Wisdom

Dear Victorious,

Tell me about wisdom. What is it? How do you get it? What makes one person wise and another foolish? Is it possible that someone can be wise and foolish at the same time - or rather that wisdom and foolishness could be found in the same individual? Finally, who would you say is the wisest person alive today?

Liam V. - Hauppauge, NY

Dear Liam,

You ask many good questions. Wisdom is not intellectual capacity or "smartness." Rather wisdom is the ability to see life from God's perspective - and then to know the best course of action to take in any situation. Think of that latter statement as knowing the answer to the question, "What would Jesus do?" (WWJD?)

King Solomon was an Old Testament leader who asked God for wisdom. God gave him so much wisdom that God said Solomon would be the "wisest man who ever lived." Yet even Solomon confessed that it was difficult to act and think wisely. Why is that? Because Solomon's wisdom was still corrupted by his sinful nature. And because the universe of things to be known is far beyond man's capacity to know. So Solomon was saying that no matter how wise one is, there will always be some mysteries that we can never understand - some things that we can never figure out.

Proverbs 9:10 teaches that the fear of the Lord (respect and honor) is the beginning of wisdom. True wisdom can only come from knowing and trusting God. It is not merely the way to find God, but it is the result of knowing God.

If you want to know more about wisdom and its characteristics, I'd recommend you read the Old Testament books of Ecclesiastes, Proverbs and Psalms (in that order). Then I'd recommend you read the New Testament book of James and the writings of the Apostle Paul. They, in my opinion, rank up there among the wisest men who ever lived.

Finally, who is the wisest person alive today? The answer of course is that I don't know - because I don't know all of the people who are alive today. And I would have to know them all to be able to assess the level of wisdom that they may or may not possess. But I would say that the wisest person alive today is the person who most fears the Lord.