Posted on 03/31/2022 10:02:51 PM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress
“The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel; To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding; To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity; To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion” (Proverbs 1:1-4).
There are three words there that you need to see the difference between. They are going to pop up all through your Bible. The one is knowledge, one is wisdom, and one is understanding. You may think, well, there isn’t really a difference between them. Well, there is a difference—technically. Now, generally speaking, the words can overlap, in some cases. But, technically, there is a difference.
1. Knowledge is “awareness.” In other words, you “perceive without doubt.” You KNOW something. Paul said, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able . . .” You see, that is something you know beyond a shadow of any doubt—you are aware of it. You have no doubt about it . . . it’s awareness . . . you’re informed about it. You recognize it.
2. Wisdom involves taking what you are “aware” of and “acting upon it.” Its action based upon knowledge. Now, we got a whole lot of folks that ‘know something,’ but they don’t act upon it, so they just have knowledge. And knowledge by itself, “puffeth up.” But what edifies? “Charity!” Charity is action. With the right motive, charity gets the job done.
Wisdom is taking what you know. Now the problem with that is there is evil action and there is good action. We find them contrasted in James 3, where the wisdom of this world is “sensual, devilish.” There are men that learn things, even godly things, and use them to their own benefit, for their own business, for their own profit. Not for the profit of good, but for the profit of evil. That’s wisdom! You have to give some of these criminal’s credit—they are smart—and it is not just a matter of learning something but knowing how to use it. You take a con man, they are smart. He knows how to put it over on folks. So, he learns how to take what he knows, and use it for his own profit. That is not right.
Now there is good wisdom from above that is first of all “pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy, and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.” In other words, there is a wisdom where you know what is right and you do right. It is pure, and it produces the fruit of peace. “The work of righteousness shall be peace” (Is 32:17). So, wisdom is taking what you know and putting it to a good use.
3. Understanding deals with attitude. It is taking what you know and wisely using it in relation to God. Job says, “to depart from evil is understanding” (28:28). You see, there you have taken what you know, and you applied it, but you have applied it and you acted upon it, in relation to God. In other words, with a desire to please God, with a desire to listen to God and to avoid evil, you have used understanding.
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Those are distinctions worth noting.
Thanks for posting these threads.
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