Wisdom and Knowledge

Justin Furse

The Spiritual Gifts • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

1 Corinthians 12:8

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Transcript

Intro

Two weeks ago we started this series on the spiritual gifts found in 1 Corinthians 12. We talked about how those spiritual gifts were organized into four groups containing gifts that related to each other somehow. The first group was The gift of a word of wisdom and the gift of a word of knowledge. The second group consisted of the gifts of faith, healing, and working of miracles. The third group consisted of Prophecy and the ability to distinguish between spirits. Finally the fourth group consisted of Various Kinds of tongues and the interpretation of tongues. Today we’re going to continue by jumping into a discussion on the first grouping of gifts.

When I was a teen in high school, I would often hear adults around me or my parents say that kids my age thought they knew everything… In a sense that is very true but also not really. Kids actually know that they don’t actually know everything, but in the moments that make up a day as they live their lives they feel like they do. Which is funny to think about when you have kids that act like they seem to know it all but then make just plain dumb decisions which very clearly shows a lack of knowledge and wisdom in the decision making process.

There’s a very important thing that happens during someone’s childhood, and that is the development of their pre-frontal cortex or more simply their frontal lobe. The frontal lobe is responsible for higher cognitive functions such as memory, emotions, impulse control, problem solving, social interaction, and motor function. This is a very important part of the brain, and it plays a large part in how much knowledge is retained and how wise a person can be.

The thing about developing children is that the brain develops neural pathways as they grow which in short shapes the brain and creates the wrinkles or folds that everyone thinks about when they think of a brain, but this happens starting more towards the back of the brain and then making it’s way forward leaving the pre-frontal cortex to fully develop last. This process is usually complete around the age of 25 years old which means the complex higher cognitive brain functions aren’t very present in the developing child’s thinking, specifically they are unable to control impulses effectively and think on a higher level linking memories to form an efficient knowledge data bank…

This is the reason why you often find yourself shaking your head as you watch teenagers do dumb things. They just don’t know any better and often times depending on the level of brain development they are unable to know better, in the moment at least.

Knowledge and wisdom are closely linked together. Without knowledge, you can’t have wisdom because wisdom is made up of experience or knowledge of how things work.

Let’s take a look at the gifts of knowledge and wisdom a little more closely

The gifts

Word of wisdom

First we are going to define the gift of a word of wisdom; and remember, it is a word of wisdom, not wisdom in general. A word of wisdom as a gift of the spirit, is for the betterment of others and does not transform an unwise person into a wise one. But before we discuss the gift itself, let’s talk about what wisdom is. According to the dictionary, wisdom is “the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment.”

Normally the wisest people that we meet are older and the reason for this is because wisdom comes from experience…

According to this definition then, a word of wisdom would be a phrase that provides information to someone based on experience and good judgement. In the case of the spiritual gift word of wisdom, the wisdom doesn’t come from our own experience but from an impartation of the Holy Spirit in a particular moment. God has created all experiences, lived a life on earth through Jesus, and knows everything. So it makes sense that a word of wisdom from God is probably going to trump the wisdom that we operate in and perhaps may even not make much sense because it is so much more than human wisdom.

Let’s define the gift of a word of knowledge now.

Before we can talk of this gift, again we need to ask the question what is it? What is knowledge? Not only that but how is knowledge different from wisdom?

One accepted delineation between the two which I like is that wisdom runs deeper than knowledge. Where knowledge focuses on things that are to be done or what things are, wisdom focuses on the eternal, meaning it never passes away where as knowledge will which Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 13:8. Wisdom is a way of thinking where as knowledge is the content being thought about.

Just like a word of wisdom doesn’t make someone a wise person, neither does a word of knowledge make someone a walking encyclopedia. When I was in college, my roommate had an uncanny ability to spew information and we did tend to think of him as a walking encyclopedia. But he didn’t just know useful information, he knew a lot about things that were just interesting facts to know that you would probably never need to know in your lifetime. For example, he could tell you exactly which gummy bears were the best ones to buy based on the process with which they were made. He has a ranking of which brand of gummy bears he will eat and which ones he won’t because the way that they are manufactured affects both the taste and the texture. He had a lot of knowledge, but not necessarily the gift of a word of knowledge.

This word of knowledge isn’t a knowledge bank, it’s a “supernatural mystical knowledge or a divine awareness of truth given for a specific purpose.

With both gifts, a word of wisdom and a word of knowledge, we must make sure to determine whether they are from God, or whether it is earthly wisdom and knowledge meant for harm.

If we read James 3:13-17, it tells us this

James 3:13–17 ESV

13 Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. 15 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

Earthly wisdom is defined here as false to the truth, jealous, selfish, unspiritual and even demonic. Notice that this earthly wisdom is self focused and for personal gain. This passage is primarily talking about wisdom but I believe that it can be associated with discerning whether or not a word of knowledge is from God as well, particularly v.14 which says “But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.”

When we receive a word of wisdom or knowledge for ourselves from someone else, or for us to give to someone else… it is super important that we discern whether it is a word from God or not. If we don’t, we could potentially lead someone astray.

1 John 4:1 ESV

1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

This is applicable in many situations such as the gift of discerning between spirits, which we’ll talk about down the road but also when it comes to the gift of wisdom and knowledge.

You don’t need to have the gift of discernment to discern. The distinction can be made with this question… is the wisdom or the knowledge we feel led to share fueled by jealousy, selfish ambition, boasting, or false to the truth? Or is our desire to share that knowledge and wisdom fueled by purity, peace, gentleness, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere?

If you are sharing a word of knowledge or wisdom because of a deep seeded jealousy, selfishness, boastfulness or desire to deceive… then you shouldn’t share it. It’s all about the heart. Why are you sharing what you are sharing? To help others or help yourself?

If our heart is in an unhealthy place, we are so much more likely to share a word of knowledge or wisdom that isn’t godly because everything flows from the heart.

How do you make your heart healthy? Reading our bibles and spending time with God. If you really wanted to you could boil down every sermon on every topic imaginable to these two things… read your bible and spend time with God

How Do We Use These Gifts?

When someone is gifted with one of these gifts, a word of knowledge or a word of wisdom… they play a vital role in the edification of the church body. They are in a sense, God’s messengers to a people who need to hear what He has to say.

Sure God could just straight up tell those people what He wants to tell them, but as someone who has struggled with doubt, I know that when someone else gives that word of knowledge or wisdom from God, I am way more likely to believe that it was God’s word without doubting. Not only that, often a word of wisdom or knowledge can end up being a confirmation of something that God did say to you earlier or even just prior.

Fear and Humility

We should take a moment to acknowledge that if you have a word of wisdom or knowledge for someone, satan won’t want you to share it with that person and he will try to make sure that you don’t. Most likely he’ll use fear to accomplish this.

I can’t count how many times I’ve felt I needed to go and talk to someone or pray for them but a fear of looking silly or saying the wrong thing kept me from doing it. After the fact I would end up feeling absolutely ridiculous because once the moment of opportunity has passed, it all becomes clear… you should have gone and done it because even if it wasn’t for that person, at least you did what you felt God was asking.

Don’t let the fear of looking silly or saying the wrong thing get in the way of God doing His work through you. That said, there is a right way and a wrong way to do this because sometimes we do get it wrong.

Approaching with a gentle humility.

When we feel led to share a word of knowledge or wisdom with someone, the first step is discerning whether this is a word that could be from God. As we talked about earlier the way to do this is finding the heart behind what you feel led to say. The second thing is never using the words, God said or God wants me to tell you this… At first glance there’s nothing wrong with this, but these words can be very damaging for a person. If we use these terms and we did get it wrong, well then we told someone matter of factly that God told them something when really it was all us.

To do this properly there needs to be a gentleness and an attitude of humility. Approaching someone and saying something like, “I believe that this is from God, does this mean anything to you?” Or “I think God may be wanting to say this to you...” this is so much more powerful because of that gentleness and humility.

Beginning like this allows the person God want’s to speak to come to the realization of the significance of what you’ve told them on their own, It let’s God do His work. It also leaves room for error and you will never be left feeling silly for saying something wrong and you’ll never be disappointed in yourself because you didn’t say yes to God.

Conclusion

We are living in a time where nothing is sure anymore. Where fear floods the internet, social media, news outlets and TV. People are even asking if we are seeing the beginning of the end of the world… maybe we, but also nobody but God knows when that is going to happen, not even Jesus. And the bible is pretty clear that it will be unexpected, like a thief in the night. But that’s a whole other conversation…

Now, more than ever people need to know God is with them and that He loves them. You need to know that God is with you and that He loves you.

The gift of a word of knowledge and the gift of a word of wisdom could be very welcome in many people’s lives today. Something that tends to happen in christian circles is that we feel uncomfortable sharing a word of knowledge or wisdom with someone we don’t know is a christian. Don’t let the idea that because someone isn’t a christian, you can’t give a word of knowledge or wisdom from God to them. Remember, If you have one of these gifts, it’s not your own knowledge or wisdom, it’s Gods. He knows the thoughts of every person whether they know him or not and perhaps God may want to use you to confirm His love for someone who has been denying that He exists. Perhaps He may want to use you to speak into someone’s life that is contemplating suicide because they’ve lost their purpose for living because of Covid… Letting God speak to them through you could be the thing that picks them up off the ground and gives them love and purpose.

Don’t misunderstand me, A word of wisdom or knowledge may not always be an encouragement… it could be a word of conviction or guidance in a direction you don’t want to go. But remember, the spiritual gifts are for the betterment and edification of others which means, even if the word itself is hard to hear, the outcome will lead to something beautiful. God want’s the absolute best for us, not mediocrity. He’s a doting Father who loves His children more than any other Father in existence.

Let God speak, encourage others to do the same, be expectant that God will speak because He always has something to say… we just need to be willing to hear it and if need be, share it with others.