A wise man will hear and increase in learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel. – Proverbs 1:5, nkjv
Long before the age of computers, e.e. Cummings, the English author and philosopher, asked, “With all our knowledge, what’s happened to wisdom?”
A prison official recently spoke about the number of well- educated men and women confined to institutions – college graduates, men and women with high IQs. But there was a missing ingredient – wisdom. “The intellectual achievements of the prisoners here are very high. We have men who are capable of holding any position in the world; there is no task or project which they could not carry through to success.” Knowledge, they had. But lacking was wisdom, as they wasted their lives away confined to prison.
Another ingredient that seemed to be missing was integrity, which affected their conduct. And without integrity there is no real wisdom.
Long ago the Apostle Paul came to the city of ancient Corinth on the banks of the gleaming Aegean Sea. He had just been to Athens where he had debated the philosophers of his age. The experience was still fresh in his thinking as Paul approached Corinth, which was pretty much the same as Athens, with the exception that the Corinthians were noted for their debauchery. To be called a Corinthian or to corinthianize meant to live a debauched, licentious life, yet the Corinthians prided themselves as being wise. Paul called it the wisdom of the world, to which he contrasted the cross of Christ.
Wisdom, as Paul saw it, reflected a different point of view, one which takes into account the scope of eternity. This kind of wisdom isn’t measured in terms of IQ or achievement or intellectual prowess. It sees things that others don’t see and assigns values to things that others consider to be unimportant.
“If any of you lacks wisdom,” wrote James, “let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5, esv).
* * *
Used with permission from Guidelines International Ministries. To learn more about Guidelines and the ministry, send an e-mail to info@guidelines.org. You may also visit www.guidelines.org.