Spiritual Wisdom

BY Andrea Lucado

Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 2:1-16, Romans 8:26-30, Ephesians 1:13-14

I recently listened to an interview with Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia. Wales said he started Wikipedia because he wanted to make information available to everyone for free. Today, I’m sure most of us with an internet connection have benefitted from Wales’s aspirations.

With Wikipedia, as well as countless other sites on the web, we can know almost anything about any person, place, or thing. It is the Information Age, after all. The Information Age has given us the illusion that we can know everything. It has given us the illusion that we no longer need to grapple with the unknown. And it’s tempting to believe that knowledge—the kind that’s available to us with the click of a button—is equivalent to wisdom.

But it’s not.

In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul writes about the difference between the wisdom of men and spiritual wisdom. The wisdom of men is “coming to nothing,” he says. “On the contrary, we speak God’s hidden wisdom in a mystery, a wisdom God predestined before the ages for our glory” (vv.6-7).

Paul then explains that God’s wisdom is no longer hidden in mystery because it has been revealed to us by God’s Spirit. What is this wisdom? In short: “Jesus Christ and him crucified” (v.2). It seems so simple—too simple, especially in the Information Age—for the idea of wisdom to be boiled down to this one simple truth. And yet, this is what Scripture tells us.

The temptation is to fill up our minds with as much “wisdom” as possible. We gather knowledge in an attempt to be the smartest in the room and because we find security in thinking all of our questions can be answered with a Google search.

But spiritual wisdom frees us from relying on our own knowledge. It frees us from having to answer every question, and it opens up our lives to the power of the Spirit. In this, paradoxically, Scripture says we are able to “evaluate everything” (v.15). When we are not sure what to do, where to turn or who to talk to, we have the Spirit. When we are confused, disheartened, angry, we have the Spirit. And this Spirit is wisdom. This Spirit gives us more than the entire archive of Wikipedia ever could. It gives us “the mind of Christ” (v.16).

Do you believe you have the mind of Christ? Do you trust the Spirit who has been given to you? Or are you still scrolling the internet looking for answers?

Knowledge is a wonderful tool, and I am grateful to live in an age when we have such ready access to it. But no matter how much knowledge I acquire, it will never measure up to the Holy Spirit within me. That quiet, still, discerning voice. The very Spirit of God who gives me the very mind of Christ.

Let us seek spiritual wisdom first. Let us ask the Spirit for guidance first. Let us cling to our hope that is not in knowledge or the Information Age, but in Christ Himself.