The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Proverbs 1:7

One biblical definition of wisdom is this: Wisdom is the combination of knowledge and farsightedness which enables a person to make right choices that honor God.

This is because true wisdom, according to the Bible, always begins with God. Today’s verse tells us that the “fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” From a biblical perspective, if a person doesn’t know God who created everything, then they’re going to be challenged when it comes to understanding how to use the knowledge they have. They’ll base wisdom on what seems fair…or what seems morally right…or what seems best for themselves and those they identify with.

But honoring (fearing) God will not be part of their equation. This means true wisdom will elude them.

This is why we increasingly live in a world where facts don’t matter. Take away God and truth is whatever you want it to be…and we don’t have to look far to find people who will assure us that we are 100% right and everyone who doesn’t see it the way we
do is crazy—or worse.

Then God comes along and says “this is how it is…this is what honors Me”. And many of us react, “But that’s not in keeping with my church’s program!” “That flies in the face of my political viewpoints!” “If I bought into that my friends would dump me!”… “I’d be run out of my church!”… “People would call me nasty names!”… “My children would be ostracized!”

And yet, any history of the Christian faith shows that that is exactly the kinds of things that happen when God moves and His followers climb on board. These people combine knowledge of what God is doing and farsightedness which enables them to accurately determine and choose what honors God.

And that is the fear of the Lord. And that is wisdom.