Being Wise in an Unwise World
We live in a world desperately in need of true wisdom. Always have, always will, but now more than ever. We are prolific in information and means of knowing stuff, but woefully lacking in wisdom and truly wise men and women. We don’t even know what being wise means. It doesn’t mean being intelligent or having an abundance of knowledge. It doesn’t mean having all the answers, know what works or what to do, nor measured by the world’s definition of success. And it isn’t acute common sense. All of these are the definition of being wise according to the dictionary. This matters because having a wrong definition can actually deprive us of wisdom and being wise. What wise really looks like needs to be defined by God. His wisdom fills the pages of our Bible, especially the Book of Proverbs. This series will be anchored in this Book of Wisdom.
Solomon knew the value of wisdom. It was something that his father, David, drilled into him. Thus, when God offered him ANYTHING, it is what he asked for. God gave it to him in abundance. Then, for his son’s sake, he wrote down these God-given insights and understandings. He made a collection of his favorites, and under King Hezekiah more were discovered and added. Proverbs of other wise men were also included in this Book of Wisdom. God has preserved them generation after generation for our sake.
When Solomon asked for wisdom, he revealed the key to being wise: acknowledging the need! Being wise doesn’t mean we have all the wisdom we need. It is recognizing right here and right now, in this situation, this moment, what we need is God’swisdom.
There are two kinds of wisdom: human (--) and divine (I). Charles Swindoll in his book, Living the Proverbs says, “Every waking moment our lives, we operate from one of two viewpoints: human or divine … horizontal perspective or the vertical perspective. Humanity remains willfully and stubbornly limited to the horizontal. We jealously guard our autonomy from heaven; we much prefer to think, maintain our attitudes and conduct our lives independent of our Maker.”
Charles Swindoll used the term “jealousy.” What is the focus of jealousy? ME: what is mine, what should be mine, what I get, what I have, what I gain. Worldly wisdom has a way of being “me” focused.
James 3:13-16 Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exists, there is disorder and every evil thing.
Earthly logic mistakes jealousy and ambition for wisdom. We have come to think it is “wise” to protect what is “mine” – what is in my best interest; wise to strive to get ahead, be better, stronger, bigger, smarter, richer, etc.. Self-serving ambition and success is admired. “No one better get in my way” … “I don’t care how it affects other” … ♫What the heck do we care as long as we get our share. ♫ Proverbs 28:11 says, “The rich man is wise in his own eyes, but the poor who has understanding sees through him.”
It is natural to go with what I refer to as compromising “c’s”: comfort, convenience, control, cost and crowns (personal admiration and glorification). God actually calls what we often deem “wisdom” as demonic. Demonic means it is empowered by Satan or one of his cohorts. The priority of the demonic is to distort or destroy what God intends to be a blessing to us and others (grace), and bring Him glory. The fingerprints of the demonic are justifications.
1 Corinthians 3:19,20 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, “He is the One who catches the wise in their craftiness;” and again, “The Lord knows the reasoning of the wise; that they are useless.”
Wisdom of this world is loud, boisterous and powerful.
Back to James 3:13 - “Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show [it] by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom.” According to ancient understanding a person could ONY be called wise when he or she acted wisely. It wasn’t just a head thing, but all in! Being wise is foremost lived out. It is shown, not broadcasted. It is characterized by gentleness: inner strength restrained for the sake of others. It doesn’t overpower; doesn’t dominate; doesn’t force itself on others unsolicited. It waits. It subjects itself to the limits and weaknesses of the recipient.
James 3:17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.
Here are the identifying attributes of godly wisdom:
1. First pure (proton men hagne)– The Greek actually says “foremost” - before anything else it is innocent, blameless, without duplicity. There is no self-serving agenda.
2. Peaceable (eplita eireneke) – The Greek says it is sequentially disposed to peace. That means every step, not just the outcome, is characterized by peace. It never strays from peace’s boundaries. That does not mean it is always comfortable. Instead, there is the confidence and courage of God’s peace to do or not do as He instructs.
3. Gentle (epieikes) – fair and equitable, fitting and appropriate. It doesn’t need to be forced or compromised to work.
4. Reasonable (eupeithes) – easily persuaded – there is no need to con, bully or convince that it is right and/or true.
5. Full of mercy (meste elious) – The Greek actually means stuffed full of mercy and compassion. Mercy is not about deserved or justified, but simply what is needed. Compassion just cares.
6. [Full of] good fruit (karpon agathon) – what is produced out of its growth and maturity is good and useful. In other words, there are long-term beneficial results.
7. Unwavering (adiakritos) – without judging: non-judgmental, impartial, without prejudice. It apples equally to everyone.
8. Without hypocrisy (anupkritos) – without pretense, acting, or hidden agenda. It is genuine and real to the core.
Where do we get such wisdom? “From above!”
James 1:5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
We need to ask God because He has what we need. True wisdom means assessing and accessing what we need from God. The biggest hindrance to being wise is failure to acknowledge that godly wisdom is needed. We are foolishly confident in what we know, what we think, our opinion, logic and way we have always handled these kinds of situations.We are not going to make the effort to get something, if we do NOT truly believe we need it, or if we think we already have a sufficient abundance.
Proverbs 4:7The beginning of wisdom is: acquire wisdom, and with all your acquiring, get understanding.
Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
It starts with “fear of the Lord” (yira Yahweh), which is a defining reverence for Almighty God. Believing God is who His word says He is, that He has what it says He has, can and will do what it says He does is foundational to accessing wisdom from God. If God isn’t God in this specific situation, you are not going to seek His wisdom.
The second part is also important: “knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”
Isaiah 55:8,9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
Human wisdom does not equal divine wisdom. His wisdom will seem illogical, impractical and go against every one of our C’s. It will be uncomfortable, inconvenient, demand giving up control, come at a sacrificial cost and require casting our crowns. Godly wisdom comes from God. Understanding comes from knowing the Holy One = Jesus! Colossians 2:3 says that“in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” We have the model of His life, His recorded teaching and His indwelling Spirit. He raises our horizontal viewpoint and logic (--) and attaches it to His divine perspective and omniscience (I). The result is the cross.
With Jesus and the cross as our point of reference, we can know exactly what being wise looks like. We can sincerely ask for and discern God’s wisdom. We can live our horizontal lives from a vertical advantage – a divine perspective and directive. We can know what it truly means to be wise.