Friday, May 20, 2022
Solomon
would have known a thing-or-two about wisdom; Scripture informs us there was
not a wiser man on planet Earth. Following
the reasoning of Proverbs here, the wisdom of God, granted an honest person, is
a treasure of common sense. Common sense
is defined as: sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation
or facts.[1]
A
decision which is “sound and prudent” is my kind of joy. Most of us have made more than enough of the
other kind of decisions, the less-than-sound, and woefully-imprudent. That kind of decision usually gets one in
trouble.
Now,
having stated the (painfully) obvious, let’s unpack the source of common sense…how
to move towards being a wise person. It arguably
begins with truth. Solomon[2] tells
us it is to the honest
person that God grants a treasure of common sense. So, that would be a starting point for developing into a person said to possess a treasure
of common sense. Sadly, in the 21st
century world that would be a sparsely-populated starting gate. James Russell Lowell’s famous line, truth forever on the scaffold; wrong forever on the throne, has
never more accurately described a culture that populates this world as now.
Whoever
first said honesty is the best
policy may have been a Solomon reader. And she or he was right. If not just because of some lofty aspiration to
be noble or admired, but to rightly understand one can be neither without pure and
discerning judgment. And to be such a person
requires an ongoing, absolutely intimate relationship with knowing truth, and speaking
truth, all in the context of love. Paul
urged the believers at Ephesus to do just that:
Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like
Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. Ephesians 4:15
For You Today
You could go to graduate
school at the most prestigious universities in the world for the next 20 years
to study ethics and the workings of honesty. You might come out with a PhD of this world’s
approval, and high-sounding theoretical philosophy. And the world would probably buy your books.
Or you could sit at
the feet of the One who said: I am
the way the truth and the life[3],
and begin to experience the common sense treasury’s flooding your soul with
what really matters.
Your call.
[1] Title image: Pixabay.com Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
[2] Author of much of the
Book of Proverbs, probably chapters 1-29
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