How Do We Think About Wisdom?

Do you love wisdom? This question jumped out at me as I reflected on our sermon series through Romans 1 and as we read Proverbs 8 during family devotions. Do I love and treasure wisdom? To be honest it is not something I actively think about as frequently as I should. I think most of us would answer that we love wisdom or, at the very least, that we like it. However, as we know words can be cheap. What do our actions show? Do my actions show that I love wisdom? Do the decisions I make each day show that I value wisdom? Or do the decisions I make and the way I spend my time show that I value myself and my own comfort? Finally, why is this question so important?

Solomon wrote this in Proverbs 8:36, “...he who fails to find me {wisdom} injures himself, all who hate me love death.” If we do not seek to find wisdom, we are harming ourselves. When I take a shortcut or make a decision that is contrary to wisdom, do I think about the fact that I am actually harming myself and those around me? To ignore wisdom is actively bringing harm into my own life. Yet, Solomon does not stop there; he tells us that if we hate wisdom we love death. While most of us would never say that we hate wisdom, sometimes our actions and decisions show that we are living in opposition to wisdom. When we despise wisdom we are on the side of death and destruction.

As we look at our culture we see a world system that is opposed to God’s wisdom. It should be no surprise then that this creates a culture of death and destruction. As followers of Christ, we need to make sure that we are not indifferent towards wisdom. It can be easy to look and judge those who are actively living against God’s wisdom, yet we need to look first at our own lives. May we seek wisdom and love His Word. He desires to be found and to encourage and strengthen those who love His Word.