All the words of my mouth are righteous; there is nothing twisted or crooked in them. They are all straight to him who understands, and right to those who find knowledge. Take my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is better than jewels, and all that you may desire cannot compare with her. Proverbs 8:8-11
Proverbs 8 is wisdom personified calling out to everyone who will listen to her. She associates herself with the LORD at the beginning of creation (8:22-31). Since the LORD is the source of wisdom then true wisdom will always be faithful to the LORD. This is inescapable as one reads verse 13 – “The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.”
True wisdom will always be in harmony with the LORD. Wisdom will always fear the LORD and obey Him. Wisdom will never abandon the character, purity, and holiness of God. Wisdom always upholds righteousness and there is never anything deceitful or crooked with God’s wisdom.
In any other terms, God’s wisdom can be trusted. We do not have to text it to be sure. We do not have to wait to see how it works for others to see if it is something we want to jump in on. We can have absolute assurance that the LORD’s wisdom is reliable and faithful. It will never steer us away from Him and it will always teach us to honor Him.
Why is that important? We cannot even trust our own wisdom. We are told in the Scriptures that our heart cannot be trusted (Jeremaih 17:8-9). We cannot trust our own insights and understanding of how we should live (Proverbs 3:5-6). We are called to know the mind of Christ and walk in harmony with His Word and the leading of His Spirit (Gal. 5:16-18). This is why it’s…. Prudent (wise) to consume God’s Word. We ought to devour His word, memorize His word, meditate on His word, until it saturates the way we think about life.
The reason is that our judgement has been affected by the Fall. Sin clouds our judgement, and we make decisions based on what we want not necessarily what God wants for us. We have to keep checking our ideas and thoughts with the mind of Christ. Of course, in Christ we have been given a new identity, a new nature in Christ, and a new mentor in the Holy Spirit to resist and overcome the things of our Flesh so that we honor the LORD in our attitude and choices.
Someone once asked me, “If I do anything that I don’t really feel like I want to do, am I not being a hypocrite?” It was a really good question and before I had much of a chance to say anything, I believe the LORD gave me the answer.
My response was quite simple: “I guess it depends on who you want to be loyal to.” Our Flesh can create all kinds of impulses and feelings, strong and powerful compulsions for things, but those desires are often not godly desires. If you want to be faithful to how you feel at that moment and indulge in those fleshly feelings, then you will be faithful to the Flesh, but unfaithful to the LORD. If you choose to go against “what I feel like doing” in any given moment, because you recognize this is not what the LORD wants, and you choose to be faithful to Him, then you will be doing what you value rather than what you “feel like doing” in any given situation.
Being a hypocrite always depends on whom you are seeking to be faithful. We may do many things in being faithful to the LORD that we don’t immediately feel like doing, but that is what it means to live by faith and not by our feelings.
Pastor Brad
