King of Hearts
How to Discern and Live the Virtuous Life of Holy Wisdom
You hear about wisdom often. Yet, our world has abandoned wisdom as properly defined.
People treat wisdom the same as knowledge. But they arenโt identical.
Knowledge is information. Discernment is the ability to make proper decisions based on recognized truth. When knowledge and discernment combine, they produce the virtuous life of wisdom.
And that life is unattainable without appreciation of its ancient and holy roots.
Where Wisdom Comes From
The Greek term for wisdom is โsophia.โ It forms the suffix of the word โphilosophia,โ which means โlove of wisdom.โ Greek culture wasnโt the only one to explore broad questions about life, the world, and the divine, but because of names like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, they have become the most famous.
In their time, wisdom wasnโt simply having facts at your disposal. The true thinker was expected to test himself, to examine his own life, and to reshape how he lived in light of any truth he discovered.
It wasnโt enough to grasp knowledge.
You had to put that knowledge into practice.
Ancient thinkers, therefore, considered philosophy a "way of life." The knowledge a thinker attained formed an ethos (ethics), a moral habit of life. The highest ethos was to imitate what was eternal and divine, because only a standard beyond humanity could serve as a reliable anchor for virtue.
The Wise Young Ruler
King Solomon, who reigned in Israel centuries before many of the Greek philosophers, expressed the same sentiments. He interacted with countless societies of his day, including the proto-cultures that would shape the Greek world.
His writings draw upon an already-established body of Hebrew wisdom, which reflected deeply on the knowledge of God given in the Torah.
He wrote his most famous collection, Proverbs, to instruct his sons. In it, Solomon describes wisdom as a woman (akin to the Greek Sophia), inviting those who love God to walk with her. Wisdom in Proverbs is beautiful, desirable, and life-giving. Sheโs rooted in the fear of the Lord, reverence for the eternal Creator.
The one with said reverence delights in His ways and commits to become a reflection of His light. To embrace wisdom is to take on the very image of God Himself, the truest form of beauty and character.
Choose Your Master
Weโre often tempted to dismiss the ancients as outdated has-beens. โProgress!โ shout the humanists. But we canโt escape the ancient reminder of this simple truth: What you worship will master you.
If you give your devotion to idols, you will become enslaved to them. If you worship yourself, you will become trapped in your own weakness. Every toil and effort will collapse into nothing unless directed toward eternity and centered on God. Only from above do real purpose and immortality come.
The fool believes he is safe on his own. But Jesus warned otherwise:
Matthew 10:26โ28: โSo have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.โ
Your fear shapes your path. Who or what you fear will determine how you live and where you end up. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be contained. Bound in misery or freed for good works by the One who redeems.
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King of Hearts
Every human being has some knowledge of the truth. Paul wrote in Romans 1 that from the dawn of time God has revealed his moral law to every heart. He gave us the capacity to recognize his order, to receive it, and to build our lives around it.
Our depravity arises when we deny that order, treating it as fiction, and then go our own way. When we do this, we become enslaved to the world and its corruption.
The way of wisdom has always been the same.
To love God.
To love your neighbor as yourself.
To live in obedience to his commands.
These three are plain enough for anyone to understand and share. Yet none of us has ever kept them perfectly. Humanity has always failed to live up to their calling.
Thatโs why God himself came. Jesus lived out wisdom in human flesh.
He loved God fully.
He loved his neighbor perfectly.
He obeyed every command without fault.
And he did so not only as an example but also as Savior. On the cross he bore the curse of death we earned, and in rising again he opened the path to everlasting life.
True wisdom isnโt an idea. True wisdom is a person.
The Bond of Faith and Works
Discernment shines most clearly in him. Jesus didnโt just know the Scriptures; he applied them everywhere.
When Satan tempted him in the wilderness, Jesus defined their true meaning and wielded them as weapons. When the Pharisees tried to trap him with clever arguments, he dismantled their trickery with the same tactics.
Discernment always married action.
The early church carries his mission forward.
Paul urged believers to โtest everything and hold fast what is good.โ
John wrote Christians must โtest the spiritsโ to know whether they come from God.
James warned knowledge without works is dead.
Again and again the message is clear: wisdom isnโt only what you know, but what you do with what you know. To be wise is to discern rightly, and to discern rightly is to walk in obedience.
Come Alive Again
The world overflows with information. Knowledge is everywhere, but wisdom is scarce because discernment is neglected.
Without discernment, knowledge becomes arrogance. With discernment, knowledge becomes service and devotion.
The true path of wisdom, revealed in Christ and lived out by his disciples, is to know Godโs truth, identify what is right, and live it out. An impenetrable philosophy.
Thatโs why Jesus said the wise man is the one who builds his house on the rock. Wisdom isnโt passive. Itโs alive, active, and rooted in the eternal Creator.
True wisdom lives.
True wisdom saves.
True wisdom reigns at the right hand of Almighty God.
And his name is Christ Jesus, King of kings and Lord of lords.
Wisdom comes from taking knowledge and acting on it. You canโt be wise without experiencing life. Discernment comes from God, and I can hardly imagine a โwiseโ atheist.