Lead Pastor
What God’s Wisdom Makes Us
As we conclude this series on wisdom and wealth, it is important to remember one thing about wisdom, and one thing about wealth.
First, the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. Second, wealth is defined as abundance, being well-supplied with more than we need. In the context of the world, most of us in the West and on Lookout Mountain are wealthy.
Simply put, folly makes the wealthy wicked, and wisdom makes the wealthy righteous. We desperately need God’s wisdom to shape us and change us. God’s wisdom is found in all of Scripture, but most emphatically in the Proverbs. As Bruce Waltke says, “Proverbs is not a how-to book but a how-to-become book. It deals with your character.” God’s wisdom leads us to become those who live according to his design.
First, biblical wisdom leads us to become those who give generously, refusing to accept a scarcity mentality.
Consider Proverbs 11:24 where it says, “One man gives freely, yet gains even more.”
Giving freely in this context is actually the agricultural word for scattering. In that world, seed was scattered broadly and generously rather than our present-day gardening customs where we carefully and prudently plant individual seeds. The agricultural image of widespread scattering points toward what God’s wisdom leads us to become: generous givers and free sowers. Indeed, we hope that something will happen when it hits the ground, but that’s really not our responsibility.
I love what C.S. Lewis wrote in “A Letter to an American Lady” regarding a way of scattering: “One thing that annoys me is when people say, ‘Why did you give that man money? He’ll probably go and drink it.’ My reply is, ‘If I had kept it, I would have drunk it.’” That’s a heart that’s been liberated to scatter freely.
So often, though, we hide behind cautiousness and prudence. What is the ROI – the return on my investment? Continuing on in Proverb 11:24, it says, “One man gives freely, yet gains even more. Another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.” Hold on tight and scatter carefully and cautiously with a scarcity mentality, and you’ll lack. Give freely, and you’ll gain.
Why is this the way of wisdom? It is because God delights when his image-bearers – humans – reflect who he is to others. And our God is a giver. God so loved the world that he GAVE! Wisdom, fixed on the truth about God, refuses to buy into a scarcity mentality that there will not be enough to give. God will supply because God delights in giving and in his image-bearers putting that on display.
Second, biblical wisdom enables us to attract others to God, rather than to distract or detract others from God.
It is written in Proverbs 11:26, “People curse the man who hoards grain, but blessing crowns him who is willing to sell. He who seeks good finds good will, but evil comes to him who searches for it.”
A generous person is attractive and received well by others. Again, as those made in the image of God, we are to show off what is true of God. When we hoard, we’re not merely being selfish, we are lying about who our God is. And that’s why blessing crowns the generous man, because people are attracted to a generous God.
Finally, biblical wisdom leads us to become people of vitality and refreshment in the midst of a desert world.
Proverbs 11:28 continues with the vision of how God’s wisdom fashions people when it says, “Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.” Also, Proverbs 11:25 states, “He who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.”
Consider that these Proverbs were written in a desert culture. Suddenly, in this Proverb, you read of the righteous being like a green leaf. When you find something green in the desert, it catches your attention because there is life and refreshment there.
Biblical wisdom leads us to become those who offer surprising vitality in the midst of a world that is thirsty for life. We become a green leaf in a desert patch. Ask those around you, am I a place of life or loss? You will then discover if wisdom is transforming you.
Ultimately, wisdom leads us to become more and more like the one who is the Wisdom of God in flesh, Jesus. Wisdom is more than propositions and platitudes. Wisdom is a person, Jesus Christ, described in 2 Corinthians 8:9 in this way: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”
Jesus is the epitome of righteousness, disadvantaging himself to the advantage of undeserving others like us. The rich one became poor so that others might become rich. Christ’s sacrificial, self-giving, extravagant love is glorious wisdom. The wisdom of God, Christ in us, will liberate the most hoarding, careful, self-consumed heart. If we are not growing in glad, generous, and sacrificial giving, we do not understand the wisdom of God, the Gospel, deeply and wholeheartedly.