Wisdom and understanding

^{Job 28:28} And he said to the human race,
“The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom,
and to shun evil is understanding.”

We are in a time when knowledge has increased exponentially, but sadly wisdom and understanding are hard to find. We know more than any generation in human history, but we apply less. Somehow we have disconnected knowledge from application. Somehow we think that what God says will not really apply to us. Somehow wisdom and understanding have declined as knowledge has increased.

The verse I noted is one of my favorites. It's the legend for these two keys words in scripture. In this short verse God defines words we wouldn't understand without his help. Here is the same verse from The Message, "Then he addressed the human race: 'Here it is! Fear-of-the-Lord—that's Wisdom, and Insight means shunning evil.'"

Wisdom is fear of God and the application is understanding, to shun (run from) evil (sin). Wisdom and understanding are knowing and doing. They are tied together. One produces the other. You don't have understanding (the application) without wisdom (the knowing). One, wisdom, causes the other, understanding, to act. Wisdom is the noun and understanding is the verb. Wisdom is fear of God. That's why Paul writes in 1 Corinthians that men in the world do not have the wisdom of God, or you might say that differently, men in the world do not fear God and you see the results in their lives...they live contrary to what God tells us in his word. They lack understanding, they don't run from evil, in fact they embrace it. For a man without God sin is an intimate friend.

Solomon explains this further when he wrote, Prov. 6:³² "Whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding; He who does so destroys his own soul." How do we look at all of this? How did Solomon know this? It's clear. Wisdom is a fear of God, a reverence for him that affects your life, your choices. The results of wisdom are seen in a life. If I fear God then my life, my choices change, I live a life of understanding- a life that departs from and even avoids evil and sin. If I choose to sin, as Solomon describes, it's clear I have no understanding (a proper response to wisdom) and so his implication is that this man doesn't have wisdom either. No understanding, no wisdom. You can see by the choices a person makes if there is a real fear of God in their life.

My work as a pastor often deals with the choices people make and their results. Many come to me, as they would to an emergency room, hoping to prevent "death" after they have already made bad choices. I wish I could start much earlier and talk about wisdom and understanding, but many of my visits are with people who are now experiencing the results of living a life without wisdom and understanding. They come to me in an attempt to prevent the results of their choices. Paul talked about the results of bad choices when he wrote, "For the wages of sin is death." There is a payday for having things our way.

In a culture that deifies knowledge I would love to see a passion for wisdom

and it's application, understanding, become once more an important part of the Christian life. It would dramatically change the choices we make if a healthy fear of God was once more part of the Christian life.