True Wisdom

The scriptures referred to are Proverbs 9:1-6 and John 6:51-58.

You've probably heard of Occam's Razor, the problem-solving rule of the thumb that the correct explanation for some phenomena is usually the simplest. For instance, if two planes crash into twin towers which then catch fire and collapse, you could posit that a massive government conspiracy rigged the place with dynamite in order to trigger a war, or you could simply accept that terrorists known to have been on the planes did it and that the towers were never designed to withstand the heat generated by hundreds of thousands of liters of burning jet fuel. If our space craft show a globular earth, you can say that it's just an illusion and the earth is really flat and that a wall of ice ringing Antarctica keeps the oceans from pouring off the edge or you can accept what mathematicians figured out centuries ago, namely that the earth is round. Most worldwide conspiracy theories fall apart because you have to keep multiplying assumptions and conditions for them to work. And if you are a character in a fictional universe, you should definitely suspect that a global conspiracy of evil people or aliens or wizards or vampires, etc. are behind your troubles. If you live in the real world, however, you should look for other explanations before believing anything that elaborate and all-encompassing. Yes, there have been conspiracies within industries like those involving tobacco and sugar companies and Enron. And there have even been attempted ones in the government, like redlining or the Tuskegee syphilis experiment but they almost always get exposed because of another rule of thumb, laid down by Ben Franklin: 3 people may keep a secret if 2 of them are dead. The truth will out.

There is another principle in explaining bad happenstances and that is Hanlon's Razor. Robert Hanlon was a computer programmer who supposed said, “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” And we see this all the time. We live in an increasingly complex world where even a small mistake can have enormous consequences. In 1999 NASA destroyed a $125 million orbiter over Mars. Was it the evil plan of a mad scientist? No, it was due to an error in converting English and metric units. (See! That's why it's important to pay attention is math class!) Did Microsoft intend to create a racist, foul-mouthed AI? No, it just didn't take into account the trolls on Twitter when it put online a program that learns through interactions with humans.

The Bible recognizes that there are 3 causes of people doing bad things. One is being deliberately evil. If you know that what you are doing is going to harm other people or your relationship with God and you do it anyway, that is evil. The Columbine shooters made a video before attacking their classmates at school. And in it they said they knew they couldn't kill all the kids. But that was okay with them because they said they knew they would psychologically damage the survivors. That's evil.

But sometimes a person can do something wrong out of actual ignorance. A child can overdose on gummy vitamins because, hey, Mommy gives them to her everyday and tells her they are good for her. Plus they taste good. The child has no idea that fat-soluble vitamins like A,D, E and K can build up in your body and in high enough doses can make you sick and even cause liver damage. That's why for the first several years of a kid's life she is constantly being told “No” and “Don't touch that!” She literally doesn't know what is harmful. But she can be educated.

The quandary is when people do the wrong thing and they ought to know better. Such as the people who appear on the Darwin Awards website. There was a shark expert with a PhD who decided to test his theory that sharks won't attack a person who controls his breathing, body language and heartbeat. He went into shark-infested waters as his assistants lobbed in fish chunks. If you see where this is going you are wiser than the shark expert. Let's just say his theory doesn't have a leg to stand on and it's only due to medical doctors that the so-called shark expert still does. Not funny are incidents such as the company here in Florida that was installing a pedestrian bridge over a busy road that they did not block off. After it collapsed it was revealed that they had noticed small cracks before but thought they were unimportant. I don't think they meant to kill anyone but their actions betray an appalling lapse of judgment.

Contrary to popular belief, the Bible encourages critical thinking. Proverbs says, “The simple person believes anything but the prudent one considers his steps.” (Proverbs 14:15) It also says, “It is dangerous to have zeal without knowledge, and the one who acts hastily makes poor choices.” (Proverbs 19:2, NET) Paul said, “Test everything. Hold onto the good.” (1 Thessalonians 5:21) Indeed the sciences arose in those parts of the world where people believed in a rational God who created the universe and us. The corollary is that we who are created in the image of God should therefore be able to understand, to some extent at least, the mind of God. It was the church that preserved the wisdom of the ancient Greeks in monastery libraries during the Dark Ages when illiterate barbarians ruled, and it was the church which set up universities. Many of the early scientists of the Renaissance and Enlightenment were clergy. Fundamentalism is a late reaction to rapid societal change. Those who truly trust God accept him as the author of all truth, though different parts of it are best accessed through different methods. Scripture isn't a textbook on chemistry or astronomy or biology and all the scientific equipment in the world won't tell you why it is wrong to commit murder.

So what are some elements of wisdom, according to the Bible? For one thing, wisdom is not the same as philosophy. It is not abstract or speculative. It is practical. The first chapter of the book of Proverbs gives its purpose. It is “for learning what wisdom and discipline are; for understanding insightful sayings; for acquiring a disciplined and prudent life, doing what is right and just and fair; for teaching shrewdness to the morally naive, knowledge and discernment to the young person...” (Proverbs 1:2-4) Wisdom is about how to live a good life in both senses of the word “good,” that is, a life that is moral as well as one that is pleasant. The two often go together. If you are moral, you are less likely to get into trouble. Honesty, kindness and fairness tend to pay off.

Notice the importance of discipline. Being able to make yourself do tasks that you'd rather not and refrain from unwise behavior when you'd rather indulge yourself are vital to maturity. None of us totally master these things, especially the latter, yet the wise aspire to get better at self-control. Only the fool always does whatever he wants to whenever he wants to and never does anything he doesn't want to when he ought to.

Insight is a key element in wisdom. Anyone can observe what is on the surface. The wise seek a deeper understanding of life and people. Why does a certain person behave as he or she does? Are they motivated primarily by their needs or their desires or their fears? What do they value most highly? Is it money or power or sex or the approval of other people or the approval of God? Does the person respect rules or ignore them? Is he selfish or generous, uncaring or compassionate? What matters in life? Why are we here? How are we supposed to live?

At the heart of wisdom is what the Bible calls “the fear of the Lord.” This doesn't mean we should run from him in terror but rather that even while we love God, we should have a healthy respect for him. It's much the same as the way a sailor loves the sea and yet has a healthy respect for it. He knows that the sea is vast and complex and has its own rules. It is much more powerful than he is. It will not change itself to suit him; he must adapt himself to the sea and its ways. Just so, we must adapt ourselves to God and his ways. He created and runs the universe, which is vast and complex and has its own rules. While God loves us, we cannot expect him to break every rule to suit our whims, like the genie in a fairy tale. All actions have consequences and God is not going to revoke physics so that the damage the fist or the bullet or the car does turns out to never have happened. He is not going to make the harmful words we have uttered be unheard. He is not going to make us unthink the awful thoughts we have entertained. He will forgive and heal us but, as Jesus' wounds from the cross remained after his resurrection, the scars of what was done don't totally disappear. Wisdom is learning to avoid harm and the doing of it. We can learn this from our own mistakes or better yet, from those of others, or best of all, by listening to the wise precepts of the Bible.

Besides maintaining a proper relationship with God, Biblical wisdom concerns two other spheres of life. One is our relationship with others. And so we are encouraged to be honest in our business dealings, to treat workers fairly, to not exploit the poor, to not manipulate the courts to perpetuate injustice, and to respect legitimate authority. When it comes to more intimate relationships, parents are not to neglect their children, especially when it comes to learning and discipline, and children are to listen to and obey their parents. Married couples are to remain faithful to each other. Friendships are to be treasured. Basically we are to treat each other fairly and with respect. And we are to show compassion and be generous to the less fortunate.

The other sphere of life that Biblical wisdom focuses on is oneself. We are to be truthful, trustworthy, humble, forgiving, patient and diligent. We must learn to control our anger and to refrain from quarreling and violence. We are to avoid gossiping and slandering others. We are to keep ourselves from drunkenness, gluttony, envy and greed. We are not to be arrogant.

C.S. Lewis used the analogy of an orchestra to illustrate the 3 areas of ethical behavior. To make music, we must first maintain our own instrument, making sure it is in good shape and properly tuned. And we need to know the music and practice so as to play it well. Secondly, we must be in harmony with the other musicians and keep the rhythm. If the flutes are coming in too soon or the violins are flat, it can ruin the performance. And thirdly, we must follow the conductor and play the same musical composition he is conducting. We must be on the same page as he is. And we need to watch when to come in and when to stop, when to get loud and when to be quiet.

In the same way, as Christians we must look to our own personal integrity, strive to work together with others and follow Jesus. Morality can break down at any or all of these points. If you do not keep yourself in good shape morally and spiritually, neither you nor anyone else will be able to stand you for very long. We see how families and friendships are broken when an individual cannot control himself or herself. I once had a homeless man in his late 50s come to the church and ask me to call his 80 year old mother. When she found out on whose behalf I was calling, she said she didn't want to talk to him and hung up. I don't know what you have to do to so alienate your mother that she won't try to reconcile with you in the final years of her life, but the man admitted it was his fault. I did what I could to comfort him but I could not undo the damage done over the decades.

We also see how groups come apart because they cannot maintain harmony. Movements split because people cannot come together and work out their differences. Instead of acting like a team, they act like rivals or even enemies. Rock groups often do this. The members pursue solo careers, not merely because they want to stretch their creative muscles in new ways, but sometimes because they can no longer make music together. Churches sometimes fracture because schisms develop and rarely is the result a healthier remnant. Unity requires listening and forgiving and compromising at times and even making sacrifices. It helps if we are committed to the same cause.

But it has to be the right cause. Even if people get themselves together and are united in their efforts, it is not moral if their mission is evil. Hitler united Germany under the Nazi ideology but that wasn't a good thing. The Germans who would not go along with him included the Confessing Church. Led by people like Dietrich Bonhoffer, this group of churches, like the prophets of old, proclaimed that the nation was not listening to God and had gone astray. You can not reconcile a philosophy of hate like Nazism and a religion of love like Christianity.

One last quality of wisdom is that it is an argument against determinism. Wisdom is about making the right choices in life and you can't do that unless you have free will. And indeed our passage from Proverbs has Lady Wisdom say, “You that are simple, turn in here!” To those without sense she says, '“Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”' The invitation is not reserved to the wise. Those who are simple, those who have no sense, and those who are immature are able to learn and become wise. No one is condemned to remain a fool. Nor is mere knowledge the same as wisdom. There are highly educated people who have no common sense. Having a PhD doesn't mean you can't be a fool. Lacking such a degree doesn't mean a person isn't wise.

One last observation. Paul calls Jesus God's wisdom. (1 Corinthians 1:24) And in Proverbs 8 wisdom is depicted as a separate person who helps God create the world. And though wisdom is portrayed as female in Proverbs it still helped the disciples understand how Jesus could be divine. They saw him as the living wisdom of God. 

And just as wisdom is seen inviting us to eat her bread and drink her wine and live, we see Jesus in today's passage from John inviting us to eat his flesh and drink his blood to have eternal life. This is a deeper wisdom. It goes beyond the street smarts and common sense that characterize most wisdom. It comes from knowing that God is vast and complex and that we don't know everything about him. We must go below the surface and let God show us deeper truths about our spiritual life. Jesus is revealing something new, namely that he is not optional. He is as essential to us as food and drink. Because our life doesn't end with the death of this body. Our focus needs to shift from merely having a good earthly life to becoming a person who is equipped to live forever in God's love. And that shift in perspective means we need to see that some things that don't make sense in an earthly context do make sense from an eternal viewpoint.

Such as the idea that God would love us so much that he would become one of us. And that he would not become rich and powerful and conquer the world as others have tried but that he would let himself be killed. And that he would violate the rule that life ends at the grave and upend the wisdom of this world and show it to be foolishness in the light of divine love.

And that reminds us of something we often forget. God can be surprising. As Francis Schaeffer pointed out, what we know about God from the Bible is true but it is not exhaustive. As John's gospel says, one book cannot contain all that Jesus did nor can all the books in the world encompass all that God can do. God does new things. Just as Jesus' mission was foreshadowed in the Old Testament, what God has planned may astound us but it is ultimately in line with what we already know of him: that he is just; that he is merciful; that he is love. And that is the ultimate wisdom: recognizing the wisdom of love.