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How to live wisely (Gen 2:16-17).
Prayer
Lord, as we open your word now, may you renew our minds and exalt and glorify yourself through our lives. Lord, may you better enable us to choose the good and to refuse the evil, to turn from evil and to turn unto you. Lord, give us wisdom through this study, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Reading
Genesis 2:16-17.
“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, (17) but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Meditation
When I say “wisdom”, what comes to your mind? What do you actually think wisdom might be? There are a number of ways we could try and explain this, but one of the most basic things about wisdom is that it involves taking action. Wisdom is not just discerning between good and evil, it is choosing the good and refusing the evil. The two trees in the garden represented this choice, and presented two courses of action to Adam and Eve. God called Adam to choose the good, to choose to eat of the tree of life, and to refuse the evil. In other words, to refuse to disobey God.
As Adam and Eve learned to make that decision, they would be growing in the faculty of wisdom. This principle of wisdom is one that endures in creation at all times. To live in God’s world, we must submit to God’s rule. We must choose to follow the path of life. To reject that rule is to invite death. To experience God’s blessing, Adam and Eve had to follow God’s design and do things God’s way. Put differently, they had to live by his blueprint. A fish cannot survive out of water, a bird cannot survive under water, a plant cannot survive without water, and people cannot survive without wisdom. Without choosing life by submitting to God’s wise design in creation, as revealed in his holy law, we bring down the consequence of death upon ourselves. “The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death” (Prov 13:14).
In Proverbs 3, Solomon said that God founded the world on wisdom. God’s wisdom is ingrained into the very DNA of creation. For us then to live in his creation, we need to abide in that wisdom. If life was a river, the fish must stay in the river, and we’re the fish. Maybe I can put it this way: the river is wisdom, and we need to swim in it to live. If the fish jumps out of that river, he starts gasping and can’t breathe. So it is with us and wisdom. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was designed to begin to teach this lesson – to impart this wisdom to Adam and Eve. The same lesson remains true for us today. Wisdom and obedience is a condition of life.
Be ye doers of the word…
The application is clear: we must live in wisdom, choose the good and refuse the evil. The question is: how can we actually do that? There are a few lines of application we might draw out here.
First: be committed to the task of getting wisdom. This is the first lesson of the Book of Proverbs. “The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight” (Prov 4:7). Wisdom requires knowledge and insight into which decision is right and which is wrong. Having that insight comes through the prayerful, patient labour of getting wisdom from God’s word. Getting wisdom is a non-negotiable, it’s not an added extra to the Christian life. Wisdom is a condition of life.
There is a destructive error roaming about in the church today. I’m going to call it the “Wisdom is optional” error. It’s the idea that God’s laws and his wisdom are separate things. As though wisdom is an optional upgrade reserved for super-mature Christians only. As though wisdom is about choosing the better of two good options, or finding the most ideal decision in a situation. From a biblical perspective, wisdom is not fundamentally about discerning between good and better, it is fundamentally about choosing between life and death. Wisdom, and folly. The essence of folly is godlessness (Ps 14:1), and the essence of wisdom is Christ-likeness. We could think of wisdom and foolishness as being on a sliding scale, and at any point, in every decision that we make, we’re either heading toward foolishness or toward wisdom. Toward Christ.
The second major step in getting wisdom is this: come to Christ. The choice of the two trees is a choice between life and death, and the way of wisdom is to choose life. At this point in history, the tree of life is long since gone – gone with Eden. For us living in a fallen world, in the cross of Christ we find the tree of life renewed. As Christ died for us, cursed upon the tree, and his blood flowed, we come now to the cross and it is the cross itself that becomes the new tree of life – but we must, by God’s grace, choose Christ. It was no accident that God ordained for Christ to die upon the tree, as the Apostle says in Revelation 22:14: “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.” In Rev 7:14 this washing of the robes is said to be a washing in the blood of the Lamb. Christ is wisdom (1 Cor 1:24), and wisdom thus fundamentally consists in coming to Christ. Where do you stand with Christ? Have you believed?
A third application follows: abide in Christ. Believing in Christ is not a once-off event that remains in an increasingly distant past. It’s not something you just do at conversion and then forget about it. Believing in Christ begins at conversion, and continues day-by-day in an abiding walk with Christ. In John 8:31-32 Jesus said: “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” To abide in Christ, his words must abide in us. Eve fell because she let go of God’s word, she let Satan’s word take up residence in her heart and the result was death. We must live and breathe the word of God, that is the fundamental way that we may be formed in wisdom. Is this true of your life? Do Christ’s words abide in you? Do your thoughts revolve around them? Is your being and existence saturated with the Word of God? If we would gain wisdom, that must be our goal
A fourth application is: study the book of Proverbs deeply. The Book of Proverbs, in a very unique way, was given by God to impart wisdom. Proverbs 1:1-2 says: “The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity”. When a specific book of the Bible says that it’s aim is to give wisdom, and God instructs us in the scriptures to get wisdom, and we know that wisdom is a condition of life, then you can bet your bottom dollar that it is critical to study that book. We cannot afford to neglect the book of proverbs. Study this book, it is designed to be memorised – why do you think there are so many short, memorable sayings in it?
Fifth app: study the Word of God deeply. It is not just the book of Proverbs that gives wisdom, it is the entire scriptures. All of God’s works and all of his word functions on the principles of wisdom. Psalm 119:98 says: “Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me.” The whole word of God is designed to impart wisdom. The word of God to Adam and Eve was designed to impart wisdom, and so we must study the Word of God deeply. Again, is this true in your life? Do you study the word of God deeply? Do you pour yourself into it? “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
Sixth app: live wisely. God’s purpose in history is to fill the earth with his life. As we’ve seen in our studies in Genesis, he does that through our works of service and through our relationships (including multiplying the image of God on earth). In our work and relationships, however, wisdom is crucial. Without wisdom our work will be fruitless, and without wisdom our relationships will be broken. We must choose the good and refuse the evil in our work and relationships. As sinners, choosing the evil is our default setting, but it was not so with Christ. In Luke 2:52 we read: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.” So it ought to be with us. When we come to Christ, and abide in his word, he restores this wisdom again. When a believer first believes the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of wisdom, takes up residence in their heart. By the Holy Spirit’s indwelling power we are united to Christ and may receive God’s wisdom. SDG.
Prayer of Confession & Consecration
Our loving Heavenly Father, we thank you that you give wisdom to all who ask it of you. And we pray, Lord, that you would increasingly give us wisdom,help us in each and every moment of our day today and each day to choose the good, to see the good, and to refuse the evil. Oh Lord, let us walk in the light of your life as we choose by your grace and strength the ways of wisdom. These things we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
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By Reformed devotions from all of scripture.Prayer
Lord, as we open your word now, may you renew our minds and exalt and glorify yourself through our lives. Lord, may you better enable us to choose the good and to refuse the evil, to turn from evil and to turn unto you. Lord, give us wisdom through this study, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Reading
Genesis 2:16-17.
“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, (17) but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Meditation
When I say “wisdom”, what comes to your mind? What do you actually think wisdom might be? There are a number of ways we could try and explain this, but one of the most basic things about wisdom is that it involves taking action. Wisdom is not just discerning between good and evil, it is choosing the good and refusing the evil. The two trees in the garden represented this choice, and presented two courses of action to Adam and Eve. God called Adam to choose the good, to choose to eat of the tree of life, and to refuse the evil. In other words, to refuse to disobey God.
As Adam and Eve learned to make that decision, they would be growing in the faculty of wisdom. This principle of wisdom is one that endures in creation at all times. To live in God’s world, we must submit to God’s rule. We must choose to follow the path of life. To reject that rule is to invite death. To experience God’s blessing, Adam and Eve had to follow God’s design and do things God’s way. Put differently, they had to live by his blueprint. A fish cannot survive out of water, a bird cannot survive under water, a plant cannot survive without water, and people cannot survive without wisdom. Without choosing life by submitting to God’s wise design in creation, as revealed in his holy law, we bring down the consequence of death upon ourselves. “The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death” (Prov 13:14).
In Proverbs 3, Solomon said that God founded the world on wisdom. God’s wisdom is ingrained into the very DNA of creation. For us then to live in his creation, we need to abide in that wisdom. If life was a river, the fish must stay in the river, and we’re the fish. Maybe I can put it this way: the river is wisdom, and we need to swim in it to live. If the fish jumps out of that river, he starts gasping and can’t breathe. So it is with us and wisdom. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was designed to begin to teach this lesson – to impart this wisdom to Adam and Eve. The same lesson remains true for us today. Wisdom and obedience is a condition of life.
Be ye doers of the word…
The application is clear: we must live in wisdom, choose the good and refuse the evil. The question is: how can we actually do that? There are a few lines of application we might draw out here.
First: be committed to the task of getting wisdom. This is the first lesson of the Book of Proverbs. “The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight” (Prov 4:7). Wisdom requires knowledge and insight into which decision is right and which is wrong. Having that insight comes through the prayerful, patient labour of getting wisdom from God’s word. Getting wisdom is a non-negotiable, it’s not an added extra to the Christian life. Wisdom is a condition of life.
There is a destructive error roaming about in the church today. I’m going to call it the “Wisdom is optional” error. It’s the idea that God’s laws and his wisdom are separate things. As though wisdom is an optional upgrade reserved for super-mature Christians only. As though wisdom is about choosing the better of two good options, or finding the most ideal decision in a situation. From a biblical perspective, wisdom is not fundamentally about discerning between good and better, it is fundamentally about choosing between life and death. Wisdom, and folly. The essence of folly is godlessness (Ps 14:1), and the essence of wisdom is Christ-likeness. We could think of wisdom and foolishness as being on a sliding scale, and at any point, in every decision that we make, we’re either heading toward foolishness or toward wisdom. Toward Christ.
The second major step in getting wisdom is this: come to Christ. The choice of the two trees is a choice between life and death, and the way of wisdom is to choose life. At this point in history, the tree of life is long since gone – gone with Eden. For us living in a fallen world, in the cross of Christ we find the tree of life renewed. As Christ died for us, cursed upon the tree, and his blood flowed, we come now to the cross and it is the cross itself that becomes the new tree of life – but we must, by God’s grace, choose Christ. It was no accident that God ordained for Christ to die upon the tree, as the Apostle says in Revelation 22:14: “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.” In Rev 7:14 this washing of the robes is said to be a washing in the blood of the Lamb. Christ is wisdom (1 Cor 1:24), and wisdom thus fundamentally consists in coming to Christ. Where do you stand with Christ? Have you believed?
A third application follows: abide in Christ. Believing in Christ is not a once-off event that remains in an increasingly distant past. It’s not something you just do at conversion and then forget about it. Believing in Christ begins at conversion, and continues day-by-day in an abiding walk with Christ. In John 8:31-32 Jesus said: “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” To abide in Christ, his words must abide in us. Eve fell because she let go of God’s word, she let Satan’s word take up residence in her heart and the result was death. We must live and breathe the word of God, that is the fundamental way that we may be formed in wisdom. Is this true of your life? Do Christ’s words abide in you? Do your thoughts revolve around them? Is your being and existence saturated with the Word of God? If we would gain wisdom, that must be our goal
A fourth application is: study the book of Proverbs deeply. The Book of Proverbs, in a very unique way, was given by God to impart wisdom. Proverbs 1:1-2 says: “The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity”. When a specific book of the Bible says that it’s aim is to give wisdom, and God instructs us in the scriptures to get wisdom, and we know that wisdom is a condition of life, then you can bet your bottom dollar that it is critical to study that book. We cannot afford to neglect the book of proverbs. Study this book, it is designed to be memorised – why do you think there are so many short, memorable sayings in it?
Fifth app: study the Word of God deeply. It is not just the book of Proverbs that gives wisdom, it is the entire scriptures. All of God’s works and all of his word functions on the principles of wisdom. Psalm 119:98 says: “Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me.” The whole word of God is designed to impart wisdom. The word of God to Adam and Eve was designed to impart wisdom, and so we must study the Word of God deeply. Again, is this true in your life? Do you study the word of God deeply? Do you pour yourself into it? “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
Sixth app: live wisely. God’s purpose in history is to fill the earth with his life. As we’ve seen in our studies in Genesis, he does that through our works of service and through our relationships (including multiplying the image of God on earth). In our work and relationships, however, wisdom is crucial. Without wisdom our work will be fruitless, and without wisdom our relationships will be broken. We must choose the good and refuse the evil in our work and relationships. As sinners, choosing the evil is our default setting, but it was not so with Christ. In Luke 2:52 we read: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.” So it ought to be with us. When we come to Christ, and abide in his word, he restores this wisdom again. When a believer first believes the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of wisdom, takes up residence in their heart. By the Holy Spirit’s indwelling power we are united to Christ and may receive God’s wisdom. SDG.
Prayer of Confession & Consecration
Our loving Heavenly Father, we thank you that you give wisdom to all who ask it of you. And we pray, Lord, that you would increasingly give us wisdom,help us in each and every moment of our day today and each day to choose the good, to see the good, and to refuse the evil. Oh Lord, let us walk in the light of your life as we choose by your grace and strength the ways of wisdom. These things we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe