The Value of Wisdom

KEY VERSE: “Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not.” —Proverbs 8:33

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Proverbs 7:22-36

SURELY THE LORD’s people are a favored people! While the world is groping on in darkness and fear, we are blessed with the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. And not only so, but we have the assurance that the Lord will teach us how to use this marvelous knowledge in a manner to make us his acceptable co-workers. James writes, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not.”—James 1:5

But when we ask God for wisdom, we should be prepared to follow his instructions as to how to obtain it. And those instructions call for earnest study of his Word and a humble surrender of our hearts and lives to all of its righteous requirements, regardless of what the cost may be. So let us keep on striving in this direction. Let us not permit either our own imperfections or the Devil’s efforts to beat our courage down and cause us to become indifferent to the unspeakable privileges which have become our portion as sons of God, and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ our Lord!

The “wisdom from above” James 3:17,18 declares, is full of mercy and “good fruits” and, as he further states, “the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.” Those who make peace are referred to by Jesus as peacemakers—“blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” (Matt. 5:9) The word peace is a translation of a Greek word, the basic meaning of which is ‘to join’, or ‘to make a pact’. The sons of God, those who are to be with Christ in the kingdom and see him as he is, are invited to joint-heirship with Christ for the very purpose of being associated with him in making a pact—even the New Covenant between God and men.

This, then, is to be the ultimate “fruit of righteousness” which will be produced by the wisdom from above. The apostle explains that this fruit of righteousness is “sown in peace.” The entire period from our consecration until we make our calling and election sure by being faithful unto death, is the sowing time, and Paul wrote, “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” (Gal. 6:7) From another standpoint we could say that we are now in training for the future work of making peace between God and men. Because of this, we must now learn and apply all the principles of righteousness represented in the wisdom from above which will be taught to the world and used as a basis of the covenant to be made with the people.

Those who make progress in this way will not be able to compromise in their obedience to the laws of the kingdom. With them It will be “first pure,” even as with us, hence the importance of our learning well this lesson now. For this same reason every element of divine wisdom will need to become a very part of our lives during this training period. This means that there will be good fruits in evidence even now—the fruits of joy and peace and kindness and love, which gives evidence of our own heart-harmony with God and his will.

And if our harmony with God’s will and our union with Christ are complete, and the divine will is manifesting itself in our daily words and deeds, those around us will have an opportunity to partake of the good fruit of our lives and themselves be blessed. Our service as peacemakers is by no means limited to the next age, when, if faithful, we will be united with Christ in glory, honor, and immortality. It begins now, and to be wholly under the influence of the wisdom from above means that we will be active in telling all, as we have opportunity, God’s great plan of the ages, encouraging all who have a hearing ear to surrender themselves to God and to the doing of his will.

It is indeed a blessing to be able to quote many texts of the Bible, and to know where they are found. It is a further blessing to be well acquainted with the beautiful and meaningful stories of the Bible. And every Christian should endeavor daily to become better acquainted with the life and teachings of Jesus; in fact, we should ever seek to become more and more fully acquainted with every part of the Word of God. However, all this would merely be the acquiring of increasing knowledge, and regardless of how important that may be—and it is important—we would be very unwise if we did not properly apply our knowledge as the governing factor in our lives.

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