What does the Bible say about Wisdom?
Part One: What does Proverbs have to do with me?
This is not a defense of the Bible.
I believe in it, and I know many people don’t.
Nor is this an exhaustive list of why I do go to the Bible for wisdom and guidance. That post may never come, at least not on Medium.
This is my attempt to figure out if the Bible, specifically Proverbs, has applicable advice and wisdom for the 21st century.
What is Wisdom?
Hold on a second, let’s define wisdom first.
It would be counterproductive to talk about wisdom before defining it!
Wisdom or sapience is the ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense, and insight, especially in a mature or utilitarian manner. There appears to be consensus that wisdom is associated with attributes such as compassion, experiential self-knowledge, non-attachment and virtues such as ethics and benevolence.
Source: Wikipedia
I would further simplify wisdom as follows:
Wisdom is striving for a good life in a way that is informed by past mistakes and experiences. It does its best to help, and not harm others.
Is there a “Wisdom Ceiling”?
Give instruction to a wise man**, and he will be still wiser;
teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.
Proverbs 9:9, ESV
(**Quick aside: This obviously is not meant just for men. This is for mankind, everyone is capable of seeking wisdom.)
Can someone become too wise? Is there a ceiling as to how high our wisdom can go? Or how high it should go?
Based on the definition from Wikipedia, and my simplification of it, I would say it’s impossible to be too wise.
There is no end to wisdom. I will never one day sit down and be able to (truthfully) say “wow, I’ve made it. There is nothing left for me to learn, there is no way to better my way of living.”
I would be fooling myself to believe that I had nothing left to learn.
The Socratic Paradox, the famous phrase “ I know one thing; that I know nothing,” is the perfect starting place for you and me. There is humility in wisdom. The more we learn, the more we realize that we have so much more to learn.
Where were you two years ago?
I was listening to a podcast, and the guest said something along the lines of “If I look back two years and don’t think that I was a dummy, then I haven’t learned anything in the past two years.”
(I can’t for the life of me remember which podcast it was. I think it was The James Altucher Show, but I haven’t been able to find it.)
That quote is by no means verbatim, but the idea it presents is both fascinating and (possibly) disheartening.
If I were to look back two years, would I be able to say that I am wiser today? Would I be able to identify foolish things that I had done in the past? Or would I say “yeah… It’s been an uneventful two years”?
Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser;
Here are two questions that we can ask ourselves as we look back:
- Have I received instruction?
Have I listened when someone gave me advice, or when someone called me out on one of my (many) mistakes? How did I respond when George from accounting called me out on my laziness? What did I say when Ms. Jenkins told me that I had messed up? What did I do with Mom‘s advice which she so lovingly gave me? - Have I sought out instruction?
For nineteen of the past twenty-four months, the answer would probably be no. I had stagnated in my comfort, not really going beyond the bare minimum, not really seeking out experiences or knowledge. I had signed up for some courses, but I didn’t do much. I had started some books, but rarely did I finish them.
How do we become Wise?
According to Proverbs 9:9, if instruction makes a wise man wiser yet, then we should seek out instructors.
We should seek out teachers and mentors, people who are willing to encourage us and teach us. We should surround ourselves with role models of the type of people we want to be.
For 99.9% of people reading this, that doesn’t mean becoming best friends with your favorite writer on Medium, nor does it mean sipping lattes at Starbucks with Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos.
It means:
- Reading books.
- Listening to podcasts.
- Recognizing that there are people close to you that have much to teach you.
- Being willing to do the work, to take the time to learn, and to seek out instruction from others.
It isn’t necessarily EASY to become wise, or at the very least less foolish, but it is a worthy endeavor.
And who knows? Even the Bible might have something to teach us!
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