The Word for today:
Proverbs 14.22-15.23
mark this:
Wisdom abides in the mind of a man of understanding, but it is not known in the heart of fools. (Proverbs 14:33/RSV)
"Relativity."
We associate the term with Einstein, with physics. But the highest meaning of the word is that, ultimately, everything will be defined relative to God. For example, we saw a few days ago that Wisdom isn't a quality of mind, but a person, Jesus Christ, and that--
"Whoever finds me finds life, and obtains favor from the Lord;
But he who sins against me wrongs his own soul;
All those who hate me love death." (Proverbs 8:34-36)
Those who have a relationship with Jesus Christ are wise. In the end, that will be the only definition of wisdom that will survive. All other "wisdom" will be rendered laughable.
Q. All right, so if wisdom is Jesus, then what's foolishness?
A. Lack of same.
Q. Say what?
A. Biblical wisdom is a relationship with Jesus. Thus, biblical folly is having no relationship with Jesus.
Here's the Bible's definition of a fool:
The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." (Psalm 14:1)
In case the fool doesn't get it the first time, the Bible repeats the definition in Psalm 53:1--
The fool says in his heart, "There is no God."
Which means that our elite culture--Hollywood, Ivy League, government bureaucracy--is comprised, for the most part, of fools. As musician/poet Bob Dylan puts it, the Idiot Wind prevails across the land, "from the Grand Coulee Dam to the Capitol…"
***
Did you ever notice that the First Commandment--"You shall have no other gods before Me" (1)--condemns polytheism (the belief in more than one God) but not atheism. That's because when the First Commandment was written, there were no atheists. They were too close to the creation and the original revelation of God. The atheists began to appear during the time of King David (the author of Psalms 14 and 53, which are quoted above.)
It seems that until the time of King David, the Bible's authors found it hard to believe that anyone could be that ignorant.
These are blunt words, because the Bible is a blunt book. I don't mean to be blunt myself, but if you don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ, you're just smart enough to have fooled yourself.
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(1) Exodus 20:3
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