Wisdom Matters

God wanted his children to belong to a family on earth even before they became a family in heaven. We were created by God to need and enjoy relationships with him and with other people. A lot of Scripture teaches us how to live on earth as we will one day live in heaven.

Paul taught each Christian in the Philippian church to “look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” Imagine belonging to a church that genuinely appreciated and enjoyed the diversity of interests within its congregation. God wanted us to enjoy many things, not just the few things we find interesting ourselves. 

We are more likely to join a church that has the music we like. We are more likely to join a class on Sunday that has people who talk, think, and act like we do. We probably won’t even visit churches we know are not like us. 

Christians in the first century didn’t have those options. There was probably just one gathering of Christians in the city. Some of the members had grown up in the synagogue learning Jewish rules, customs, and behaviors.

Other members had grown up in the Greco-Roman culture and had an entirely different way of life. It was difficult for the early Christians to find common ground. And Paul told them to care about the interests of others willingly and joyfully.

Many in the early church obeyed Paul’s words, and their witness to the culture was profound. What would happen if our churches did the same thing today? Would the church become known for the way diverse people could find common ground and enjoy one another’s interests? 

Americans live in an increasingly diverse and divided country. What should we do with Paul’s advice the next time we enter any church? How can we care about the interests of others and encourage them to do the same? 

God’s priorities are wisdom. He created us to be a diverse family of faith that embraces and enjoys our variety of interests. Our witness will be strengthened if we embrace and live the wise priority that Paul taught the first-century church in Philippi. Wisdom is knowing that our interests matter to God, and so do the interests of others.

God loves to bless his children with prosperity. Some of our prosperity is defined by the things we own or possess. God gives us possessions, and those things can give us peace of mind, contentment, and a sense of safety for the future—until they don’t.

God taught Adam and Eve how to take care of all that he had given them. He wanted them to enjoy the beauty and tranquility of the Garden and their relationship with him. But their attention was drawn away from God and toward the serpent. They knew what God had told them, but they wanted to believe what Satan was saying even more. So, they ate the fruit and sin entered our world.

They knew what God had given to them, but they didn’t pay attention to what they had. And, they didn’t enjoy having enough when there was more. Sin is often the result of ignoring our blessings and not caring for all we own.

That’s why the author of this proverb taught us that we should “know well the condition” of our flocks. We should give our attention to caring about and caring for all that God has provided in our lives. 

God’s priority goes beyond just taking care of our blessings. God wants us to enjoy them as well. We have all given a gift that remained unopened and unused. It’s sad to see it in the corner of someone’s closet while knowing it has never been enjoyed. That is a small taste of what God must feel when we don’t use the spiritual gifting he gave us in the Holy Spirit. We might think we don’t need the Spirit, but God knows we haven’t paid attention to all that he has provided.

What gifts have remained unopened or underappreciated in your life? 

Let’s make it our high priority to turn our attention toward God’s blessings and faithfully care for all we have been given. God’s priorities are wisdom. God’s gifting is his priority for your life. Wisdom is living with God’s high priorities, giving careful attention and complete gratitude for all of our blessings.

A lot of us grew up with sermons that caused us to “fear God,” but not in the way the Bible intended. We heard about heaven on Sunday mornings, but we also heard about the reality of hell. At the end of the sermon, we were either glad we were going to heaven or we wanted to feel that confidence. 

We don’t hear as many of those sermons these days, which can be both good and bad. When the Bible tells us to fear God, we are being taught to live in reverent awe of his immeasurable greatness. To fear God is to understand that his wrath is the result of his love for all of creation. God’s wrath falls on those who refuse to acknowledge they have a Creator who loves them enough to give them his Son.

The psalmist wrote, “The fear of the Lᴏʀᴅ is the beginning of wisdom.” To live daily in reverent awe of the Creator God is to begin to understand who he is and all that he is capable of. The beginning of wisdom is coming to the realization that the Source of all life deeply loves every life.

When we want to gain God’s wisdom, we must take an important first step. We must spend time knowing who God is and all he is capable of so that we will live in reverent awe, willing to submit ourselves to his abundant perfection.

According to the psalmist, “Those who practice” knowing God in that way “have good understanding.” The Creator God—the One we know and fearfully, reverently follow—has been “praised” from the very beginning of time and is still praised by his followers today.

Those who are depressed can find joy in his love. Those who are worried can receive his peace and comfort. Those who are ill or elderly can find their purpose for each day. All of us who fear God will praise God for who he is.

God’s priorities are wisdom. The beginning of wisdom is knowing God at the deepest levels. God wants us to fear him so that we will want to walk with him. 

Can you take a few minutes and consider the question “Why do I fear God?” 

Those answers can be the beginning of your path to new wisdom and holy priorities.

King Solomon asked God for wisdom, and God granted his request. It is oddly comforting to know that even Solomon didn’t live a perfect life, even though he had been abundantly blessed with God’s wisdom. Wisdom is a moment-to-moment choice, and not even King Solomon utilized his God-given strength all of the time.

Most theologians attribute the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes to the wisdom of King Solomon. The book of Ecclesiastes was likely written by Solomon at the end of his amazing life.

Israel reached the height of power, wealth, education, and national prominence under King Solomon. However, soon after his reign, the nation divided and eventually fell. At the end of his life, the wise king recorded that the wisdom he had gained in his life could be summed up with these words: “Fear God and keep his commandments.” Solomon said, “This is the whole duty of man.” 

No man achieved more financial success in a lifetime than Solomon. No man had a greater influence on the world than the king. Yet, throughout the book of Ecclesiastes he described those pursuits as a “chasing of the wind.” Solomon epitomizes the phrase “wisdom comes with age.”

Most games are won or lost in the final quarter. The same can be true of our lives. Aging is actually a blessing from God. When Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden, the judgment of God was an earthly life of work and moments of pain. The blessing of God was aging. People wouldn’t have to live an earthly existence forever. 

King Solomon taught an invaluable lesson. He was by far the most successful human being to have ever lived, yet, at the end of his life, he defined successful living in this way: “Fear God and keep his commandments.” That is our whole duty as a child of God; everything else is simply a “chasing of the wind.”

God’s priorities are wisdom. King Solomon, who was abundantly blessed with God’s wisdom, taught us how to live with God’s priorities, his wisdom. We can live with God’s priorities if we believe King Solomon’s words in Scripture are perfect truth. Live with reverent awe of who God is and choose to obey his commandments. Everything else is just “chasing the wind.”

God created our bodies to have muscles. Taking our muscles for granted is easy until something happens that makes one or more of them stop working. Our muscles provide a perfect illustration of our relationship with God. When we don’t “train” our muscles, they weaken. According to Paul, the same is true for our souls.

Paul’s first-century Greco-Roman culture was well versed in physical fitness. Some of the most popular personalities of that time were the marathon runners and gladiators in the local coliseums. These men worked to train for their sport. As Paul wrote, that training had “some value.” Even the strongest men could get ill and find it difficult to run, or look the wrong way and be injured by an opponent. 

Paul then taught that “godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” Godliness can be described as our “spiritual muscle.” The more we train ourselves spiritually, the stronger we become. Our muscle keeps us balanced and less likely to fall. Our muscle must be used if it is to remain strong. Spiritual muscle “holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.”

The time you spend investing in God’s word and God’s work is the way you train for the race you are running. Paul used the analogy because it was instantly understood by his readers. His words have remained a perfect analogy throughout history. He taught an eternal truth when he said, “Godliness is of value in every way.” There is never a moment in our lives when godliness is not our very best choice.

Are you training your spiritual muscle as you listen to Wisdom Matters? 

Does God’s word inspire your choices, control your spiritual balance, and strengthen you for the “race” you are running? 

God’s priorities are wisdom. Staying physically strong is good; staying spiritually strong is of value in “every way.” Wisdom is training or investing effort in our spiritual muscles so we can remain balanced and be kept from falling. That priority will strengthen you for this life, and especially for life eternal.

We know we are called to love God as our highest priority. Jesus added a second commandment to that one saying, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” We know the commandments of Christ, but do we live them?

Why did Jesus command the impossible? We know what Jesus said, but how many times have you broken his commands—since yesterday? We can learn to love our neighbors, but how do we love them like we love ourselves? If we can find that answer, we can keep the Great Commandments.

The key is in the word love. The Greek word Jesus used was agape, meaning the love of God. Therein lies the answer. Human love will rarely, if ever, love someone more than they love themselves. Human love is limited, and it’s the best we can do. In other words, we can’t keep the Great Commandments apart from our great God.

Only God can produce agape love. He is the only source of unselfish, perfect, generous love. The only way to obey Jesus’ commandment is to know we can’t obey Jesus’ commandment without God’s love. We can’t have agape love for our neighbors until Jesus gives us that love. Only then do we have that love to give away to others.

When the Great Commandments become our great priority, we will understand our great need for God. We will run to the source of agape love rather than offer our limited efforts. 

Jesus was telling the well-behaved Pharisees that their love for God wasn’t working. If the Pharisees had truly loved God, they would have had his love for others. 

God’s priorities are wisdom. God’s patience with sin is immeasurable. God’s love for others is perfect. When we need to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, we know how to do that. We can fill our hearts with God’s love, and then we will have his agape love for our neighbors.

When do your thoughts drift toward things eternal? The moment-to-moment priorities fill most of our thoughts each day. We are busy people, and our calendars, electronic notifications, and cell phones keep us moving quickly forward with the world’s demands.

How would your life change if each day you set aside a certain amount of time to think only about things eternal? A lot of things on earth matter today but will not matter eternally. Paul told the Colossians, “Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”

When we “set our minds” on things, those are the things that become most important to us. We set goals we want to achieve. We set schedules we want to keep. Those things consume our thoughts from the moment we wake up to the moment we fall asleep. Paul told the church to “set your minds on things” that are eternal. Those are the things that will matter forever so they are the things that should matter most today.

When Satan can’t have our souls, he will settle for having our time and focus. Satan loves to make suggestions that cause us to think about his distractions rather than thinking with God’s direction. 

When your mind is filled with fears, it is not filled with God. When your thoughts are not authored by God, they are not your best thoughts. When your mind is led by the world’s priorities, your thoughts will likely not be set on things eternal.

What do you think about the most each day? 

That is a question worthy of deep consideration. God wants us to spend time thinking about things eternal because those thoughts will become wise perspectives for our earthly lives. God’s priorities are wisdom. Set your mind on things eternal and you will have wise priorities and godly perspective for the temporary things of earth.

It’s difficult to walk into a movie theater, breathe in the aroma of popcorn, and not make a beeline for the concession stand. When we love something, we are easily drawn to it. There is great joy when I look up and see my grandkids running toward me. They know they are greatly loved.

Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” If we truly love Jesus, we will be drawn to him and want to obey what he has taught us. We will learn to love his commandments when we realize that his direction is always motivated by his love for us.

You and I don’t need to wonder whether or not we love the Lord. If we love God, we want to please him with our obedience. If our love has dulled, we will find ourselves less concerned about the Lord and what he wants for our lives. Has it been joyful to walk in God’s commands lately, or has it seemed like an unwanted obligation?

The Christians who are quick to obey are usually the people who have developed a strong Father/child relationship with God. God’s children learn to love him as our perfect Father and trust his ways are higher than our own. We want to obey him because we trust his plans for our lives more than our own plans.

God’s priorities are wisdom. We should live with the high priority of maintaining a close, personal relationship with God as our heavenly Father. Our obedience to God’s commands will become a joy rather than an obligation as a result. Do you love the Lord? Your obedience to his commands provides your answer.

All of us have people in our lives whom we think about every day. They are included in our thoughts because of the way we have included them in our lives. They are part of our choices, decisions, compassion, and care. The psalmist teaches us to include God in our lives in that same way.

Every day the Lord gives us to live here on earth has eternal consequence. The people we meet and interact with each day are a natural part of our lives, but some of them will be part of our eternal lives as well. Some will have an eternal life because God brought them to us to disciple. 

To “number our days” simply means to value each day the Lord gives us so that we will serve his priorities through our own. That is why God wants us to gain a “heart of wisdom.” A wise heart is a heart aligned with God. If we value God’s purpose for the day, we will value our need for his wisdom.

Who does God plan to bring across our path because he knows he can trust us to share our faith? Which brothers and sisters in Christ will call, email, or seek you out because they need biblical wisdom, prayer, or encouragement that day? 

I like to imagine that if you are a person who will listen to Wisdom Matters, you are likely a person who wants to live your life “in step” with God’s Spirit. A Christian who seeks God’s wisdom is usually one of his soldiers. Thank you for reading, listening to, and sharing this app so that others can “number their days” and “gain a heart of wisdom.”

God’s word and his Presence in our lives are daily needs. That’s why Jesus taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). God’s priorities are wisdom. That’s why we should include him as our daily priority just as we do the other people who are most important to our lives. He is the head of our family and deserves to be honored and enjoyed each day.

We don’t like to think about the judgment seat of God, but it is a reality of God’s word. God will reward our obedience but will also hold us accountable for those times we refused to obey and chose a path we knew was wrong. And we know from God’s word that all of us will be “without excuse” (Romans 1:20) for our sins.

Thankfully, we can also know that those who are in Christ will stand in our flaws as the forgiven children of God.

It’s comforting to consider our forgiveness in Jesus Christ, but it’s important to remember that our forgiveness doesn’t erase our accountability. Why can God hold us accountable for every sin? Micah gives that answer by saying, “He has told you, O man, what is good.” The sins we will be accountable for are those we commit knowing that the choice was wrong.

Adam and Eve sinned when they ate from the tree because God had warned them they were not to do that. King David sinned with Bathsheba because his actions broke most, if not all, of the commandments he had learned from God’s word. 

If you are like me, you have more than one Bible and access to God’s word through technology, sermons, and many other means. We will stand before God “without excuse” because he has made certain we would “know what is good.” 

What is the opposite of living willfully ignorant or antagonistic to God’s word? It is to live with justice in our treatment of others. It is to love others with the mercy and kindness of God. Finally, it is accomplished by walking humbly submitted to God as our King.

God has told us who he is. God has given us his Son and his Spirit so that we could live unburdened by sin. He will hold us accountable for those moments we didn’t allow him to author our choices and strengthen us to choose his righteous will. God’s priorities are wisdom. We will be accountable to God for the times we chose to be less than we could have been. He has shown us what is good. Let’s choose to follow our King.