Journey into Lightl

We are a people who greatly respect those who are well educated and intelligent. We marvel at people who can speak well and who write books.

However, what I have grown to admire even more is someone who is wise. Someone who is wise has taken their knowledge, experiences and intelligence and have made good decisions. These would be decisions like right priorities, having a good marriage, taking care of oneself physically, and living a moral life.

Who cares how smart someone is if they haven’t applied that smartness to living well?

What Wise Living Is Not

Living wisely doesn’t mean having the same standards of honesty as everyone else. “Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility towards God?” (James 4:4). It is never wise to be dishonest, even if we succeed in the short-run.

Sometimes it means being different. And being different is often costly. A few years ago I tried to teach to my church new ways to grow spiritually that I had learned in seminary. I will admit that some of the teachings broke with tradition, but they all were biblical.

But alas, the teachings were rejected and I was rejected from leadership. But I wouldn’t have been wise to compromise and only teach tradition instead of what God wanted taught.

Living wisely often means living differently than the respected members of our society. The Bible tells us that not many influential, powerful, or rich people are wise (1 Corinthians 1:26-31). Yet, we are prone to model our lives after them.

Living wisely is not seeking what most people seek. Things like pleasure as a major focus, flashy cars, and promotion at the expense of the family. God tells us, “All that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from [Me] but is from the world” (1 John 2:15-17, ESV).

What Wise Living Is          

Living Wisely

Wise living begins with following God’s will for our life. Does this mean that I wasn’t living wisely until I became a Christian in 1971?

Well, what do you think it means when God says in his Bible, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10)? It means a lot of us are not wise from God’s perspective, no matter how highly others regard us.

Wise living means that we apply the Bible to our life, and not just listen to it. Yet, many of us have been seduced by intellectualism that neglects the clear teaching that only knowledge that is used makes us wise (Matthew 7:24-28).

Wise living is “peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere” (James 3:17, ESV). It is not selfish, envious, and boastful (James 3:14-16).

Wise living is being cautious, careful to avoid evil, and being meek (controlled strength).

So, are you wise? Do you want to become wiser? I hope we all can answer with a strong yes to at least the second question.

A promise I often claim is the following:

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all [people] generously and without reproach, and it will be given to [them]” (James 1:5.)