In the world there exists no lack of truth. Libraries are stacked with truths, the internet is exploding with facts, experts are just full of it. If we want truth, we can look anywhere and find it. The world focuses on the differences between what is true and what is untrue. This is significant, for if we believe a lie, then we have nothing true within us. However, it is equally possible for us to focus on the wrong truth. For some truth does not set us free, but bind us and blind us to what is significant.
The church has often been mislead by what is untrue. We have often listened to rumor or the speculations of a charismatic figure rather than examining what we have received in order to determine it’s accuracy. The Bereans were considered high minded because they didn’t just accept what they heard—as true as it was—but examined it according to a standard of truth. They analyzed and so were able to decide what was true, not just accepting it blindly.
But rarely does Scripture command us to determine what is true. Because there are so many truths to choose from. The Scripture never denied that there were spiritual powers beside God. The Scripture never said that all the pagans had to say was false—instead, they used the literature of the pagans to convict of the truth that was obvious to all. But what the Scripture emphasizes is the differences between truth and wisdom.
Truth is simply what is. It is fact. But we cannot live by facts alone. It is a fact that the sky, when clear, is blue, but that does not tell us why we are on this earth. It is a fact that light travels at the speed of … miles per second, but this fact does not tell us how we should live. It is a fact that there are (a hundred) kinds of penguins, but this fact does not tell us how to live in integrity and love.
Truth is the fact. Wisdom is the significance. Wisdom not just applies truth to reality, but it brings balance to all things. It tells us which truths to focus on and which truths are less important. Wisdom recognizes what is real and how to communicate reality for the benefit of all. Wisdom does not see fact as a hard-edged, black and white proposition. Wisdom sees truth as being the moldable tool of love and community.
Truth is relatively easy to discover. In many questionable areas we can find the reality, if we would but look. Truth is only difficult because so many people determine to remain ignorant, to leave it unsought. But wisdom, no matter how often or with what effort one seeks it, is always difficult. No matter how many confirmed facts we learn, we do not from that know the fact of what is important for us to know. We can comprehend and communicate millions of true sentences, yet none of them true for us, true for our family, true for our community, true for our world.
Knowledge is not life.
Facts are not action.
Truth is not love.
Propositions are not wisdom.
To focus on this fact can be despairing, which is also in opposition to wisdom. We must not dwell too deeply on the fact that fact is outside of practical reality. Where can we obtain wisdom, love, community, hope and significance? With wisdom God created the world. With wisdom, God saved the world. With wisdom, God decided to give His Son with love. Where is wisdom? It comes from God, and God alone.
Many have looked at God and have reduced Him down to facts. This accumulation of facts—both historic and philosophical—is called theology. Yet God cannot be found in the beauty of theology. God can truly be found in the wisdom of God.
Jesus is the wisdom of God. Jesus, who sat with the sinners and explained the Law as love. Jesus argued against the true facts of the Pharisees to show how insignificant they were compared to the act, speech and love of God. Jesus argued against the priests who put God into the box of the temple, and so tore the veil in two which blocked people’s vision of God. The fact that Jesus was the being of God isn’t what we should look at. Rather, Jesus was the revelation of the wisdom of God. In Jesus the truth of what is important is found.
Because Jesus is the revelation of the Father. The Father wanted us to understand wisdom, so he gave us not a rule book, nor a theology text but a living person. As Jesus is passed to us, it is not in a mathematical formula nor logical propositions, but written lives. Only life can display a wise life.
And Jesus knew that he would not be sufficient wisdom for all the generations to come. A single life, even expressed four-fold, is not enough to give the wisdom for all. So God planted the wisdom in our hearts. The Spirit gives us the teachings of the Father, day by day, hour by hour. These teachings are not the facts of truth, but the wisdom of life. Significance, not proposition.
The Spirit is revelation. The Spirit tells us that which human logic could never convince us of. The Spirit leads us to holiness, to love, to mercy, to humility, to community, to the power of God, which cannot be seen by eyes or measured by instruments.
For wisdom is the direct gift of God. All we need to have it is to open ourselves to receive. All the best of life is ours to grasp, if we would but seek Him. If we would listen to Him, we might have to set aside the facts that we have grasped onto in order to truly have Him. We must surrender our knowledge to Him, so that we can live in love. We must burn the insignificant as a sacrifice, so that God will grant us peace with others. We rest the burdens of our lives upon his arms, so that His wisdom might guide. Give us your wisdom, O Lord, display before us the love you wish us to live.
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