Knowledge and Wisdom

Knowledge and Wisdom

By Jill Krueger Wagner

I’ve been studying knowledge and wisdom in the Bible lately. Although both are highly valued, they come with a caveat – they need to be sought God’s way. 

According to Webster knowledge is acquaintance with fact; clear perception of truth. Wisdom is the ability to judge soundly and deal shrewdly with facts.

Eve wanted the knowledge of good and evil and wisdom, too, but she broke God’s rule to get it. Therefore, she went from the queen of Eden to the gardner’s wife, kicked out of paradise.

Solomon asked for wisdom and knowledge when he became king. He was said to be the wisest man who ever lived, yet he didn’t follow God’s law regarding multiplying wives and horses. There is no Biblical record that he followed God’s command to write out his own copy of the law and read it always (Deuteronomy 17: 18). If he had, one wonders if he would have had to try so many things recorded in the book of Ecclesiastes to seek fulfillment and finally conclude what was already written to kings in Deut. 17: 19. We are to fear God and keep his commandments (Eccl. 12:13).

I also learned that the fear of God is the beginning of knowledge (Proverbs 1:7) and of wisdom, too (Proverbs 9:10). They are linked together repeatedly in Prov. 2:5-6, 8:10-11,14:8,18:15,24:3-4; Eccl. 7:12; Rom. 11:33; 1 Corinthians 12:8; Col. 1:9-10, 2:2-3.

Some random things I learned about knowledge:

·         Job spoke words without knowledge when he accused God of being unfair to him

·         One day the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord

·         People are destroyed from a lack of knowledge

·         Rejection of the knowledge of God ends in depravity

·         Knowledge puffs up but love builds up

·         Having knowledge without love makes us nothing but the love of God surpasses knowledge

·         Knowledge of the truth leads to godliness

·         God wants all to come to the knowledge of the truth

And what I learned about wisdom:

·         Pride breeds quarrels but wisdom is found in those who take advice

·         A man who loves wisdom brings joy to his father

·         The rod of correction imparts wisdom

·         The ideal woman speaks with wisdom and faithful instruction in on her tongue

·         It was predicted that Jesus would have the Spirit of wisdom & understanding, the Spirit of counsel & power, the Spirit of knowledge & the fear of the Lord

·         To fear God’s name is wisdom

·         Christ has become for us the wisdom of God

·         Paul prayed the Ephesians would be given the Spirit of wisdom & revelation, so they might know Christ better

·         If we lack wisdom, we are to ask God for it & He’ll give it

·         Humility comes from wisdom

So how do we attain knowledge and wisdom? A good place to start might be Psalm 119. Then perhaps the Gospels and the Epistles. In this time of social distancing it would be good to “come near to God.”

Are Christians Judgmental or Judicious? Part 2

By Jill Krueger Wagner

In my previous blog I wrote about Jesus making judgments. Today I’m going to address whether we are to follow Christ’s example regarding judging others.

Are we to judge?

Is it Biblical for us to judge? Many people who have never opened a Bible know that Jesus said, “Judge not.” Yet, as my Pastor has repeatedly taught, “context is everything.” Looking at Matthew 7 Jesus’ teaching shows us that if we judge, we’ll be judged by the same standard, so the first step we must take before judging anyone is to look in the mirror. We must analyze our own lives, ask the Lord to show us if we do the same thing, and listen for the Holy Spirit’s conviction. If we do the same thing, we must “take the log out” of our own eye – repent. After we’ve made things right between us and God, then we can “see clearly to remove the speck” from someone else’s eye, which certainly implies judging. Removing a speck is a helpful thing but one must examine the motivation as to why one wants to do that.

No love in the motivation

As Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem those in a Samaritan village did not welcome him (Luke 9:51-56) and this raised the judgmental ire of James and John. Motivated by a “holier than thou” revenge, they asked Jesus if they should call down fire from heaven to destroy the Samaritans, but Jesus rebuked them. He didn’t come to destroy but to save. James and John loved Jesus and they made a judgment that those who didn’t deserved death. They were zealous for him, but it was “zeal without knowledge.” They didn’t understand His mission. Their judgment was driven by the wrong motive and any one of us can fall prey to loveless motivation.

Did the early disciples judge?

In Acts 5:1-11 Peter told Ananias that he had lied to the Holy Spirit and then he accused Sapphira of testing the Spirit of the Lord. In Galatians 2:11-13 Paul rebukes Peter for hypocrisy regarding separating himself from eating with the Gentiles when certain Jews were around. In 1 Corinthians 5 Paul called out the church for not punishing a man guilty of immorality. So clearly those in the early church did judge.  Let’s examine the motivation in each of these cases?

In Acts 5, Peter confronts the deceit of Ananias and Sapphira. They had sold a piece of property and kept back a portion of the sale for their own use but proceeded to pretend to give all of it to the church. Their sin was lying to the Holy Spirit (who lives within each Christian) and testing the Spirit of the Lord to see just what they could get away with. When faced with what they had done they each fell down dead. The result was the fear of God fell upon the church. Peter’s motivation for confronting them was most certainly to root out deception in the Church. Although salvation is based on grace, not works, God doesn’t turn a blind eye to sin within the church. Perhaps Peter’s motivation was to maintain the purity of the church.

In Galatians 2:11-14 it is Peter who is on the receiving end of some well-deserved judgment. In the beginning of the church there were many problems in trying to balance the grace we receive by faith with obedience to the Old Testament Laws. Peter had been given revelation directly from God that Gentiles can be converted (Acts 10). He went into the house of the Gentiles and ate with them. He was criticized for this by Jewish Believers but explained how God showed them the Gentiles were worthy of salvation by pouring out the Holy Spirit on them.  So initially, Peter got the message that eating with Gentiles isn’t a problem. However, just like anyone of us can forget lessons God has taught us, Peter gave way to peer pressure and separated himself from the Gentiles when certain men were around.  Paul was most certainly reminding Peter to “not call anything (or anyone) impure that God has made clean.” As the apostle to the Gentiles, Perhaps Paul was motivated to remind Jews and Gentiles alike that salvation is by grace, not works or birthright.

In 1 Corinthians 5, it is again Paul who is judging sin within the Church. The city of Corinth was noted for everything sinful. It was here that Aphrodite’s great temple existed along with 1,000 temple prostitutes. It was an “anything goes” sort of city and many in the church came out of this type of immorality (see 1 Corinthian 6:9-11). In verses 5:1-5 Paul metes out the punishment for a man in the church who was in an incestuous relationship with his step-mother. Perhaps Paul’s motivation is to show the church that grace doesn’t allow sin. Christians mustn’t be “godless men, who change the grace of God into a license for immorality” (Jude 4).  “Unconditional love does not mean unconditional acceptance of bad behavior.” One more thing to note in this passage is in verses 12-13. It isn’t our job to judge those outside of the church, only those inside. You can’t expect unregenerate sinners to act like Christians, but we do have a responsibility to hold brothers and sisters accountable to not bring shame to the church of Jesus Christ.

From these examples, we can see certain judgments we in the Church can make that are judicious, not judgmental. After initially examining yourself, if you wonder if you are to address something that is sinful in a brother or sister in Christ any judgment must pass the THINK test.

 Is it:

True

Helpful

Inspiring

Necessary

Kind

Then answer a few more questions:
Has God chosen me to address this?

Is there Scriptural principle being broken?

Have I prayed about the issue?

Another good habit is to ask a mature Christian to pray for you without telling him/her the circumstances. Say something like, “I’m troubled by the behavior of a brother or sister, but I need Holy Spirit guidance on what do to. Would you please pray for me?”

If you become convicted by the Holy Spirit that you are to address the issue, Matthew 18:15-17 is a perfect place to learn the correct way to be judicial regarding sin in the church. First one on one, then with one or two others, then finally before the church.

Helpful Scriptures Proverb 16:2 All man’s ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the Lord. 1 Samuel 2:3b for the Lord is a God who knows, by him deeds are weighed1 Samuel 16:7 …the Lord looks at the heart. Finally, Paul’s admonition to Timothy is great advice for us all: “Do not sharply rebuke an older man, but rather appeal to him as a father, to the younger men as brothers, the older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters, in all purity.” 1 Timothy 5:1-2

Are Christians Judgmental or Judicious Part 1

By Jill Krueger Wagner

  Although Jesus’ primary purpose in ministry was to save, he made judgments. Jesus called Peter “Satan” when Peter balked at Jesus’ telling the disciples he’d be crucified. He told the woman caught in adultery to “leave her life of sin,” he told the man he healed at the Pool of Bethsaida to stop sinning, he told the Samaritan woman at the well that her form of worship was inferior to that of the Jews. He also accused the Pharisees many times of ungodly behavior.

What would have been Christ’s motivation in each of these judgments?

Jesus told Peter that he was a stumbling block and that he did not have in mind the things of God, but of men. Satan was using Peter to tempt Jesus not to follow the path of God’s will. This was certainly a teaching moment, for Jesus then told the disciples that if they wanted to follow him, they must deny themselves, take up the cross and follow him. What was Jesus’ motivation? Was it to have Peter understand that he was being used? Was it to show Peter and the other disciples to rethink their view of why the Messiah came, or was it to explain they needed to count the cost of following him? Although we don’t know precisely what his motives were, we do know is it was for Peter’s good.

The woman caught in adultery probably knew she was seeking fulfillment in men rather than God before the teachers of the law and the Pharisees dragged her before Jesus. Now she was face to face with the tenderhearted man whose wisdom had just saved her from being stoned to death. His demeanor was certainly nothing like those who had brought her before him.  She may have assumed God was OK with what she did since she hadn’t fallen under Christ’s condemnation, but Christ had a responsibility to let her know that her lifestyle was sinful. He didn’t condemn her, but he also didn’t condone her behavior. "Unconditional love does not mean unconditional acceptance of bad behavior." His motivation was certainly for her good (See Galatians 5:20-12).

In John 15:14 after Jesus healed the man at the Pool of Bethsaida, he told him to “Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” Again, Jesus seeks the man’s good.

In John 4 he was quite blunt with the woman who had 5 husbands. He said, “You Samaritan’s worship what you do not know, we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.” He debunked the lie that every form of worship results in salvation. He then proceeded to reveal himself as the messiah leading not only to her salvation but also to many in her village. Jesus sought her good and the good of her community.

When it came to the religious leaders of the day, many were worthless shepherds of the flock of God. As the good shepherd he had to call them into account for misusing their power and misleading the sheep. Jesus was following a precedent that God set in the Old Testament. There we learn that God used judgment to seek justice and speed the cause of the righteous (Isaiah 16:5), to save all the afflicted and teach restraint (Psalm 76:9-10) and to winnow out evil (Proverbs 20:8).

The religious leaders taught that following rules was the only way to please God. In Matthew 23, Jesus called them out for the following:

·         They did things for show

·         They were proud, lacking a servant’s heart

·         They were teaching others to follow their loveless ways

·         They were being blind guides, altering Scripture

·         They neglected the love of God, justice, mercy, and faithfulness

·         They were greedy and self-indulgent

·         They were full of hypocrisy and wickedness

These leaders were in danger of going to hell (Mt. 23:33). Was it unloving for Jesus to call them out? Not at all – it could have saved their lives, it was for their good.

Consistently when Jesus judges, his judgments are always meant for good. Furthermore, contrary to current thought, the church is also to judge for the good of others. I will cover that in my next blog.