She (wisdom) is a tree of life to those who embrace her;

those who lay hold of her will be blessed. (Pro 3:18).

When man was driven out of the Garden of Eden, he lost the access to the tree of life, which resulted in　his death: the spiritual death first, and eventually the physical death came to him. But the above scripture reveals that we now and still have the access to this tree through wisdom. Wisdom is the word of God, and is ultimately the person of Jesus Christ. Through his death and resurrection, the tree of life has been restored and became available to those who believe in him. Death has been swallowed up in victory, and we, who are in Christ, are new creations!

This, however, does not apply automatically to all humans who live today. The above scripture teaches that wisdom is a tree of life only to “those who embrace her.” In other words, you need to seek it. The same book says:

I (wisdom) love those who love me,

and those who seek me find me (8:17).

If you seek wisdom, it gets bigger and bigger like a snowball, but if not, it gets smaller and smaller, and even the wisdom you have will melt away.

Whoever corrects a mocker invites insult;

whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse.

Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you;

rebuke a wise man and he will love you.

Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still;

teach a righteous man and he will add to his learning (9:7-9).

If you want to teach wisdom, teach those who already have it. This is so true. The truth is that those who do not have wisdom do not know the value of it, and that is why they do not seek it: actually, they do not feel like seeking it, and they cannot seek it. So, if you still want to teach such people, you will first need to let them seek wisdom. And in order to let them seek it, you will need to teach them how valuable wisdom is, and that is not easy! How can we do that? The book of Proverbs says:

The rod of correction imparts wisdom,

but a child left to himself disgraces his mother (Prov 29:15).

“The rod of correction” is the help of God’s love for those who do not seek wisdom. And the reason we do not know the value of wisdom is that we have many other things that look more valuable than wisdom—the world and everything in the world, the cravings of the flesh, the lust of our eyes, etc. These are all, of course, deceptions caused by Satan. He always tries to distract us from our spiritual focuses and concentration. This concentration is called “holiness.”

Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness (Heb 12:10).

The lifestyle with this type of spiritual concentration is quite observable in the earthly life of Christ everywhere, but it can be particularly observed just before his death. Read that part of the gospel, and try to see what he went through by paying attention to the differences between his lifestyle and that of his disciples in terms of the spiritual concentration. For instance, read:

An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. "Why are you sleeping?" he asked them. "Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation (Luke 22:43-46)."

He was born to die on the cross. When his life with this purpose was about to be finalized, all the noises and disturbances that had been working against him peaked. He could easily lose the concentration he had kept since his birth. Not only his enemies attacked him, but also one of his own disciples betrayed him, and all the other denied and abandoned him. It is so amazing to see that in the midst of all these distracting noises he still maintained his concentration and holiness, fighting a good fight of faith