Faith & Insight: In Christ is found all wisdom

When I married my wife, I had no idea how to be a husband. I needed the wisdom of God. When I became a father, I had no idea how to be a father. I needed the wisdom of God. When my kids began to grow up and became pre-teens and teenagers, I needed the wisdom of God. When they got married, I needed the wisdom of God. When I became a grandfather, I needed the wisdom of God.

Every day I need the wisdom of God. Man’s wisdom is foolishness and the foolishness of God’s wisdom is wiser than man’s. The word philosophy simply means “man’s wisdom.” In the Greek language, the word philosophy means the love of wisdom. During Solomon’s time there were several systems of philosophy. In our country we have basically two political systems that think they have wisdom to lead our country. This past week, 70,000 people went to Burning Man to seek the wisdom of man to answer life’s questions. They spent hundreds of dollars to indulge in personal pleasure. In the New Testament, during the time of Christ, there were many philosophies — Paul stood in Corinth and said, “I see you have a statue to the unknown god.” The idea of Burning Man isn’t new.

When God called Solomon to be king, God told him to ask him for anything. Solomon asked God for wisdom to lead God’s people. 1 Kings 4:30 tells us God gave Solomon wisdom that surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. Godly wisdom is the skill or the art of Godly living. You get this wisdom when you find God’s Son. The wisdom of God is found in knowing Christ. It’s found in walking with Christ. It’s found in being reconciled to Christ. It’s found in learning to love Christ. It’s found in enjoying a relationship with Christ. Paul writes in Colossians 2:3, “In Christ is all the wisdom and knowledge of God.” He wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:24, “Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.” If you want God’s wisdom, you have to know Christ ­— you have to come to Christ.

Pastor John MacArthur writes about the wisdom of God — “When we talk about the wisdom of God, we realize that man has really developed some amazing things scientifically and technologically that have been to our benefit. When we say we reject human wisdom, it doesn’t mean that we reject any application of human wisdom to anything at all. It means, we object to human philosophy. That is the part of man’s reasoning which attempts to answer the ultimate questions of life.”

Solomon says man’s wisdom can’t answer those ultimate questions of life, they can only be answered by the wisdom of God found in Jesus Christ.

Ben Fleming is the pastor of Silver Hills Community Church.