day no. 17,143: wisdom and dumber

James 3:13-18 

Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

There is no such thing as worldview bifocals that allow you to see the world in different ways. Paradigms are like a single-vision pair of glasses, not progressive lenses. Worldviews are more like bumper cars where each way of seeing the world cannot occupy the same space. That is why they so often go bang. They do not play nicely. Revelation does not flatter speculation by saying, “you know, you do make some good points,” and speculation does not honor revelation by saying, “when we disagree, I must be wrong.” Jesus said that He was the Way, the Truth, and the Life and that no one could come to the Father on good terms except through Him. (John 14:6). Now, that is either true or it is a lie. If Jesus cannot keep us safe before His Father, He is lying. If anyone else can get us to God, He is lying. But if He can and if He is the only way, we are liars when we propose any other way. Speculation is the rejection of what God has revealed. It would rather trust in its own guesses than trust in the grace of God. It would rather trip in the dark over the predictions of men than walk in the light of the sure promises of God. 

The wisdom from above is like the sun that sheds its light upon everything else. It is not just something that we see, it is the way we are able to see everything else. As C.S. Lewis once put it, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” Wisdom is not just a light in the distance that you walk toward, it is a sun in the sky that lights up everywhere you go. B.B. Warfield said it this way, “Christianity is a revealed religion.” Think about it. The Christian faith is the Word of God about the reality of God from very the mouth of God. Christianity is, in other words, autobiographical. It is from God about God for us. God has revealed Himself in the person of Christ and through His Spirit. What we know about Him is what He has told us. What we know about our world is what He has shown us. The world is, after all, His Word. He made everything out of nothing, which is to say, that everything that was made is made out of and held together by the Word of God. That is why His Word helps us to understand ourselves, our world, and our Maker. J.C. Ryle once said, “Give me a candle and a Bible and shut me up in a dark dungeon, and I will tell you everything that the whole world is doing.” 

The secret things may belong to God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children that we may do them (Dt. 29:29). You do not need to understand everything in order to do what God requires. God has not revealed everything to us, but He has revealed everything necessary. The Christian then, seeing the world by revelation, is comfortable with a sense of wonder. We do not need to know everything in order to appreciate anything. That said, speculation is not comfortable with the unknown. It has to understand everything in order to be content with anything. Which is why it always aspires to, makes claims of, and falls short of omniscience.