Some Thoughts on Wisdom Living

What is wisdom living? My favorite cowboy says in his post here, "Wisdom is concerned with the art of living skillfully before God within the covenantal relationship with Him, and by consequence, with the world."

It seems that Christians have largely neglected the art of "living skillfully" as revealed in scripture, and consequently, are easily influenced by the current views of the culture in their lifestyle. Perhaps some view the physical or practical matters of life as being opposed to spiritual life. Cultivating wise living here on earth and "seeking a better homeland"(Heb. 11:14) may seem like mutually exclusive concepts, but closer study shows that these two biblical ideas are in perfect unity. According to the cowboy, "The fact that an entire genre of biblical literature is devoted to Wisdom should alert pastors to the importance of such teaching." So why do we not devote more thought to this subject?

Exemplified for us in the wisdom literature is balanced and quality living. There is the exhortation to work hard, but also to enjoy the fruit of those labors; to eat and drink, but avoid gluttony; to celebrate sex, but flee adultery; to pursue study and books, but not excessively; to build great things, but not love money. There is instruction for every aspect of living well.

One thing we must be wary of as we pursue wisdom living is becoming overly attached to the blessings of living well. As Job says after all his property and family are destroyed, “"Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. We must not be presumptuous in the Lord's blessings to us. We do not have a right to them, they are not owed to us. Loving good things as an end in themselves is not good enough, they must draw our thoughts to God, and cause us to meditate on His beauty.