objective and scholarly, caters to human self–will, pride, fleshly inclinations, and independence. Those are the basic characteristics of the unredeemed, and they always direct and determine the unredeemed thinking, desires, and conclusions. The reason people love complex, elaborate philosophies and religions is because these appeal to human ego. They offer the challenge of understanding and doing something complex and difficult. For the same reason some people scoff at the gospel. It calls on them to do nothing—it allows them to do nothing—but accept in simple faith what God has done. The cross crushes human sin and crushes human pride. It also offers deliverance from sin and deliverance from pride.
We have become a planet without law of wisdom and order. When I use the word law, I am not referring to the laws that we have created. Whatever laws we create, we can always change. I am referring to the divine laws of God that have been set in motion and in place in His very own creation. We have to learn these laws and submit to them, study them, and obey them in order to experience God’s promises and benefits. Unfortunately, even many individuals who claim to believe in God have no fear of Him or His laws. God’s desire is that His law is written on the tables of our hearts (2 Cor 3:2-3). We need the law of God back in our hearts so that we can go into a new day with a strict, clear distinction of right and wrong.
Without exception, Human wisdom elevates the self and lowers God. It always, no matter how seemingly sincere and objective and scholarly, caters to human self–will, pride, fleshly inclinations, and independence. Those are the basic characteristics of the unredeemed, and they always direct and determine the unredeemed thinking, desires, and conclusions. The reason people love complex, elaborate philosophies and religions is because these appeal to human ego. They offer the challenge of understanding and doing something complex and difficult. For the same reason some people scoff at the gospel. It calls on them to do nothing—it allows them to do nothing—but accept in simple faith what God has done. The cross crushes human sin and crushes human pride. It also offers deliverance from sin and deliverance from pride.
Without exception, Human wisdom elevates the self and lowers God. It always, no matter how seemingly sincere and objective and scholarly, caters to human self–will, pride, fleshly inclinations, and independence. Those are the basic characteristics of the unredeemed, and they always direct and determine the unredeemed thinking, desires, and conclusions. The reason people love complex, elaborate philosophies and religions is because these appeal to human ego. They offer the challenge of understanding and doing something complex and difficult. For the same reason some people scoff at the gospel. It calls on them to do nothing—it allows them to do nothing—but accept in simple faith what God has done. The cross crushes human sin and crushes human pride. It also offers deliverance from sin and deliverance from pride.
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.
There is some proportion between the fragments of the split planet, that astronomy has detected in their wanderings, and the planet itself, of which they are the broken parts; there is some proportion between a drop and the ocean, between the stream and the fountain, between a beam and the sun, between a moment and millions of ages; but there is no proportion between the fragments of wisdom that lie scattered over creation and the great whole, which can be contained in no treasure-house except that which is infinite and divine. Hence it is that, while, in all the regions and departments of creation, may be seen portions of this wisdom, only in the Son of God– in Christ Jesus, the incarnate Word– is the mighty WHOLE contained. He and he only, is "the Wisdom of God." By the expression, "the Wisdom of God," thus applied to Christ, is not merely meant that he is wise, infinitely wise– but something much more comprehensive.
To say that he is infinitely wise is one thing– but to say that he is the wisdom of God is another. We say of the Father, he is infinitely wise; but we cannot say of him, he is the wisdom of God. Of the Son alone, the Christ of God, can this be said. Both things are true of him. He is infinitely wise, and he is the wisdom of God. Only of him can we affirm that he has, and he is, "the wisdom of God.".
All that is in God and all that can come forth out of God is contained in him. He is the full representative of the invisible and incomprehensible Jehovah. He is the brightness of Jehovah's glory, and the express image of his person. In the works of creation God has displayed fragments or portions of his wisdom– but in Christ he has summed up and put forth THE WHOLE of it; so that it can be said of this Christ, he is the wisdom of God. Hence it is that the knowledge of Christ not only transcends all other knowledge– but includes them all; the study of this wondrous embodiment of all that is in God is not only superior to– but actually embraces, all other studies. Here we cannot fathom this; hereafter we may. Here we cannot see how a discovered Christ should be the discovery of all other things, all science, all nature, all things in heaven and earth; hereafter we shall find it so. Wisdom is one of the last things which we are in the habit of connecting with the name of Christ. We connect with it salvation, pardon, life, righteousness, love– but not wisdom. Yet it is wisdom that God so especially associates with Christ. "He, of God, is made unto us wisdom." "In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."
We do not have the resources even to find the answers about ourselves, much less about God. In regard to the most important truths—those about human nature, sin, God, morality and ethics, death, the spirit world, the transformation and future of human life—philosophy is bankrupt. We have become a planet without law of wisdom and order. When I use the word law, I am not referring to the laws that we have created. Whatever laws we create, we can always change. I am referring to the divine laws of God that have been set in motion and in place in His very own creation. We have to learn these laws and submit to them, study them, and obey them in order to experience God’s promises and benefits. Unfortunately, even many individuals who claim to believe in God have no fear of Him or His laws. God’s desire is that His law is written on the tables of our hearts (2 Cor 3:2-3). We need the law of God back in our hearts so that we can go into a new day with a strict, clear distinction of right and wrong.
Without exception, Human wisdom elevates the self and lowers God. It always, no matter how seemingly sincere and objective and scholarly, caters to human self–will, pride, fleshly inclinations, and independence. Those are the basic characteristics of the unredeemed, and they always direct and determine the unredeemed thinking, desires, and conclusions. The reason people love complex, elaborate philosophies and religions is because these appeal to human ego. They offer the challenge of understanding and doing something complex and difficult. For the same reason some people scoff at the gospel. It calls on them to do nothing—it allows them to do nothing—but accept in simple faith what God has done. The cross crushes human sin and crushes human pride. It also offers deliverance from sin and deliverance from pride.
We have become a planet without law of wisdom and order. When I use the word law, I am not referring to the laws that we have created. Whatever laws we create, we can always change. I am referring to the divine laws of God that have been set in motion and in place in His very own creation. We have to learn these laws and submit to them, study them, and obey them in order to experience God’s promises and benefits. Unfortunately, even many individuals who claim to believe in God have no fear of Him or His laws. God’s desire is that His law is written on the tables of our hearts (2 Cor 3:2-3). We need the law of God back in our hearts so that we can go into a new day with a strict, clear distinction of right and wrong.
Without exception, Human wisdom elevates the self and lowers God. It always, no matter how seemingly sincere and objective and scholarly, caters to human self–will, pride, fleshly inclinations, and independence. Those are the basic characteristics of the unredeemed, and they always direct and determine the unredeemed thinking, desires, and conclusions. The reason people love complex, elaborate philosophies and religions is because these appeal to human ego. They offer the challenge of understanding and doing something complex and difficult. For the same reason some people scoff at the gospel. It calls on them to do nothing—it allows them to do nothing—but accept in simple faith what God has done. The cross crushes human sin and crushes human pride. It also offers deliverance from sin and deliverance from pride.
Without exception, Human wisdom elevates the self and lowers God. It always, no matter how seemingly sincere and objective and scholarly, caters to human self–will, pride, fleshly inclinations, and independence. Those are the basic characteristics of the unredeemed, and they always direct and determine the unredeemed thinking, desires, and conclusions. The reason people love complex, elaborate philosophies and religions is because these appeal to human ego. They offer the challenge of understanding and doing something complex and difficult. For the same reason some people scoff at the gospel. It calls on them to do nothing—it allows them to do nothing—but accept in simple faith what God has done. The cross crushes human sin and crushes human pride. It also offers deliverance from sin and deliverance from pride.
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.
There is some proportion between the fragments of the split planet, that astronomy has detected in their wanderings, and the planet itself, of which they are the broken parts; there is some proportion between a drop and the ocean, between the stream and the fountain, between a beam and the sun, between a moment and millions of ages; but there is no proportion between the fragments of wisdom that lie scattered over creation and the great whole, which can be contained in no treasure-house except that which is infinite and divine. Hence it is that, while, in all the regions and departments of creation, may be seen portions of this wisdom, only in the Son of God– in Christ Jesus, the incarnate Word– is the mighty WHOLE contained. He and he only, is "the Wisdom of God." By the expression, "the Wisdom of God," thus applied to Christ, is not merely meant that he is wise, infinitely wise– but something much more comprehensive.
To say that he is infinitely wise is one thing– but to say that he is the wisdom of God is another. We say of the Father, he is infinitely wise; but we cannot say of him, he is the wisdom of God. Of the Son alone, the Christ of God, can this be said. Both things are true of him. He is infinitely wise, and he is the wisdom of God. Only of him can we affirm that he has, and he is, "the wisdom of God.".
All that is in God and all that can come forth out of God is contained in him. He is the full representative of the invisible and incomprehensible Jehovah. He is the brightness of Jehovah's glory, and the express image of his person. In the works of creation God has displayed fragments or portions of his wisdom– but in Christ he has summed up and put forth THE WHOLE of it; so that it can be said of this Christ, he is the wisdom of God. Hence it is that the knowledge of Christ not only transcends all other knowledge– but includes them all; the study of this wondrous embodiment of all that is in God is not only superior to– but actually embraces, all other studies. Here we cannot fathom this; hereafter we may. Here we cannot see how a discovered Christ should be the discovery of all other things, all science, all nature, all things in heaven and earth; hereafter we shall find it so. Wisdom is one of the last things which we are in the habit of connecting with the name of Christ. We connect with it salvation, pardon, life, righteousness, love– but not wisdom. Yet it is wisdom that God so especially associates with Christ. "He, of God, is made unto us wisdom." "In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."
Jesus
said “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
(Matthew 5:3)
The
poor in spirit acknowledge our spiritually destitute state. Recall, Jesus told
the Pharisees, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who
are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to
repentance.” (Mark 2:17)The one who follows in the path of Cain, refusing
to acknowledge his sin cannot be helped by the Lord. Those who trust in
self-righteousness, like the Pharisees, believing they do not need the Saviour,
deceive themselves. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God," (Romans 3:23) until we realize that we are spiritually
destitute because of our sin, we will not see the need to turn to the Lord, nor
are we able to experience the freedom He seeks to give us. We must be poor in
spirit.
To be poor in spirit is to realize that nothing
we have is worth more than the kingdom of God.
There
is so much chaos and confusion in the world today. It is hard to know which way
we should go. What is the key to restoring order to our lives, our homes, and
our communities? The answer is the restoration of law and order. The first
thing that God gave Adam was law. In the beginning, God told Adam what he could
do, but He quickly told him what he could not do. God told Adam that the day
that he broke the law, he would die.” And the LORD God commanded the man, saying,
"You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it
you shall die." (Gen 2:15-17) The tree of the knowledge of good & evil
mentioned in scripture only in this verse, largely because its effects have
become widespread. But the tree of life reappears again in the book of
Revelation. This tree seems to have had the power to convey immortality to man,
and as such is used in Scripture as a symbol of the Lord Jesus Chris, that he
"abolished death and brought life & immortality to light through the
gospel,” But what is this "tree of the knowledge of good and evil"?
&why did God forbid Adam to partake of this fruit? In Genesis 3:5 Satan
misuses the truth, in order to draw women on until she become the victims, of
his lie.
Serpent said to the
woman “You will not certainly die,” “For God knows that when you eat from it
your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”That
suggests a clue as to what this fruit was and what it did. God knows evil, not
by experience because he cannot experience evil, but he knows it by relating it
to himself. That which is consistent & in line with his character and his
nature is good; that which is inconsistent and out of line with himself is
evil. That is how God knows good and evil. He relates it to himself. God is the
only one who can properly do that. God is the only being in the entire universe
that has the right to relate all things to Himself. When a creature tries it,
he gets into trouble. The creatures of God's universe are made to discover the
difference between good &evil by relating all to the Being of God, not to
themselves. When man ate of the fruit he began to relate everything to himself.
Yet, as a creature, he has no real ability to sustain this kind of relationship
and thus he is constantly Interrupt an unbalanced element into life.
When man began to
think of himself as the center of the universe, he tried became like God. But
it was all a lie. Man is not the center of the universe, and he cannot be. But
as we trace the course of human history we can see that this is the seductive
lie that the Satan has whispered into the ears of men ever since: "You are
the center of life. This is your world, everything relates to you. What you
like is right; what you don't like is wrong. You are the center of
things." You can find this idea predominant and alive throughout the
philosophies of men. That is the curse that fell upon man when he ate of the
fruit in the Garden of Eden. In a sense his mind was twisted, and related all
things to himself. But when man does this he introduces a tainted element into
life, into creation. That is why everything is always going off in wrong
directions. But the glory of the gospel is that when men are redeemed, through
faith in Jesus Christ, they resume once again a balanced life, and everything
relates once again to God. God now becomes the center of things. The purpose of
Jesus is here, to put God back into the center of his world and relate
everything in our life and in the lives of others to him and not to us. This is
what the gospel message is all about. Have you crowned Jesus Christ Lord of his
empire, where he belongs, and invited him with gladness to sit upon the throne
of your heart and rule there? There is coming a day when every knee shall bow,
and every tongue confesses that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Then the destruction, desolation, and despair of the Garden of Eden will be
reversed, and men shall once again acknowledge the centrality of God in life.
Then the world shall be filled with glory and righteousness. Everything shall
be what God intended it to be.
God
did not send death to kill Adam. Adam activated death when he broke God’s law.
Death was present but did not have the power to kill. However, when Adam
sinned, he gave life to death, and death eventually killed him. When law is
present, a lawbreaker does not need anyone else to apply penalty. God’s laws
have the penalty built into them. The positive side of it is that the benefits
are also built into the law. If you keep the law, you prosper. If you violate
the law, you self-destruct. Do you know what the beginning of wisdom is? It is
fear. It is not education. The fear of the Lord is where wisdom begins. In
other words, when you are so reverently submitted to God and His law, you
become wise in your behavior. Where there is no discretion, there is no fear.
Where there is no fear, it is because the law has been compromised.
“The
fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and
discipline.” (Prov. 1:7)
True
Knowledge empowers people and it is the true wealth of the community. No one
likes to be called a dummy or considered fool. The fact is our society places a
high value on knowledge in our day and age because Knowledge is hope for the
future and destiny. It fulfills our humanity by refining our human nature.
People spend thousands of rupees that they might get an advanced degree and be
educated. Yet, we know that no matter how much book learning one gets or how
many degrees a person has, that does not mean that person has any wisdom. Life
is a process of living, loving, and learning and finally leaving a legacy.
Knowledge of God is a vital part of the process for the individual aspiration
for a comprehensive and meaningful- life. Therefore true knowledge transforms
the human heart and the transformed heart transforms the world. That is what
our text that say: "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of
knowledge." A step beyond book learning and a mere education, we want
knowledge, wisdom, and insight, but wondering where to begin? We do have a
choice to make, because the journey to true enlightenment, true wisdom, begins
with the fear of the LORD.
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 government "intelligence"
services have been known to do some very unintelligent things).
In
the Holy Bible, "wisdom" is used to translate the Hebrew word
of the Old Testament kok-maw meaning to be wise in thought and deed,
and the Greek word of the New Testament
(pronounced) sof-ee-ah meaning clear, or wise. The
Scriptures make plain that wisdom that is based upon the Word of God is the
only true wisdom, while carnal "worldly" wisdom is nothing
more than dead-end self-righteous vanity i.e. "There is a way that appears
to be right, but in the end it leads to death." (Proverbs 14:12) and
"For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is
written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness” and again, “The Lord
knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”.(1 Corinthians 3:19-20)
What
does it mean to fear the Lord? The rabbis taught that the fear of God can mean
two things—reverential fear and fear of retribution. Reverence means an
eagerness to listen to God, a readiness to obey God, and willingness to live
for God. The emphasis of the fear of the Lord in Proverbs is reverential awe
towards God. But the fear of the Lord is also the fear of God as righteous
judge. It is the fear of offending God who will judge us someday. Jesus said,
“Do not fear those who kill the body . . . But I will warn you whom to fear:
fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell
you, fear him” (Lk. 12:4-5)! Heb. 10:31 says, “‘The Lord will judge his
people.’ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” ( Rev.
14:7). The two are intertwined. When you fear God as judge, you will revere
Him. When God is the object of fear out of fear of offense, divine retribution,
or divine presence, there is reverence.
The
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom because when we fear God, we are
going to have respect for His word. The Bible is the word of God, and it contains
more than just facts. It is a history of God’s people as they interact with the
world and with one another. While this history unfolds, those who read the
Bible are taught how best to live so as to maximize good relationships with
one’s fellow and with one’s God. God is always the priority in these
relationships because He has the keys to knowing what will best suit each
person’s effort to build these relationships. God stands as the source for all
good relationships because He is the ultimate source of goodness, and He is the
ultimate source for understanding what best perpetuates relationships. God’s
word is key to fearing God, and fearing God is the key to having true wisdom.
Wisdom,
however, may be appreciated not only from the standpoint of its utility in
providing for good relationships, but for the beauty of what it reveals in and
of itself. Wisdom as a virtue (and God is the source of all that is wholly
virtuous) may be sought as a good in and of itself. One receives blessing
simply by studying the wisdom literature, and simply by imbibing at God’s fount
of knowledge and goodness, whether one seeks to apply what one has learned or
not. This is because God is ultimately beautiful and may be appreciated in and
of Himself for Who He ultimately is. Wisdom, as an aspect of God’s
character/nature, may also be so appreciated. This is partially why Proverbs
19:8 says,” The one who gets wisdom loves life; the one who cherishes
understanding will soon prosper..” If the fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom, perhaps the love of the Lord is the end of wisdom, for when this
world ends, and all we have left after this life is our eternal relationships
with one another and God, loving that which is truly beautiful in and of itself
will prove to be an intrinsic good. The practical ends of wisdom for this world
may come to an end, but the eternal aspects of and for an appreciation of
wisdom will endure in heaven as we know God’s true beauty.
According
to the Holman Bible Dictionary, there are three basic definitions of
“real” wisdom. Two of these definitions are secular in nature and application,
but the third one is clearly spiritual in nature and application. The
three basic definitions of “real” wisdom are:
First
the ability to learn how to live a successful, prosperous life by yielding to
the world’s methods or systems—submitting to the world’s rules and principles
(secular wisdom); second a philosophical study of what it means to exist in a
world in which people are being held accountable for their own actions (as
exercised by the use of their free will), even though they don’t have any
conclusive knowledge about what is right or wrong, or what is good or bad
(secular existential wisdom); and Third wisdom is the spiritual life; it is
living a life that involves not only noting and recording something but
also surrendering to and obeying authoritative directions so that the proper
moral and intellectual judgments can be applied. This spiritual wisdom begins
and ends with God, as well as begins and ends with believers’ faith in God’s
Son as their Lord and Savior (biblical wisdom).Without doubt, the real essence
of wisdom is spiritual, because our lives are meant to be more than lives that
only seek to be rewarded in some physical manner, and our lives are meant to be
more than lives that only follow (live by) a set of rules or principles.
Even though biblical wisdom also emphasizes that our life’s successes and
well-being can be achieved in this life, the major emphasis of biblical wisdom
is that it (wisdom) must become our guide for daily living, and this objective
is accomplished through the exercising of our Christian faith.
The
fact of the matter is that ALL wisdom, whether secular or spiritual, starts and
ends with God. The secular wisdom about how to be successful in this life by
acquiring knowledge, virtue, character, justice, wealth, or even family comes
from God. That’s right. The successes obtained in this life in these mentioned
areas also are biblical wisdom’s major focal points. However, the missing area,
especially where secular wisdom is concerned, is the God kind of faith.
The God kind of faith is the greatest focal point of biblical wisdom’s major
focal points, because it is by acquiring faith in God and in His Son, Christ
Jesus, as our Savior and Lord, that human beings are able to gain a Godly
perspective, which only comes from the spiritual insights about living that He
gives.
The
bottom line is that our Godly perspective is “the fear of the Lord,” which
simply put means living our entire lives in love, worship, submission, and
obedience to God’s Perfect Will. Therefore, if we have faith in God, our
corresponding action must be “the fear of the Lord,” because both wisdom and
knowledge begin and end with “the fear of the Lord.” Moreover, it is our
faith in God that keeps us believing that He constantly watches over the wisdom
He gives us, as well as watches over EVERYTHING that happens in this life
(Romans 8:28).
Wisdom
is about a right understanding and a right application of the way things really
are. The fundamental fact about the way things really are is that God exists
and is engaged with the creation. Mark Roth says it this way: The fear of
the Lord is to be God-conscious. To understand who God is, and who we are, is
to understand that we are fundamentally flawed and broken; without this
understanding, we will remain forever foolish. “The greatest ascetics, those
who mortified themselves and who for a period of forty or fifty years daily and
nightly lived a life of mortification until death, were filled with the fear of
God and these, the most sinless among mortals, cried out in their hour of
death: ‘O God, have mercy on me a sinner! So Living in the shadow of the
Almighty–understanding what pleases, and what displeases, God–is clearly the
most important thing to be wise about. God is eternal, and God’s praise
“endures forever.” It is only the beginning of wisdom to fear God–we have all
eternity to deepen and ripen our wisdom.
This
world is a battleground between wisdom (wise living) and folly (foolish
living), as well as a combat zone between righteousness and wickedness, good
and evil, or right and wrong. But, God has placed in His creation a wise order,
which speaks to mankind about God’s Wisdom—speaks about the Creator and every revelation
He gives about His creation. God reveals knowledge and wisdom to us, not only
through what some think is our voice of reason, but also He speaks to us
through His entire creation. Those of us who fear God know that His creation
speaks to us and lets us know that EVERY bit of ALL life has been created by
God and belongs to God.
Moreover,
we know that His authoritative Word (the Bible) also speaks to us about what is
good and evil, urging us to choose to do “good” and to choose to avoid doing
evil. The Word of God is the reason why our “fear of the Lord” initiates our
faith in God, which in turn sets us on a journey toward obtaining heavenly
insights by way of observation and instruction. However, the people who refuse
God’s heavenly insights (refuse to hear His creation when it speaks, and refuse
to be instructed by Him) will not operate in the kind of faith that will have
the appropriate corresponding action. As a consequence, the foolish men and
women, those who refuse to observe the voice of God’s creation and who refuse
to follow God’s written instructions, will become people who are not loving,
worshipping, submitting, nor obeying the God of creation.
Who is like the wise man? Who knows
the explanation of things? Wisdom brightens a man's face and changes its hard
appearance (Ecclesiastes 8:1).There is a marvelous, fourfold description of
what happens to one who discovers the true wisdom of righteousness as a gift
from God, one who walks with God in the fear of God.
First, it will make that person a
unique human being. Who is like
the wise man? One of the follies
of life is to try to imitate somebody else. The media constantly bombards us
with subtle invitations to look like, dress, or talks like some popular Idol.
If you succeed in that, of course, you will be nothing but a cheap imitation of
another person. The glory of the good news is that when you become a new
creature in Jesus Christ, you will be unique. You will become more and more
like Christ, but unlike everyone else in personality. You will not be a copy, a
cheap imitation, but an original from the Spirit of God.
Secondly, the Searcher says, godly
wisdom will give you a secret knowledge: Who
knows the explanation of things? The implication of that question is that the
wise person knows. This is what Paul declares in 1 Corinthians 2: The spiritual man makes judgments
about all things (1 Corinthians
2:15a). Spiritual people are in a position to pass moral judgment on the value
of everything, not because they are so smart, but because the God who teaches
them is wise.
Thirdly, such a person will
experience a visible joy: Wisdom
brightens a man's face. Grace—not grease—is what makes the face shine.
Manufacturers put grease in cosmetics to make the face shine artificially, but
it is grace that does it from within. Grace and the joy that results from it
visibly expressed make a face shine.
Finally, it changes the inner
disposition of a person: [Wisdom]
changes its hard appearance. Have
you ever watched somebody whose life was under the impact of the Spirit of God
soften, mellow, and grow easier to live with? That is the work of the Spirit of
God.
Christ
is the wisdom of God; and in the knowledge of this Christ there is wisdom for
you; nor wisdom only– but life, forgiveness, peace, glory, and an endless
kingdom! Study him! Acquaint yourself with him! Whatever you are ignorant of,
be not ignorant of him– whatever you overlook, overlook not him– whatever you
lose, lose not him. To gain him is to gain eternal life, to gain a kingdom, to
gain everlasting blessedness. To lose him is to lose your soul, to lose God, to
lose God's favor, to lose God's heaven, to lose the eternal crown! Jesus Christ
is worth more than any treasure this world offers. Loving Him and understanding
what He’s done for you should be all the motivation you need to praise Him with
your life. Don’t just sing; serve His kingdom and share the gospel. Help to
make God’s throne room ring with worship. The wisest man of the Bible, King
Solomon, wrote that the beginning of wisdom was to acquire it (Prov. 4:7).
Determine in your heart to pursue this great treasure. As you study the Word,
seek the Lord’s will, and observe His principles in action, God will pour
wisdom into your mind and spirit.