How could anything as profitable and desirable as wisdom put anyone in danger? Didn’t Solomon write that finding wisdom is better than acquiring gold? (Proverbs 16:16) Proverbs also tells us that finding wisdom is a way to love our own soul. (Proverbs 19:8) How could something so valuable be dangerous?
Consider these words of Jesus.
At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, “I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight. Luke 10:21 (NASB95)
This passage is noteworthy because it is the only recorded instance of Jesus showing such exuberant joy. What made him so gloriously happy? He rejoiced because his heavenly Father chose to conceal the truth about Jesus from the wise and intelligent and reveal it instead to the childlike or simple-minded. Why would that bring joy to the Lord?
Isaiah prophesied something very similar.
Therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous; And the wisdom of their wise men will perish, And the discernment of their discerning men will be concealed.” Isaiah 29:14 (NASB95)
Apparently God says that it glorifies him that he made it impossible to find him or know him by using our intellects or human wisdom. Perhaps the reason is because Satan prompted Adam and Eve to pursue godhood by using their reasoning and knowledge, and God decided that no one will find him that way.
We have to be willing to lay aside the pride of human intellect and wisdom to know God.
In another place, Jesus quoted Isaiah.
FOR THE HEART OF THIS PEOPLE HAS BECOME DULL, WITH THEIR EARS THEY SCARCELY HEAR, AND THEY HAVE CLOSED THEIR EYES, OTHERWISE THEY WOULD SEE WITH THEIR EYES, HEAR WITH THEIR EARS, AND UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEART AND RETURN, AND I WOULD HEAL THEM.’ Matthew 13:15 (NASB95)
Faith comes by hearing or perceiving God’s words spoken in our hearts by revelation of the Spirit. (Romans 10:17)
We can only know God by faith. Faith is ignited when the Spirit of God opens our hearts and minds to apprehend the truth of God’s words.This is a spiritual activity that transcends human reasoning and wisdom.
Paul likewise took up this theme in his first letter to the church in Corinth.
For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; 27 but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, 28 and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, 29 so that no man may boast before God. 1 Corinthians 1:26–29 (NASB95)
Putting these verses together, I conclude that there is a wisdom from God and a wisdom of the world. (James 3:13-18) The best examples of wisdom from the world is when it uses sound principles for evaluating knowledge in order to arrive at a prudent course of action.
The wisdom from God, includes the previous definition, but relies primarily on our apprehension of and faith in God’s written Word and the revelation of the Spirit.
There is a very big difference between the two kinds of wisdom that produces quite opposite results.
If we as Christians choose to rely more upon the world’s wisdom to guide us in our thinking and actions, rather than upon the written Word and the Holy Spirit, it will put us in danger.
My observation is that the people whom I consider to be the wisest are quite careful and make it a practice to try to avoid all extremes, following King Solomon’s advice.
So don’t be too good or too wise! Why destroy yourself? 17 On the other hand, don’t be too wicked either. Don’t be a fool! Why die before your time? 18 Pay attention to these instructions, for anyone who fears God will avoid both extremes. Ecclesiastes 7:16–18 (NLT)
Wise people I know generally believe that the truth is almost always found somewhere in the middle between opposing extremes. This results in their tendency to refuse to identify with either side in a political debate, for example, believing that the wise position is a compromise between the opposite extremes. Politically this works pretty well a good deal of the time, but when it comes to truth issues, compromise is not always the answer.
People in the Bible who tried this “wise” approach sometimes ended up in the wrong place. Take for example, when Jesus challenged the Jewish leaders by asking them if John’s baptism were from God or not. They “wisely” considered the outcome of their reply, choosing to avoid committing to either a positive or negative position. They remained cowardly “agnostic,” revealing their duplicity. Jesus told us in Revelation that he would rather we be hot (yes) or cold (no) rather than be “lukewarm” or non-committal. Another example of using wisdom to avoid making a commitment is when Gamaliel advised the Jewish leaders to avoid persecuting the apostles.
And now I say to you, keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing; 39 but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it—lest you even be found to fight against God.” Acts 5:38–39 (NKJV)
Gamaliel used his wisdom to remain neutral. At least he chose to not persecute the Christians, which is something, but his “wisdom” never helped him make a commitment to Christ, as far as we know. It left him in the gray lukewarm undecided realm.
Truth requires us to make a commitment to it, even if it runs counter to the dominant viewpoint or seems to be an extreme position.
In this day and age, it is important that we understand that communists seek to move the middle to the right, calling what formerly was a mildly conservative position, far right, and what was formerly far left to the middle.
I think most of us understand that sometimes we must take an “extreme” position, such as in the case of abortion. Even though the predominant view in our country is that abortion is a legitimate (legal) option for a woman, we people of the Book know that abortion is the taking of an innocent life. There can be no compromise on this. Regarding less obviously “black and white” issues, however, it seems that wise people try to stay somewhere in the middle and to remain neutral.
If wisdom’s aim is to avoid controversy, this is certainly the way to go.
When Jesus arrived on the earth, he was thought by many to be the bastard child of an insignificant woman from Nazareth. The dominant view at the time regarding the expected Messiah, one supported by the “experts” in such matters, was that he would be born in Bethlehem and would lead the nation out from under Roman oppression and back to being in a dominant position of honor and power in the world. When the Lord revealed to Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, Simeon, and Anna that this little babe was the one chosen by God to assume David’s throne on a forever basis, it was not something anyone would ever have guessed or been able to figure out. It was a completely surprising claim that was so extremely divergent from the opinion of the experts (the priests, scribes, Pharisees, and Saducees) that it must have seemed like some sort of weird conspiracy theory. (Of course, that term had not yet been coined by the CIA to dissuade people from probing into the JFK assassination.)
Few if any wise or biblically educated persons would ever have believed such a claim made by ignorant persons from the lower rungs of society.
When Jesus entered his public ministry, very few from the group considered to be educated and wise “fell” for his message. In fact, they were offended by his confident teaching, his demonstrations of God’s power to heal and deliver people from demons, his refusal to be bound by Talmudic oral traditions, and his claim to be able to forgive sins. Eventually those in power put him to death for saying he is the divine Son of Man prophesied by Daniel. From their point of view, Jesus’ claims were dangerous, misguided, and blasphemous.
Their “wisdom” completely let them down because it was unable to accept anything outside their understanding of what was the correct interpretation of the scriptures. How could all the experts be wrong?
These so-called authorities in the Law rebuked those who appeared to be open to the possibility that Jesus might indeed the Messiah.
Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why have you not brought Him?” 46 The officers answered, “No man ever spoke like this Man!” 47 Then the Pharisees answered them, “Are you also deceived? 48 Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in Him? 49 But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” John 7:45–49 (NKJV)
The rulers and Pharisees were so convinced that their view regarding the coming Messiah was correct that they were not able to recognize him when he stood right in front of them and spoke to them. Their hearts were closed to anything that did not fit into their paradigm, understanding, and training. They were convinced that they were far wiser and more discerning than the “simple minded,” ignorant people who were being deceived into believing in Jesus. They were convinced that they were the guardians of truth responsible to protect God’s people from heresy and false messiahs. Their worldly wisdom and desire to avoid being deceived by “extreme” claims took them down a wicked path to murder the true Messiah, all the time thinking that they were serving God.
In the eyes of the world, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is outside the pale of what is reasonable and wise.
It is thought to be an extreme position that runs counter to the dominant worldview and all sound wisdom. To accept that Jesus rose from the dead as the Lord of Lords who will one day return to judge the living and the dead requires one to be willing to be labeled as a misguided religious fanatic.This happened to Paul when he preached the gospel in Athens, the center of worldly wisdom at that time.
And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.” Acts 17:32 (NKJV)
Some rejected the gospel, but others were “open” and wanted to hear more. In order to be saved, we have to move from being “open” to God to being committed to him. Before doing so, one should count the cost of making such a decision.
A public confession of Christ followed by water baptism is the designated way for us to declare our allegiance to Jesus the Messiah and become part of what the world considers to be a misguided fringe sect of fanatics.
It is impossible for us to accept the gospel as being the truth without the help of the Holy Spirit. Christianity is a revelatory “religion.”
Only those people who hearts are open to receive revelation from God are able to believe and come to Jesus. This is what it means to be childlike.
Jesus said that unless we become like little children, we cannot enter the kingdom of God. (Matthew 18:3) Jesus said we cannot come to him unless we are drawn by the Father and have our eyes opened by the Spirit of God. (John 6:44)
Once that happens, the Holy Spirit enables us to see things in an entirely new way. We are able to operate by means of a divine wisdom not recognized or understood by those in the world.
Paul wrote:
Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; 7 but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; 8 the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; 1 Corinthians 2:6–8 (NASB95)
Since we are human, we remain susceptible to the temptation to rely on human wisdom instead of the Spirit of God and the written Word. This can take us into dangerous territory. Every strength has a corresponding weakness. The strengths associated with wisdom are obvious, but the weaknesses are more subtle. A person who is endowed with natural wisdom can easily begin to rely on that strength and slip away from a dependence on the Holy Spirit to open God’s Word and wisdom to us. There is a similar peril attached to being intelligent. We can start relying upon natural smarts instead of God’s Spirit.
The truly wise person learns to submit his natural wisdom and intelligence to the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.
The humble person will remain open to the Holy Spirit’s revealing surprising truth to him or her for life. Otherwise we are in danger of becoming what Jesus called an “old wineskin” that is unable to receive new revelation from God’s Spirit.
The humble of heart understand that the predominant view of things can be quite wrong. They will accept the need to commit to truth, even if it puts us on the outside looking in at the rest of society.
It is getting to the point where our ability to see through the propaganda of the government run media and education system could be a matter of life and death.
Our government, media, and other powerful influencers have proved to be quite untrustworthy. We will have to listen to God, depend on the what the Bible teaches, and be willing to think for ourselves. Every position that violates the clear teaching of Scripture must be rejected, no matter how many experts say otherwise. It may not be possible to hold a “wise” middle of the road position on some future issues.
I believe we must be prepared to make a stand, one that in many cases may relegate us to being seen as being on the fringe of society – ignorant Bible believers. We should not fear being marginalized.
The church has always been most effective working from the margins. Christianity began as a “fringe sect” of Judaism that soon found itself being persecuted by the Jews and the Roman government alike. Things may be heading that direction again. But that is when the church was able to turn the world upside down (Acts 17:6), upsetting the dominant worldview and power structures.
If we are willing to be identified with the remnant who believe God’s Word and declare allegiance to Jesus, we likely will have great impact on the world. We may be foolish in the world’s sight, but God will say we are wise.
