“The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom,
and whatever you get, get insight.”
Proverbs 4:7

One of the most challenging aspects of being wise is knowing that you’re not wise enough. The circularity of that statement is intentional. Some of the wisest people I know are the people who don’t estimate themselves as being particularly wise. They certainly don’t market themselves as wise. They see wisdom not as a destination where they can arrive, but instead a skill which they are continually developing.

As a dad of five children, I think differently about wisdom than I did before I had kids. And as my older boys have entered their teenage years, I’m sensing more and more the the burden that Solomon felt for his sons as he addressed them again and again in the Proverbs (cf. Prov. 1:8; 2:1; 3:1; 4:1; 5:1; 6:1, 20; 7:1, 24; 8:32; etc.). I want them to recognize their need for wisdom. And the only way they’re going to do that is if they come to recognize how deficient they are in it.

That’s not an easy thing to do.

When we talk about biblical wisdom, we need to differentiate it from the esoteric, philosophical wisdom that we associate with Greek thinking. This is the wisdom Paul addressed when he spoke of the “wisdom of the world” in 1 Corinthians 1:20. He had encountered this kind of wisdom at various points throughout his missionary journeys, most notably the Athenian crowd’s thirst for hearing “new” things at the Areopagus (Acts 17:21ff).

But the wisdom of the Bible is markedly different. It’s not concerned with theory and philosophy, though it’s built upon a foundation of theology and biblical knowledge (cf. Deut. 4:5–8). It’s focus is on daily life. Wisdom is the skill by which a believer can recognize how principles of righteousness outlined in Scripture are translated into everyday life. It deals with the increasing ability to discern good and evil, conduct oneself in a God-pleasing way in the varied complexities of life, and protect oneself from the pitfalls, traps, and seductions of worldiness and worldy people (cf. Prov. 2:9–11).

The key word with wisdom is this: skill. Wisdom is a skill, not a talent. And just like any skill, you’re not born with it. We start out as unskilled, and only with diligent practice and intentionality do we grow and develop. And the hardest step in the process is recognizing that we need it, and that we don’t have enough of it.

The problem is, we tend to vastly overestimate our innate ability to deal with the various circumstances that life throws at us. Whether it’s a crisis, a temptation, a marriage issue, a parenting dynamic, or any number of other common-to-life scenarios, it’s easy to be overconfident. Sometimes this overconfidence comes from pride. We might have a lot of knowledge and we think that the accumulation of knowledge—even theological knowledge—is equivalent to wisdom. In other cases, our self-confidence might come from a reliance on a set of unbiblical principles of wisdom. What we have might be called “wisdom” by many, but it’s a wisdom sourced not from God and from His revealed Word, but from the world. It’s how the world thinks life should work (cf. Jas. 3:13–18).

That’s because the wisdom of the world might be based on experience (which is why many people, particularly older people who’ve seen a lot and experienced a lot, are deemed wise; wisdom and experience often walk side-by-side), but it’s not grounded in a biblical framework for understanding why the world works the way it does. You can understand how people tend to think and act, but unless you’re informed by divine revelation as to the spiritual component of humanity, you can’t really get at the heart of the why. This is why worldly wisdom is often pragmatic and driven by what “works.”

The result of this overconfidence is a kind of pride that the Bible condemns as being “wise in your own eyes” (Prov. 3:7). This is where you don’t want to be. It’s another circularity opposite of the one at the start of this post, and it really is a death trap. Proverbs 26:12 asserts that this kind of person is essentially hopeless, because they have entered into a kind of foolish circularity in which their intellectual “wisdom” is self-affirming. Such a person is not likely to hear anything that contradicts their self-perceptions. Pride hardens people and leads to recalcitrance. The lazy person is said to have this problem (Prov. 26:16), as well as the rich person (Prov. 28:11). The prophet Isaiah pronounced a judgment against all those in Judah who demonstrated this kind of arrogance (Isa. 5:21). In Romans, the apostle Paul used this phrase to warned his readers not to be prideful, especially as they assessed their own faith in light of Israel’s rejection of Messiah and so come to the wrong conclusions (Rom. 11:25). Instead, he exhorted his readers that part of being living sacrifices to God involves having a low estimation of oneself rather than being “wise in your own mind,” because that has a profound affect on how you treat other people (Rom. 12:16).

What’s the antidote to this kind of foolish pride? Well, it was stated just two verses prior to its initial use in Proverbs. Instead of being “wise in your own eyes” (Prov. 3:7), we are to “trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding” (Prov. 3:5). Now we’re getting to the heart of biblical wisdom and earthly wisdom. To be wise in one’s own eyes is to lean of one’s own understanding, knowledge, insight, and wisdom. It’s a wisdom that is not “from above” (Jas. 3:17), but is “earthly, unspiritual, demonic” (Jas. 3:15). To be truly wise, you need to gain true understanding, true insight, true wisdom, and that only comes as you recognize that wisdom does not come from self, nor from people, nor purely from experience. Instead, “The LORD gives wisdom” (Prov. 2:6), which is why we are admonished to ask for it when we need it (Jas. 1:5). That’s why as you “trust in the LORD with all your heart,” that act of faith steers you away from relying on self and helps you recognize that the wisdom you need only God can provide.

And so we come back to the start of this post: one of the most challenging aspects of being wise is knowing that you’re not wise enough; wherever you’re at in your spiritual journey in Christ, you’re not at a place where you have graduated to no longer needing to grow in wisdom. Just think about how Paul prayed for the Ephesian believers. He continually asked God to give them “a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of [Christ]” (Eph. 1:17). He did the same for the Colossians, praying that God would fill them “with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding” (Col. 1:9).

Paul wasn’t praying for esoteric knowledge or purely theological acumen. He wanted the Christians in both these churches to have the wisdom necessary to “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him; bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Col. 1:10). In other words, Paul wanted to see Christian doctrine evident in how they lived their lives. Wisdom, he knew, translated into godly living in the everyday moments of life.

But while Paul can pray for the believers to grow in wisdom, God makes it clear that each individual must seek that wisdom personally. It’s not gained through osmosis or the well-wishes of others. We must personally desire it, find it, pursue it, and ask for it. “If you are wise, you are wise for yourself; if you scoff, you alone will bear it” (Prov. 9:12).

The next time you face a challenging scenario. The next time you have to have a hard conversation. The next time you have to wake up in the morning with breath in your lungs, ask the Lord to give you the wisdom you need to please him in your life. That simple act of dependent trust will never be met rejected.

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” —James 1:5

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knows it will be opened.” —Matthew 7:7–8