Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from the “Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide”, is titled “Wisdom for Righteous Living”. What a remarkable title! In this title are two relational words. Not obvious to us post-modern readers. But there, nonetheless. Let’s look…
Righteousness is defined in our SDA Bible Dictionary as “a right relationship” with our God. This is righteousness. When we have this right relationship with Him, one of mutual love and trust, then our life will be demonstrations of that love/ truth. All else is not righteousness but a fabrication of the Jewish culture, perpetuated by the Roman church, repeated by Protestantism. Again, righteousness is a right relationship with our God.
Wisdom is different from knowledge. Wisdom could be identified as applied knowledge. But it is really more than that. The book of Proverbs tells us so much more about wisdom. Especially Proverbs 3. As you read that chapter, it is apparent that wisdom is something to be highly prized and desired. Something to sacrifice for. Something to sacrifice everything for.
Many theologians maintain that Proverbs was used as a textbook of sorts for teaching young Jewish males (females were originally excluded from such in-depth higher religious instruction). As you read Proverbs, you can see this obvious textbook concept. But there is one thing not obvious to us English readers. Almost exclusively, the word “wise” or “wisdom” is feminine. Something obvious to the Hebrew reader. Something obvious to the Hebrew male.
Wisdom is to be sought, pursued, desired, loved… just as a man would seek, pursue, desire and love a woman. It is to be that compelling, that motivating, that fulfilling. But more. It means that our unity with “wisdom” is to be more like a relationship. A relationship similar to the relationship of man and woman. “Wisdom” is to be loved and nurtured like a relationship with an intimate female friend.
Wow! Wisdom is a relationship! But not just with some cold hard facts. It is a relationship with… well… with the personification of wisdom. A relationship with God Himself. “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—” (1 Corinthians 1:30).
Do you see? Wisdom is not just applied knowledge. Wisdom is a relationship with Him who is wise. And this relationship with Him is so tight, so “one”, that we are living-out His life as we live-out our own life. And as we know, Christ’s life was a true crucible. Therefore, our relationship with Him will lead to our own crucible, too. “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15: 18-19).
Wisdom is not something easily and quickly obtained. Wisdom is not something like going through a doorway (before you were ignorant, now you are wise). Wisdom is progressive. Just as a true relationship is progressive, as this intimacy is sustained over time. So, it is with our life with Christ. The purging of our sinful thinking is a process, sustained over time. A process we must come to love and embrace as we love and embrace our Savior and Friend.
Both righteousness and wisdom are really relationship with our Father, our God. He is “for us wisdom… and righteousness and sanctification and redemption…” (ibid). There is no other way. All else is a self-induced delusional hell.
God asks us to follow. Implied in this following is a turning-away from our sinful selves. Turning-away from the easy, self-destructive path to… the cross. Do you want to be wise? Do you want to live a life of truth-filled love? It is found in following the blood-stained path with the “One” who loves us. Walking with Him. May we so choose. May we so follow.
With brotherly love,
Jim