Putting the I into WISDOM
The Christians who have most influenced me for good have had a fully functional familiarity with the book of Proverbs. They were (and are) able to take their considerable knowledge and apply it to their lives, providing both godly examples and godly advice. Join with me as each one of us endeavors to put the I into WISDOM. Let us seek to exemplify God’s wisdom in our daily lives. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
I would like to return to Proverbs 1:25 for an additional thought today. Sadly, we can “set at nought” God’s “counsel.” As we saw yesterday, this expression means to let go, to keep God’s words from making a difference. We find an example of this neglect in Revelation 2:18-20. The church at Thyatira had numerous positive traits, and Jesus openly commends these first-century believers. However, they were not actively opposing a false prophetess: “thou sufferest” means that they were just letting her go on. They were not doing anything wrong themselves, but their passivity was similar to the negative example condemned in Proverbs 1:25. We live in an increasingly hostile, openly antagonistic culture, one that would very much close our churches and ban the Bible if not for the Constitution (which, of course, is in peril). The temptation to withdraw into our close-knit church families and hope that our enemies will thus back off a bit is enticing, but it is not a Biblical option. Certainly we can not adopt the ways of the world and become vehemently vituperative and viciously violent. However, we can not just let things go. If God’s wisdom is removed from the public arena, our nation is doomed. The command of Jesus to the church at Thyatira is also His command to us: “That which ye have already hold fast till I come” (Revelation 2:25).