What is godly wisdom?

The wisdom that comes from above, having its place in the life, in the heart, has three characteristics. First of all, the character of purity, for the heart is in communion with God — has intercourse with Him; therefore, there must needs be this purity. Next, it is peaceable, gentle, ready to yield to the will of another. Then, full of good works, acting by a principle which, as its origin and motives are from above, does good without partiality; that is to say, its action is not guided by the circumstances which influence the flesh and the passions of men. For the same reason it is sincere and unfeigned. Purity, absence of will and self, activity in good, such are the characteristics of heavenly wisdom.

Hence, if a man be wise, the question arises, how is it to be proved? Assuredly not in talking much, which usually tends to talking ill. "Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom." If on the contrary there were bitter envy and strife in their hearts, how could they boast against the truth, or lie against it? How cuttingly severe, and this simply from laying bare things as they were! Yet, what an exposure! Think of people glorying in their shame! "And lie not against the truth." It was a practical incongruity and contradiction of the mind of God.

Then we are shown two kinds of wisdom, — just as with regard to temptations there were two sorts of them — one blessed from God, and a real glory to the man that endures; and the other a shame, because it springs from his own fallen nature. No otherwise is it with wisdom. "This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work." Its works prove its nature and its source. There is confusion in every evil way, "but the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable." Never reverse this order; it is not only that this wisdom is pure and peaceable, but it is first pure, then peaceable. It first maintains the character and glory of God, and then seeks the fruits of peace among men. But this is not all. It is gentle, and easy to be entreated, or yielding. Instead of ever giving battle for its rights supposed or real, there is clearly the yieldingness of grace about it. It is not the stubbornness of self-assertion or opinionativeness. This, on the contrary, stamps the sensual aspiring wisdom of man; but what comes down from above is gentle, yielding, full of mercy and good fruits, uncontentious, and unfeigned. When a man is conscious that his wisdom is of a suspicious kind, one can understand him unwilling to have his mind or will disputed; but the truth is, that there is nothing which so much marks the superiority of grace and truth and wisdom that God gives as patience, and the absence of anxiety to push what one knows is right and true. It is an inherent and sure sign of weakness somewhere, when a man is ever urgent in pressing the value of his own words and way, or cavilling habitually at others. "The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated:" it is also "full of mercy and good fruits, without contention, and without hypocrisy." It is characterised by the self-judgment which delights in and displays the ways of God. "And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace." Thus if there is peace in the way, righteousness is alike the seed and the fruit. The seed, as ever, must produce its own proper fruit. "The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace." What an honour to be sons of peace in a world ever at war with God and those who are His!

Job in his ninth and last discourse, which occupies six chapters, speaks of the excellency of wisdom (Job 28:12-28). Having spoken of men's skill in mining and engineering (at that early date), and their diligent search for the treasures of the earth, he exclaimed, "But where shall wisdom be found, and where is the place of understanding." The bowels of the earth will not reveal it, and its value far exceeds that of gold and rubies. God alone can declare its true nature and value, "and to man He said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding." Solomon added to this later: "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of the holy is understanding" (Prov. 9:10). Therefore until God gets His rightful place in a man's mind and heart he is incapable of viewing anything wisely. His thoughts are out of centre. His beginning is all wrong.

Since the days of Job and Solomon the eternal Wisdom has come into the world in the person of the Son of God. Every thing must now be considered in relation to Him. "Christ is the power of God, and the wisdom of God" (1 Cor. 1:24). What can man show in the way of power in comparison with the "exceeding greatness" of the power of God "which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places"? (Eph. 1:20) What wisdom can man show, with all his research, that will compare with what God revealed when He turned Calvary's disgraceful gibbet into the means of salvation and blessing for countless myriads? Men denied His beloved Son the petty dignity of kingship over the Jews, and God has given Him the headship of the universe; and all that has come to Christ, and will yet come to Him, was settled in the counsels of infinite love ages before men imbrued their hands in the blood of the Holy One! His enemies will yet be confounded at their own folly and be constrained to acknowledge the surpassing wisdom of God. "The foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men" (1 Cor. 1:25). "Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seems to be wise in this world, let him become a fool that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God" (1 Cor. 3:18-19). The man who leaves God and Christ out of his life's scheme is as hopelessly adrift as a vessel in a storm without chart and rudder.

What then is "wisdom" as distinguished from "knowledge?" Wisdom seems to me that moral discernment given by God of things as they are before Him, and consequently as they truly are in themselves, and in relation to one another, which is of prime value for practical judgment and conduct here below. Good and evil, right and wrong, are thus seen intuitively, because of familiarity with the presence of God, not only in their results but in their principles and springs. Knowledge is rather that understanding of revealed truth, which of course therefore is given through a diligent use of the scriptures, and is of great value for appreciating the ways as well as word of God, though the abuse of it issues in systems of divinity, of prophecy, and the like. The "word" in the two instances means or implies the faculty of communicating to others the wisdom or knowledge, as the case may be. It does not seem correct to infer that the prophets were characterized by the latter as apostles undoubtedly were by the former. It would be more according to scripture if one said that "the word of knowledge" pertained to the teacher, always remembering that an apostle or a prophet might also be a teacher and a preacher, as Paul himself was beyond all controversy. But his was a rare combination of gifts, and all of them rich, deep, and ample, in order to accomplish the special work for which he was called of the Lord.

Some of the gifts may require a short observation. Wisdom is the application of divine light to right and wrong, and to all the circumstances through which we pass — an expression which has a wide extent, because it applies to everything with regard to which we have to form a judgment. The Holy Ghost furnishes some in a peculiar way with this wisdom, with a wisdom according to God a perception of the true nature of things, and of their relationship to each other, and of conduct with regard to both, which, coming from God, guides us through the difficulties of the way, and enables us to avoid that which would place us in a false position towards God and man.

Wisdom is the possession of the mind of God, so that everything is viewed as before God, and in relation to God, enabling its possessor to act rightly in any particular circumstance. Knowledge is rather an intelligent acquaintance with the revealed word of God, so that the doctrine can be clearly stated. Faith, in this passage, is not simply faith in Christ and the gospel, which is common to all believers; it is rather the special faith given to certain believers that enables them to help the Lord's people, by rising above difficulties, overcoming opposition, and guiding them in their perplexities.

The first question is somewhat indefinite, since it speaks of the holiness of Christ, and then of righteousness without saying of Christ, so it does not appear whether you mean righteousness simply, or the righteousness of Christ. The word says always simply that righteousness is imputed, or that faith is imputed for righteousness, not the righteousness of Christ. But I will answer the substance of the question, not its form. Christ's holiness is not imputed. The only passage that can appear to resemble this doctrine is 1 Corinthians 1:30, but imputation is not spoken of there. It is not possible to impute redemption. It is in Christ, and through Christ, that these are according to the will of God, how is not told us. "Of him are ye"; this is the new man, whence he comes. Then Christ is made of God unto us wisdom. We do not find these things elsewhere. We do not find the true character of our wisdom, of our righteousness, of our christian holiness, or of redemption elsewhere than in Christ, and in Christ alone. When I possess Christ, I possess in Him the wisdom of God. He Himself is the wisdom of God; I do not seek wisdom elsewhere, and the wisdom of God is not to be found elsewhere. He is my righteousness before God; I am accounted righteous according to the righteousness of God by faith in Christ. If I seek for the truth, the sum total, the divine character, of holiness, I find it only in Christ: this holiness is presented to me by God in Christ. In Christ only is redemption, final redemption to enter glory.

Note how simply the true wisdom is stated in Ephesians 5, as we see it in Proverbs, "Be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is." Simple obedience and, by singleness of eye, intelligence of what the Lord's will is, is in practice divine wisdom; as to the way of having it, compare Romans 12:1-2.

Look at the case of Solomon, He wrote, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov. 9:10). Wisdom without the fear of the Lord is not the wisdom that is “better than rubies.” Without the fear of the Lord the very A.B.C. of wisdom has not been learned. A man may be accounted wise in the learning of the schools, or in diplomacy, or in military strategy, but if he has not the fear of the Lord, he has no true wisdom. He is out of touch with what really matters. He has not adjusted himself to God. He is building on sand and not on the rock. His efforts end with fitful time, and enter not into eternity.

225 For the Christian, following Christ, being an imitator of God, is the grand point; but he also has to be "not as fools but as wise, understanding what the will of the Lord is." Christianity goes higher than Proverbs, for it deals with motives and gives divine ones; Proverbs experience, though of one judging according to the fear of God. Still such an experience is of great use. This wisdom, as we know, Solomon sought and obtained, and gives us his resulting experience in this book. We have several words used in connection with this: wisdom, a common Hebrew word, chokmah, meaning practised, experienced, skilful. The wise men of Babylon are so called and it is constantly used for wisdom which God gives in Daniel. We have again musahr, meaning instruction, warning, advice, used for chastisement too; Prov. 1:3; Job 5:17. We have also beenah, meaning discernment; Prov. 2:3. We have, as regards the simple one liable to be led by everybody, ormah, as in Prov. 1:4, prudence, used for cunning also, but cunning had by no means originally a bad sense, it meant knowing; as regards the young, knowledge. And mezimah, Prov. 2:11, discretion, being what we call up to things; and lastly, tachbuloth, Prov. 1:5, wise plans or counsels. The instruction is said to be in good conduct, righteousness, judgment, and uprightness. We have besides this, lekah, Prov. 1:5, the wise will increase or add doctrine, logos. But this is a matter of attainment: the wise will attain this, and counsels, and to interpret dark sayings and proverbs in which wisdom is shut up.

Such are the objects proposed in Proverbs, but not by man's cunning, but by beginning with the fear of the Lord and so growing up in discernment. It is always needed to be "not as fools but as wise." A true Christian may do something from want of discretion which may put him in difficulties all his life. No doubt there is carelessness in it; still he may be very sincere. But still Christianity seems to me to have a somewhat different character of wisdom - "simple concerning evil, wise concerning that which is good." The Christian follows obediently Christ; and this is the path of wisdom where he has the light of life. He is so governed by motives, Christ being all to him, that his path is simple, his whole body is full of light, having no part dark. This is somewhat a different kind of wisdom, though it makes us wise in conduct. There is wisdom, but more simplicity, because governed more by motives, and following Christ.