Kevin Alan Wells

Alongside all the encouragement we both give and get about gaining wisdom, a warning needs to be added: Not all wisdom is good.

From the Apostle Paul:

To those who believe God’s message we teach wisdom, but it is not a wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are fading to nothing. Instead, we teach a wisdom of God hidden in a mystery, which God arranged for our glory before the ages began. (1 Cor 2.6-7)

While there is a wisdom that guides to the truth, there is also a sort that leads away from it. The distinction between the two wisdoms is clear as far back as the Garden of Eden:

The serpent said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘Don’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”

“No,” she replied, “We can eat any of the fruit from every tree in the garden. God only said, ‘Do not eat any of the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden—don’t even touch it, or you may die.’”

The snake shook its head and slithered closer to her ear. “Listen to me; you wouldn’t die. The reason God doesn’t want you to eat that fruit is because he knows it would open your eyes—that you’d be like him, knowing good and evil. He doesn’t want you to be that smart.”

The woman stepped back and saw the tree in a new way. From the snake’s words, she reasoned that the tree’s fruit was not only good for food and beautiful, but also able to make her wise. So she plucked a piece down and ate, and gave a piece to her husband who ate some too. (Gen 3.1-6)

At the dawn of history, the two wisdoms separated like this:

God’s wisdom: Do what I say is best.

The Serpent’s wisdom: Do what you think is best.

Today, this separation remains. So do the results; one still leads to life, the other still leads to death. Which wisdom are you following?

Photo by PAPYRARRI.