“The Book of Wisdom”

“The Book of Wisdom”

This is the name of one of the books in the Apocrypha. But what can we justly call the Bible? It is the very Book of Wisdom!!! Every word is godly wisdom from the all-wise God. And as far as we are concerned, this is especially true concerning all the words of life in the New Testament, for Jesus came with a much stronger and clearer Word than was proclaimed in the Old Testament! Jesus said, “It was said to those of old . . . but I say to you.”

By believing, loving, and obeying all the words in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5, 6, and 7) and all the other things that Jesus and the apostles have said, we absorb the wisdom that is from above, God’s perfect wisdom; that is, the very best, the most useful, and the most perfect. Everything that contradicts all these words of life is the stupidest thing under the sun!!!

You cannot study yourself to it; on the contrary, you have to live yourself to it. Knowledge means you know it. Wisdom means you live it!

All words of life are one hundred percent wisdom and one hundred percent profitable. They are able to make us one hundred percent happy in all kinds of circumstances. Transgressing anything at all of what is written in the New Testament is eternal loss. God’s Word means precisely what it says, one hundred percent of it, both the gracious and kind words as well as the strict words.

For example: “Give, and it will be given to you . . . .” The more we give from the heart, joyfully, the more we receive from God! Therefore it is very rewarding! In other words, it is very wise! It also increases our happiness correspondingly!

“Godliness with contentment is great gain.” 1 Tim. 6:6. This means: true gain, everlasting gain! Therefore it is very wise and very rewarding; it increases our happiness considerably! It means that I manage with little of earthly things, being content with what I have, that I do not buy or acquire anything that is unnecessary. This falls together beautifully with boundless generosity! The less I use for myself, the more I have to give to others! How wise that is!

“He who humbles himself will be exalted.” Matt. 23:12. He will be exalted in a true and good sense of the word! How wise it is then, to humble yourself voluntarily, in truth, and climb down from your imagined heights?! How rewarding that is!

“Whoever exalts himself will be humbled . . .” (Luke 14:11), whether he wants to or not. God Himself sees to it that he will be humbled! What a shame! What a loss! What a misfortune! How indescribably stupid! What folly!

Those who commit works of the flesh will not inherit the kingdom of God! Gal. 5:19-21. How foolish it is to continue with it, to continue sinning! What an indescribable loss it is to lose God’s kingdom, to be excluded from this inexpressibly glorious kingdom! What stupidity! Just because you will not believe that you can overcome all conscious sin by God’s grace and power as the Book of Wisdom so clearly, and in many places, exhorts us to! Unbelief in the Word is one of the most fateful of all sins, and therefore it is one of the most stupid things. Then you are, in a manner of speaking, a doctor or a professor of stupidity!

“But without faith it is impossible to please God . . . .” Heb. 11:6. Pleasing God and having God as a friend is the most prudent and most rewarding thing in existence! It is the shortest and surest way of becoming perfectly happy and helping others to the same happiness! All words of life are absolutely true! We can believe these words with a good conscience even if no one else believes them.

God gives grace to the humble, but He is an adversary of the proud (haughty, puffed-up, and conceited). In that case, how wise it is to be humble! Then we receive all the grace and help that we need! How indescribably foolish it is to be great in your own eyes, having great thoughts about yourself and thereby getting God as an adversary! It is impossible for foolishness to be any greater than that!