Prov9:12:
NIV – If you are wise, your wisdom will reward you, if you are a mocker, you alone will suffer.
NLT – If you become wise, you will be the one to benefit, if you scorn wisdom, you will be the one to suffer.

GNT – You are the one who will profit if you have wisdom, and if you reject it, you are the one who will suffer.

Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. Wisdom is, the correct application of knowledge.

Knowledge is familiarity with persons, facts, information, description. To know someone, or to know something, is to be familiar with that person or that thing.

Wisdom therefore, is the right use of what you know; it is the correct application of the familiarity you have with people, with facts, with information.

ARE YOU WISE?

How many ways can we categorise all that we are familiar with? The people we know, the things we know, the different aspects of our lives; Financial, Spiritual, Health, Education, Home, Work, Recreation, Relationships, etc. All these as we know them have been given to us so that we may use them the right way. When we use them the right way then we will profit, we will benefit (that is, we will prosper, we will advance, we will be favoured, we will be blessed).

Every knowledge is given to us to profit and benefit us and all who are around us. The reason why we have been allowed familiarity with all that we are familiar with is so that we might profit. We have been allowed to know all that we know, so that we will not suffer. According to prov9:12, if we use what we are familiar with in the right way, we will profit. This means there is a right way, and there is a wrong way.

In which way have you been using your knowledge? The right way or the wrong way? Have you been applying all that you are familiar with rightly or wrongly. Ecc10:2 says “a wise person chooses the right road, but a fool takes the wrong one”. A wise person chooses to use knowledge the right way, but a fool takes the wrong use.

ARE YOU WISE?

Choice connotes preferring one to another. Some form of contemplation usually precedes choice making. It is usual to think and consider what one has in hand before a choice is decided on. A wise person considers what he is familiar with (that is, the different aspects of his life) and then makes a right decision on how to use them. This right way opens him up and everyone around him to good things. On the other hand, a fool opts for the wrong use. He ‘takes’ the wrong way. He just takes it, without thinking, without counsel without meditation. He takes it. He rejects the right way and takes the wrong way and he suffers for it. He suffers loss. He suffers harm. He suffers disfavour.

How then can we attain unto wisdom? How do we become wise? How can we use each and everything we are familiar with, the right way? The mind of a man cannot contemplate correctly to make the right choice. Man’s mind cannot hold the wisdom that will bring him to profiting. At best, man’s mind will bring him to decisions of temporal gain. Consider Prov14:12 & Prov16:25 both say there is a way that seems right unto a man, but at the end of that route there is destruction and calamity. There are some who have taken this wrong way, but they appear to be prosperous. Ps37:35&36 says very soon, they will pass away and they will be no more. The wisdom of man is gross foolishness. When we rely on our intelligence or our brilliance or our knowledge we have set ourselves up for failure.

ARE YOU WISE?

Prov 1:20-33 – Wisdom is shouting in the streets. Everywhere the voice of wisdom can be heard, saying come let me make you wise. His voice rings out to all, come unto me! I am the way, the truth, and the life. His name is Jesus. 1Cor1:24 says Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. The only way we can use rightly the things we have been given is to receive Christ Jesus. Christ is wisdom personified. By Him all things were made, and there is nothing made that was not made for Him and in Him. His mind is full of wise counsel. When we receive the totality of Christ we have the mind of Christ and we become wise.

It is not enough to confess and receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Master, we must allow Him to take our minds over. John 1:1 tells us that Jesus Christ is the Word of God. This same Christ is the Wisdom of God, He is the Word of God. The Wisdom of God is the Word of God. When we fill ourselves with the Word of God, we will be full of the Wisdom of God. When we reject the Word of God we reject wisdom and we suffer. We must make quality time to read, study and meditate on the word of God to enrich our minds and spirits, (not only to preach or teach or show our knowledge). It is wisdom to eat daily to be nourished daily, for yesterday’s bread will not satisfy today’s hunger, neither will it strengthen for today ‘s work. It is wisdom to receive the mind of Christ daily in His Word, for yesterday’s wisdom might not do for today’s life challenges. It would do to ascertain and check, asking ourselves daily as we journey on in life – AM I WISE?
-KJO