Wisdom from God

Wisdom From God. Information has never been so easily accessible, and knowledge has never been so readily available. In ten years, it is conceivable that such a claim could again be made. “Information itself is power,” wrote Sir Francis Bacon famously in Meditationes Sacrae (1597). Yet, with so many examples of informationally powerful know-it-alls, why is wisdom still so rare? It is because wisdom is not a by-product of collected data.

With one search, I can find out which viscosity of motor oil is best suited for a 5.3L V8 gasoline engine. Yet, on the bottle of that laboratory engineered motor oil it says in large letters, “DO NOT INGEST.” What kind of fool would even consider drinking motor oil to necessitate such a warning? Our surplus of knowledge cannot solve our deficit of wisdom. Information itself may be power, but wisdom does not always follow information. A smart fool is just as possible to find as an uneducated sage, whether Artificial Intelligence applies or not.

Wisdom is not built from data; it comes from God. Wisdom is not intellectually achieved, but spiritually received. In a real yet enigmatic sense, Jesus is the incarnation of the wisdom of God. “Because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30). Wisdom is derivative from our relationship to the “only wise God” (Rom. 16:27). We could not attain wisdom, so Wisdom obtained us.

God mercifully beats us at our own game, using the wisdom (so called) of the world to thwart the wise. “For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe” (1 Cor. 1:19-21).