“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Proverbs 1:7

I recently heard a great way to explain the difference between knowledge and wisdom. “Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is knowing not to put the tomato into the fruit salad.” – My friend J. (Now I know that some people do put cherry tomatoes in fruit salads, but I personally like a tomato sliced, put on two pieces of bread slathered with real mayonnaise with salt and pepper!)

The world will tell you that knowledge and wisdom begin by opening your mind to the “truth” of others, to be diverse. “Don’t be so narrow-minded”, or “Don’t be a hater”, are often the phrases used to silence critics of our post-modern society.  It’s easy to see how the knowledge and wisdom of this present world are not knowledge and wisdom at all.

Today’s culture, unfortunately, has permeated the minds of Christians to the point that many professing believers have turned aside from true wisdom that comes from God’s Word and have partially, and in some cases fully, accepted the idea that being diverse and open-minded are the pathways to true knowledge and wisdom which leads to true happiness and success.

Why is that? Because the alluring power of our “culture’s religion” is self. The “culture’s bible” emphasizes the love of self. The pleasing of self has always been the downfall of mankind.  How can I do as I please, to fulfill the lust of my flesh, and have others applaud and celebrate me? By applauding and celebrating others who do the same or worse. Paul wrote about a man, who once was an associate with Paul in his ministry, Demas. “For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.” (2 Timothy 4:10)

God’s Word, the standard of knowledge and wisdom, says otherwise: the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom. Simply put, this is an understanding of who God is and what man is not. Just to mention a few of His attributes, God is Holy, just, and all-knowing. Man is sinful and knows very little, yet man thinks he knows better than God.

The knowledge that mankind is utterly lost and is in desperate need of God’s redemptive grace is not what you’ll hear from politicians, the culture- TV, music, movies, etc. That truth message comes only through God’s Word- the Bible.

Gaining true knowledge and wisdom comes from opening the Bible, God’s Word, not from opening our minds to worldly thinking.
Proverbs imply that “fools” despise godly wisdom and instruction that come from God’s word, let us not be foolish, but seek after God and His wisdom through being involved in the study and application of His word.