Standards

Proverbs 4:7 - Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.

Lots of division in the world today. If you think about it, it centers around one's beliefs and what is perceived as truth. There are opposing opinions about everything. It might make life interesting but in some cases lack of truth is just dangerous. Appropriate for today with an election about to take place. What are each of the candidate's stand on truth? What's their truth? Do they know God's truth? I'm thankful for God's wisdom and His truth. No matter what happens with this election, He is who I rely on.

Reading about wisdom in the Proverbs solidifies this belief. Of course there are other books that talk of wisdom. In fact...the word is mentioned about 220 times.

With Him are wisdom and strength, He has counsel and understanding. (Job 12:13)

How can anyone cause someone else to lay hold of this wisdom? We can't without the Holy Spirit. 

There is also great division in the world about God. This is sad because some day the truth will be known and it will be too late for some. One will either be on the side of right, having wisdom, or wrong and lacking wisdom. And even this statement will cause division as one could say, what makes you think you are right?

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. (Hosea 4:6)

People might react to this word from God, calling Him intolerant and unloving. But He is neither. God is love...and His patience (longsuffering--a very good word I might add) are incredible. But He has standards. He has shown them to us. He has His Commandments. For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. (James 2:10) Guilty of all...

God's standards are high...and we have no hope of being able to perfectly keep them. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts not like ours. Never will be, even with some of His wisdom!

So if we cannot attain perfection on our own, nor do all He requires, some might consider abandoning God altogether. What's the point? Why not live as best I can and be happy in this life? 

His hard word tells us to enter the kingdom of heaven we must keep His commands. Oh, but how if we cannot on our own? Are we all doomed? Are we all going to feel as hopeless as Paul when he bemoaned:

For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? (Romans 7:19-20,24)

There's that division again, within our own selves. Wanting to do what is right in our own will but not able to perfectly keep God's commands, which ends in death. But who can work hard enough, strive on their own to adhere to each command, daily? We can't. We hold on to this sinful flesh. Nothing we can do alone will meet God's high standards. His ways are not our ways. He is perfect; He expects perfection. He has His standards.

So what's the answer? What do we do? Paul later answers it himself: I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! ... (Romans 7:25) 

God provided the way. His name is Jesus. Roman's 8:1-2 finishes Paul's statement. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 

We confess Him as Lord and Savior of our life. We are filled with His Spirit. We believe all He has spoken. We serve Him. We live our lives to glorify Him...because of all He did for us 2,000 years ago. He came down from His rightful place in heaven to do His Father's will on earth...so that all His human creation, who were never meant to be separated from Him, might be reconciled to the Father through His work on the cross. Oh, what a Savior!

So, back to wisdom. It's something we receive when we receive Christ. We can be smart on our own, in that flesh Paul bemoaned about. But in the Spirit we have better wisdom! Even this is difficult to understand, without Christ. It's why we need Him. Nothing is better in life than to have Christ, His truth which we receive from the wisdom His Spirit imparts.

Proverbs 3:13-14 - Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding; for her proceeds are better than the profits of silver, and her gain than fine gold.