1 The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:
2 To know wisdom and instruction,
to understand words of insight,
3 to receive instruction in wise dealing,
in righteousness, justice, and equity;
4 to give prudence to the simple,
knowledge and discretion to the youth—
5 Let the wise hear and increase in learning,
and the one who understands obtain guidance,
6 to understand a proverb and a saying,
the words of the wise and their riddles.
7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction.
God gives wisdom (2:6) in the context of our striving, wrestling and crying after it, i.e. through the discipline of honourable discipleship, not otherwise. This echoes Paul's famous words in Philippians 2:12,13, 'Work out your own salvation with fear and trem- bling, for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure'. This consideration prompts a comment on the disparity between the shrewdness and down- to-earth common-sense of an older piety and the hare-brained notions that evangelical folk sometimes develop and entertain regarding divine providence. We must recognise that God's providential dealings with us in the way that He takes us in life through all its vicissitudes and all its dark experiences, inform our minds and hearts and impart to them the basic qualities of sound sense, shrewdness and balance. This is what we sometimes call 'sanctified common sense', and one of the greatest lessons we need to learn is to recognise that this is the gift of God. Some people seem to think that when they become Christians they no longer use their head but have to look to God for guidance. But to think like this is to put the whole matter falsely and in a distorted way. It is to suggest that seeking divine guidance and using your head are mutually exclusive ideas. But the fact of the matter is that God's ideal way of guiding His children is through their using their heads. This Paul plainly teaches in Ephesians 5:17. When we become believers, it is no indication that we are to lay aside God's gift of common-sense; rather, it will be sanc- tified by the grace and Spirit of God and will therefore be a much more reliable guide than before. If this were accepted as a basis of Christian living, it would deliver large numbers of people from making the most stupid and serious kind of mistakes in life.