Is Your Wisdom Wise?

Rebecca Brock

The word “wisdom” conjures up pictures for me, like the older woman who opens her mouth with grace and a loving pat on the arm, or the confidant who answers overwhelming problems with a gentle smile and mountains of perspective-changing truth, or the grandpa figure who smiles knowingly at a young person wrestling with a difficult biblical truth. However, I don’t admire the words of the senior saint who always says the right thing, but the calm, confident spirit that attracts me, a spirit full of wise assurance in God and His truth.

Recently I have found myself less calm and assured than I should be, begging God for wisdom. What does following Christ look like in the 2020s? How do I parent young adult children in an LGBTQ+, gender-confused, sex-saturated, pluralistic world? How do I recognize true wisdom amid today’s cacophony of confusing and conflicting voices—even among Christians? More importantly, as I grow in spiritual knowledge, how do I know if I am truly wise?

In the third chapter of his epistle, James asks a pointed rhetorical question, “Who is wise and understanding among you?” (3:13, NKJV). In context, James has just laid out staggering truths about the tongue, and so the reader may immediately think James is prompting his hearers to examine their words to ascertain whether they are wise. But James gives an unexpected answer. He asserts that the wise person is the one who shows wisdom—the one who lives wisdom principles.