Wisdom

[HKHaugan]

Wisdom

 In early 1900’s Norway, the goal for a woman was to marry well and raise children. To accomplish this goal my mother was sent to what was called a ‘finishing school.’ The idea was to take young girls like her and teach them to be refined wives and mothers, to ‘finish them’ with that goal in mind. It was to teach growing young ladies the ‘ins and outs’ of what that culture called ‘feminine wisdom.’ Men learned ‘male wisdom’ from their elders and older peers who were committed to the cultural ‘gender system.’ In the mid 1800’s, a forward-looking Henrik Ibsen, the noted Norwegian literary figure, wrote two biting plays about this system called “The Doll’s House” and “The Wild Duck.”

 If you go to the average secular dictionary, wisdom is the ability to use knowledge and experience to make proper choices, decisions and judgments. Sounds good but watch out. It implies that any of us can be wise if we simply make choices based on the knowledge and experience we have. It also implies that we have an innate perfection that can recognize the difference between good and bad as we make choices. It also implies we will be confident to act out our ‘wisdom’ and that our best intentions will make good decisions. These implications beg for personal honesty, “Do I meet those qualifications?” “Are we by nature intentionally perfect wise persons?” If we are honest we will answer, “I don’t think so,---[pause to justify self]---but I do try real hard!”

 Paul felt that way when he was Saul then found out differently after He met Jesus. He gives a very new and more specific definition of wisdom. It is righteousness, holiness and redemption. But that comes in the context of a fuller statement, “It is because of Him [God] that you are in Christ Jesus who has become for us wisdom from God---that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption (1Cor.1:30).” Wisdom is no longer a dry academic concept. It’s far more. It’s the Person, Jesus.

 This verse tells us three things about wisdom. First, it is the living quality of God. Second, therefore, it is personally eternal, therefore, the same from one generation to the next. Third, because it is given by God the Son, it is relational. Wisdom is also three-dimensional; righteous, holy and redeeming. This is catastrophically different for philosophers and other academics who spurn the idea of God and spirituality in general. If you think about the academic approach, it is pride in one’s superior knowledge and reason proven by degrees, writings and elevated social status.

 Here’s what Paul said before he gave his definition that kicked sinful pride in the teeth, “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things and the despised things -and things that are not- to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him (vs.27-29).” He ought to know since pride was how he measured himself before He met Jesus (Php.3:5-7). Now his only boast was knowing the Lord Jesus (1Cor.1:31).

 What had humbled Paul? The Lord Jesus loved Him by confronting Him and challenging Him. That started a serious spiritual relationship bringing faith, grace, love, kindness and joy to Paul, qualities of God the world considered weak. Strength in the time of Jesus was measured by Roman superiority (in our age---national, area, regional, etc.), ethnic superiority, gender superiority, military power, class, status, intellect, skills, athleticism, religious affiliation; they were all spiritually neutralized by the Lord Jesus. It was this living relationship with the Lord that prompted Paul, a Roman citizen, to seek redress and present his personal testimony in the presence of the Roman emperor Nero (Acts 23-25).

 Now the definition of wisdom. First, there is righteousness. Jesus said that He was the way, the truth and the life. If one is to understand wisdom and seek its treasure, it is found only in the living God. It starts with the recognition of our sin, its guilt and the forgiveness from God our Father who forgives through His Son Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit, the very nature of our being an image of God. Wisdom in an image of God means to know Him, believe Him, trust Him and have faith in Him as He is revealed in His Word, Holy Scripture. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding (Prov.9:10).” ‘Fear’ means the ultimate respect for the Lord as Creator, the source of grace, truth and love, who gave His life for all people in every generation. The Lord Jesus is the Righteous One, the One who is right (1Jn.2, the exact picture of righteousness, being right).

 The way He makes choices and decisions defines wisdom as seeking His Father and His Will for direction and guidance. He is the Word of God in action. Jesus studied the Word, obeyed it and prayed to fulfill it by faith, in everything He taught and did. “The Word became flesh…we have seen His glory…full of grace and truth (Jn.1:14).” He is the only One who always made the right choices and fulfilled them the right way without error. He never tried to fit in to the social, economic and political agenda of the secular world. He was the agenda for what it means to be right wherever He went, and He exposed the emptiness of the world’s wisdom just by being who He was in His every next moment. He was always the Right One with a right mind, a right heart and a right Spirit.

Truth for Jesus was not a philosophical search. He was and is the truth that exhibits a philosophical structure for the mind replacing the whole secular philosophical enterprise. The mind is the servant of the heart and the heart is the servant of the spirit and the spirit is the servant of God Who brings them all into a balanced functioning unity; the image of God we were meant to be. So, “Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world (1Cor.1:20)?”

Life is the pulsating presence of the Holy Spirit initiating response and action according to the will of God which is for us reacting to every next moment by faith in Jesus. Wisdom is belief in God, trust in Jesus and faith to act through the power of the Holy Spirit as we face every next event, situation and person. These are the moments of life in this world. The wisdom of God is the singular power available to everyone who believes in and follows the risen Lord wherever they are.

It follows then that our holiness is to realize we are designed for a father/child relationship with our Heavenly Father who is Holy. We, His images, are created for His pleasure, purpose and plan. He made us with choice to share His love and His creative experience. What we see in Jesus is the perfect image of God building a servant life that expands the qualities and abilities of God. A Holy God has a perfection and purity of heart and mind that is far beyond what we may consider to be perfection. His goal for us is to be holy like Him. Jesus is the complete expression of God’s will and purpose. The fact that He chose us to be like Him is His Holy choice which in turn is what makes us holy, to be set apart for His service.   It’s why Paul calls any believer a saint. He came to recover us from sin and restore us to be like Him.

 Human beings tend to idealize their imperfections as opportunities to become better on their own aiming at self-perfection, an impossible task. That’s sin in bloom. In other words, they deify themselves and, in the process, separate themselves from the only redemption possible. They actually believe in themselves first and, as a result, trap themselves in the false assumption they can perfect themselves with good intentions and hard work. Others become the victims of their self-centeredness.

 It’s not until we turn ourselves over to One Who Is Holy, the Lord God and set ourselves apart for His use, that we see it as a spiritual process called redemption that redeems our mind, heart and spirit. We need an external Redeemer and that is Jesus. This is where holiness and redemption are the ongoing partners in bringing all of Creation back to Him, our Creator. This is the redeeming work that Jesus began and completed on the Cross. As the Redeemer, Jesus relates to us based on His Word and Spirit. The beginning of wisdom for each of us starts with taking up our cross and following Him to bring Him to others. Jesus is our wisdom; that is, our righteousness (the Right Example), holiness (set apart to become right like Him) and redemption (the process of being made right like Him). It’s that simple. Let’s not complicate it.