In popular culture, a "wise man" is often a secluded figure, living by himself somewhere on a mountain peak or in a cave, wearing a robe and with a long, white beard. His wisdom has come from many years of solitude, reflection and meditation. People go to this wise man to receive help in the form of instruction or advice. The advice is usually shorty and pithy and sometimes more like a riddle to be discerned and applied. The foolish person, in this narrative, is the one who hears the wisdom but does nothing with it.
Jesus, on the other hand, teaches a wisdom that is both attainable and very practical. In his "sermon on the mount," Jesus makes wisdom, and foolishness, something that anyone can attain. The basis is simple: if you hear his words and put them into practice, you are wise. Conversely, if you hear his words and do not put them into practice, you are foolish.
With that simple saying, we realize that wisdom is within our grasp. Jesus has made plain what his words are; in fact, this saying comes at the end of three chapters of teaching (Matthew 5-7). We need do little else than go back to the beginning of his teaching, read his words, and seek out how we can apply them. If we do this, he says, we are wise.
The danger lies in being comfortable with hearing only. Despite the many warnings in scripture about doing what we hear, our tendency is to think that once we know what to do, we have done enough. Jesus rejects this; instead, he says we must apply what we have heard.
Wisdom is not accumulating a body of knowledge so that we know the right answer or what to do at the right time. Wisdom is a way of life, of moving forward into the way of Jesus. The path is clear; Jesus has told us what to do. Wisdom, or foolishness, is up to us.
Are you living the way of wisdom? Are you doing what he says?
Jesus, on the other hand, teaches a wisdom that is both attainable and very practical. In his "sermon on the mount," Jesus makes wisdom, and foolishness, something that anyone can attain. The basis is simple: if you hear his words and put them into practice, you are wise. Conversely, if you hear his words and do not put them into practice, you are foolish.
With that simple saying, we realize that wisdom is within our grasp. Jesus has made plain what his words are; in fact, this saying comes at the end of three chapters of teaching (Matthew 5-7). We need do little else than go back to the beginning of his teaching, read his words, and seek out how we can apply them. If we do this, he says, we are wise.
The danger lies in being comfortable with hearing only. Despite the many warnings in scripture about doing what we hear, our tendency is to think that once we know what to do, we have done enough. Jesus rejects this; instead, he says we must apply what we have heard.
Wisdom is not accumulating a body of knowledge so that we know the right answer or what to do at the right time. Wisdom is a way of life, of moving forward into the way of Jesus. The path is clear; Jesus has told us what to do. Wisdom, or foolishness, is up to us.
Are you living the way of wisdom? Are you doing what he says?
