I am going to spend the first part of the message defining wisdom so you will know what I think you should get. And the second part showing you how you can get it. And I pray you will see that both parts are evident from Scripture, not just my opinion.

How to Define Wisdom

As a rule, if someone asks you to define a word, you should respond by saying, “According to whom? In what setting? In what book? In what chapter or verse?” Because definitions vary according to speakers in context and time even within the Bible. So in general, be wary of doing what I am about to do.

I’m going to venture a definition of wisdom, which I think, in general, covers most of the uses in the Bible. I do this because we have to speak to each other. And we can’t pause every time we do in order to define precisely all the words we are using. Communication would be impossible if we tried to do that. So when we speak to each other, we have to assume, and hope for, a shared meaning for hundreds of words we are using, without pausing to define each one.

So I’m going to propose a definition for wisdom first in a general sense, and then, in a few minutes, get a little more specific.

Knowledge, Insight, Resolve

So, most generally I would put it like this: The greatest human wisdom is the factual knowledge and the situational insight and the necessary resolve that together have the greatest likelihood of success in achieving the intended, righteous goal.

“Gold can buy almost anything in this world. But it cannot buy everlasting life and joy.”

For example, in a military battle, with justice on your side, the intended, righteous goal will be victory. And to that end, a wise general will have the factual knowledge he needs about the terrain, and the weather, and the strength of the opposing army, and where they are located, and how they fight, and how skilled his own troops are, and how weary they are, and much other factual knowledge.

And, as the battle engages, he will have the situational insight to discern in the critical moment that the way the enemy is slowing on the right flank is a sign that one more thrust from his elite troops at that weak spot will send the entire enemy force fleeing.

And he has the necessary resolve to command the charge, knowing that failure here would be the loss of the battle. In a sinful and dangerous world, almost all acts of wisdom require some measure of courage.

So, wisdom always combines (1) general knowledge of the facts about reality with (2) the more specific and the immediate discernment, or insight, or intuition into the less perceptible, but crucial, dynamics of the situation, with (3) the necessary resolve to act on that knowledge and that insight. We won’t act as wisely as we could, if we are ignorant of relevant reality, or if we are undiscerning of the immediate dynamics of the situation, or if we simply don’t have the resolve to act, because we are lazy or afraid.

God Never Fails

The reason I say that the greatest human wisdom has the greatest likelihood of success in achieving the intended, righteous goal, is that only God never fails in the achievement of his intended goals. The wisdom of God — his general knowledge of reality, his situational insight, his necessary resolve — always succeeds in achieving his intended goals.

That’s not true of finite human beings — believing or unbelieving. The greatest human wisdom — with all its factual knowledge, and all its situational insight, and all its necessary resolve — will sometimes be thwarted in achieving its intended, righteous goals, because only God has the power to guarantee the success of his wisdom.

God’s Ways Are Unsearchable

So, we can define God’s wisdom without any qualification. We can say: Divine wisdom is the perfect factual knowledge and the perfect situational insight and the omnipotent resolve that together will succeed in achieving his intended, righteous goals.

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! (Romans 11:33)

Nobody can fathom them or thwart them.

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:36)

Wisdom That Won’t Fail

Now, I said a few minutes ago that I would try to define wisdom first most generally, and then get more specific. So, here’s my more specific definition: The greatest human wisdom is the factual knowledge and the situational insight and the necessary resolve that together will succeed in attaining full and everlasting happiness.

And you notice, I don’t qualify it by saying it “has the greatest likelihood of success in attaining happiness.” Because God has ordained that no power in the universe can keep his redeemed people, acting in his Spirit-given wisdom, from attaining full and everlasting happiness in his presence. This wisdom cannot be thwarted.

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:7, “We impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God [that is, he imparts it to believers], which God decreed before the ages for our glory.” That divine wisdom, planned for his people before creation, cannot fail. When that wisdom is imparted to us by the Holy Spirit in the new birth, and we walk according to that wisdom in faith, we cannot fail to attain the glory and joy that God decreed for us before the ages.

So, my more specific definition of the best human wisdom — the kind we want, the kind we can have, as a blood-bought gift of Jesus, by the Spirit, through faith — that wisdom is the factual knowledge and the situational insight and the necessary resolve that together succeeds in attaining full and everlasting happiness.

Wisdom Works for a Greater Goal

Now, consider just a few passages of Scripture that point to the definition I have just unfolded. Consider, for example, 2 Timothy 3:15: “The sacred writings [the Scriptures] are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” Notice how wisdom functions. It is a means to a goal. Wisdom is always a good means to a good goal. The Scriptures make you wise unto salvation.

Wisdom is the mental, attitudinal, volitional capacity to get somewhere. So what Paul is implying is this: that the Scriptures impart to you, by the Spirit, the knowledge of reality and the situational discernment and the necessary resolve unto salvation. They impart to you what you will need to walk on the narrow road of faith and obedience that leads to final salvation — to full and everlasting happiness in the presence of God.

Or consider Proverbs 3:13, “Happy is the one who finds wisdom.” Biblical wisdom is not a dead-end street leading to a cul-de-sac of misery. It is the path to deep and lasting happiness. Or consider Proverbs 24:13–14:

My son, eat honey, for it is good,
   and the drippings of the honeycomb are sweet to your taste.
Know that wisdom is such to your soul;
   if you find it, there will be a future [a honey-sweet future!],
   and your hope will not be cut off [honey-sweet forever].

If you find true wisdom, it will lead you infallibly to a happy future. And that future will last forever.

So Proverbs 19:8 says, “He who gets wisdom loves himself.” Not meaning: finds himself lovely, but embraces for himself a glorious future. Proverbs 8:32–36 sums it up beautifully. Here wisdom herself is speaking and she says,

And now, O sons, listen to me [wisdom]:
   blessed are those who keep my ways [the ways of wisdom]. . . .
Blessed is the one who listens to me,
   watching daily at my gates,
   waiting beside my doors.
For whoever finds me [finds wisdom] finds life
   and obtains favor from the Lord,
but he who fails to find me injures himself;
   all who hate me love death.

Could it be clearer that wisdom is the knowledge and insight and resolve that successfully lead to full and everlasting joy?

Better Than Gold

Therefore, as Proverbs 16:16 says, “To get wisdom is better than gold.” Why? Because gold can buy almost anything in this world. But it cannot buy everlasting life and joy.

“Biblical wisdom is not a dead-end street leading to a cul-de-sac of misery. It is the path to deep and lasting happiness.”

Oh, it can buy all kinds of earthly pleasures and turn men into idiots. “Folly is a joy to him who has no sense” (Proverbs 15:21). But it cannot buy what we want and need most: full and everlasting happiness. But wisdom — true wisdom — can do that. Those who find wisdom find life. And those who hate her love death.

Outside my study at home hanging on the wall in the hall that I must pass every day is this beautiful calligraphy that a wise friend sent me 17 years ago. The top coin is made of silver. The bottom coin of gold. It says,

Choose my instruction instead of silver,
   knowledge rather than choice gold,
for wisdom is more precious than rubies,
   and nothing you desire can compare with her. (Proverbs 8:10–11, NIV)

Because only she leads to the fulfilment of all your desires.

How to Get Wisdom

The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom,
   and whatever you get, get insight. (Proverbs 4:7)

I have in mind one main path to wisdom that I want to focus on here in our setting at Bethlehem College and Seminary, but it would be so lopsided to deal only with this that I am going to mention several other paths that I see in Scripture.

Get wisdom by prizing her.

Prize her highly, and she will exalt you;
   she will honor you if you embrace her. (Proverbs 4:8)

Don’t be neutral toward wisdom. Prize her. Esteem her. Desire her. Cherish her. And she will honor you with her presence.

Get wisdom by praying — by asking God for her.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. (James 1:5)

Get wisdom by pursuing her.

If you make your ear attentive to wisdom . . .
if you seek it like silver
   and search for it as for hidden treasures,
then you will understand the fear of the Lord
   and find the knowledge of God. (Proverbs 2:2, 4–5)

Don’t be passive. Listen, seek, pursue. She is found by those who prize her and pray for her and pursue her.

Where to Find Wisdom

Pursue her where? One answer would be at Bethlehem College and Seminary. Why would I say that? Because we are committed to helping you pursue wisdom in five biblical ways.

Pursue wisdom in the word of God.

The law of the Lord is perfect,
   reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure,
   making wise the simple. (Psalm 19:7)

There is no true wisdom apart from the testimony of the Lord. At Bethlehem College and Seminary everything is tested and illumined by the word of God.

Pursue wisdom not only in the word of God, but also in the world of God.

Go to the ant, O sluggard;
   consider her ways, and be wise. (Proverbs 6:6)

One of the main reasons that we believe in a liberal arts education, that reads widely outside the Bible, is that the Bible itself tells us there are dimensions of wisdom to be found in the assiduous, penetrating, critical, biblical observation of the world, not only the Bible. So many lessons to be learned from the folly, and the shrewdness, and the calamities, and the wonders of the world, and the great books that show them and ponder them.

Pursue wisdom by walking with wise teachers.

Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise. (Proverbs 13:20)

God never intended you to walk through the word and walk through the world alone. Walking with the wise as you ransack the word and ransack the world will make you wiser than if you walked alone.

Pursue wisdom in the light of eternity.

Teach us to number our days
   that we may get a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90:12)

If you come to Bethlehem, you will smell eternity. The sweet breezes of heaven, and the smoke of hell blow often through these halls. Because walking near eternity makes you wiser in this world. As the Preacher says,

It is better to go to the house of mourning
   than to go to the house of feasting,
for this is the end of all mankind,
   and the living will lay it to heart. (Ecclesiastes 7:2)

And become wise.

Pursue wisdom by bringing all things into relation to Jesus Christ.

All things were created through him and for him. . . . In him all things hold together. . . . And in him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom. (Colossians 1:16–17; 2:3)

Those are the vital paths to wisdom that I am not focusing on. Prize her. Pray for her. Pursue her — in the word, in the world, in the company of wise teachers, in the light of eternity, in relation to Jesus.

Become a Fool

Now, finally, here is the path to wisdom that I want to underline with a special emphasis as we close. I see it in 1 Corinthians 3:18,

Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.

Here is an indispensable path to wisdom: Become a fool that you may become wise. Paul is not merely saying that if you seek wisdom from God, you will be seen as a fool in the world. He is saying we must happily embrace the role of fool in the world, “in order that he may become wise.” We must not be ashamed of being a fool for Christ (1 Corinthians 4:10).

“No power in the universe can keep God’s redeemed people from attaining full and everlasting happiness.”

Here’s the context in 1 Corinthians that makes sense out of that strategy. Paul said there is a wisdom in Corinth that empties the cross of its power (1 Corinthians 1:17). To the wise men of Corinth “the cross is foolishness” (1:18). So “the world did not know God through its wisdom” (1:21). Rather “the thoughts of the wise are futile” (3:20). “The wisdom of this world is folly with God” (3:19). And one day God will “destroy the wisdom of the wise” (1:19). And so “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise” (1:27). Therefore, “become a fool that you may become wise” (1 Corinthians 3:18).

Don’t Be a Cowardly Conformist

Why do I focus on this path to wisdom? Because Bethlehem College and Seminary is an academic institution. Academic institutions, like once glorious ghost towns, breed fear of being called a fool like slums breed rats. Academia breeds cowardly conformists posing as cutting-edge progressives. Students and teachers in academic institutions have the strongest aversion to being seen as fools in the eyes of other academics.

To be a faithful Christian, to be obedient to God’s word, to be truly wise in the eyes of God — in Corinth, or in Athens, or in the heady halls of academia — we must become fools. Thoughtful fools. Hopeful fools. Happy fools. Not self-pitying, dour, defensive, forlorn, miserable fools. But unashamed, happy fools.

Out-Rejoice the World

The crucial question for your future and the future of this school is: Will we be ashamed of believing what the Bible teaches when the world calls us fools? Or will we out-rejoice the world, not only in spite of, but because of, their insults?

Will we be like Paul who said, “For the sake of Christ, I am content with . . . insults” (2 Corinthians 12:10)?

Will we respond like the apostles when they were shamed as fools in Acts 5:41? “They left the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to be shamed for the name.”

Will we obey Peter’s letter? “Rejoice . . . if you are insulted for the name of Christ . . . because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you” (1 Peter 4:13–14).

Will we turn from the pitiful rewards of boasting in men and remember, “All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future — all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s” (1 Corinthians 3:21–23)?

So, I exhort you, get wisdom! “Become a fool that you may become wise.” A thoughtful, hopeful, happy fool. For Christ (1 Corinthians 4:10).