Monday, August 27, 2007
How much better is wisdom than gold and understanding than silver (Proverbs 16:16)
It has been said to be successful you need to have:
1).Knowledge- which is the acquisition of facts;
2).Understanding - the interpretation of facts;
3).Wisdom - the application of facts.
T.S.Elliot qualmed, "Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?"
People don't even seriously read the Bible these days. All they do is read "electronically "forwarded or subscribed tracts and devotions in the Internet. I am not against IT but these electronic enhancements are an addition, and are not a substitute for reading the Bible and personal devotion with God.
Below is a short article I wrote a 6 years back.
If you are an intellectual believer, then perhaps you may argue that your knowledge affords you wisdom. You are learned in all your endeavors and flawless in all your reasoning. Perhaps even a tinge of intellectual pride.
You may be a person of high IQ, with more neurons in your little toe than most of us have in our entire brain. But wisdom has nothing to do with IQ or even intellect, not even common sense.
Today there are many people who are intelligent and highly educated, but they run broken homes, have poor marriages, and make lousy investments and fraudulent business decisions. Is that wisdom? There are many ‘intelligent fools’ indeed not? How wrong is Shakespeare who describes man as a breed infinite in wisdom and noble in his reasoning. But J.I Packer is probably more correct. He says man is half angel, half ape. We aspire to be like angels, but we consent like apes. Just look at the world today.
Wisdom is seeing and responding to life from God’s (Christ’s) perspective (Proverbs 4:11) If that is not everything, then what is? Solomon tells us that it is supreme; it is the principal thing (Proverbs 4:7). Even if you have to lose ‘everything’ to obtain it (Proverbs 4:7), it is worth it he says, because nothing you could ever desire could compare with it (Proverbs 3:15)
Where can wisdom be found? (Job28:12). There was no doubt in Job’s mind, but he was not certain his few pious friends knew.
But we know very well today what is wisdom. Christ is the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1;24). Just look at Jesus. He embodies it. He is wisdom personified. Therefore live in Him, and He in you. That is everything, as He is the ‘purest and most infinite source of wisdom.’
Victor Chen
April 27, 2001
1).Knowledge- which is the acquisition of facts;
2).Understanding - the interpretation of facts;
3).Wisdom - the application of facts.
T.S.Elliot qualmed, "Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?"
People don't even seriously read the Bible these days. All they do is read "electronically "forwarded or subscribed tracts and devotions in the Internet. I am not against IT but these electronic enhancements are an addition, and are not a substitute for reading the Bible and personal devotion with God.
Below is a short article I wrote a 6 years back.
You may interject me abruptly and say that wisdom is not everything. That depends on one’s source of wisdom. Some believers still lack the revelation of what wisdom is. You may be walking in it. But just don’t think of it as just some proverbial saying found in a book written principally by Solomon or even limit it to just the Bible.
WHAT IS WISDOM?
If you are an intellectual believer, then perhaps you may argue that your knowledge affords you wisdom. You are learned in all your endeavors and flawless in all your reasoning. Perhaps even a tinge of intellectual pride.
You may be a person of high IQ, with more neurons in your little toe than most of us have in our entire brain. But wisdom has nothing to do with IQ or even intellect, not even common sense.
Today there are many people who are intelligent and highly educated, but they run broken homes, have poor marriages, and make lousy investments and fraudulent business decisions. Is that wisdom? There are many ‘intelligent fools’ indeed not? How wrong is Shakespeare who describes man as a breed infinite in wisdom and noble in his reasoning. But J.I Packer is probably more correct. He says man is half angel, half ape. We aspire to be like angels, but we consent like apes. Just look at the world today.
Wisdom is seeing and responding to life from God’s (Christ’s) perspective (Proverbs 4:11) If that is not everything, then what is? Solomon tells us that it is supreme; it is the principal thing (Proverbs 4:7). Even if you have to lose ‘everything’ to obtain it (Proverbs 4:7), it is worth it he says, because nothing you could ever desire could compare with it (Proverbs 3:15)
WHERE IS IT FOUND?
Where can wisdom be found? (Job28:12). There was no doubt in Job’s mind, but he was not certain his few pious friends knew.
But we know very well today what is wisdom. Christ is the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1;24). Just look at Jesus. He embodies it. He is wisdom personified. Therefore live in Him, and He in you. That is everything, as He is the ‘purest and most infinite source of wisdom.’
Victor Chen
April 27, 2001
