Spiritual Wisdom

Recently Colossians 1:9-12 has become one of my favorite prayers, and in verse 9 Paul prays for the Colossians to be "filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding."

So what is spiritual wisdom? It sounds nice. When I read it for the first time I was like man I want that, but I don't think I understood what this sort of wisdom was.

To put spiritual wisdom and wisdom from God in perspective check out what Paul says in 1 Corinthians.

1 Corinthians 1:25

²⁵For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

This morning I was reading through James and I was in chapter 3 and the second half of the chapter is titled "Wisdom From Above." I've read and heard this verse before, but it never hurts to hear it more than once.

James 3:17

¹⁷But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

Contrasted to wisdom from the earth.

James 3:14-15

¹⁴But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. ¹⁵This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.

Where does our wisdom come from? Recently I started reading Francis Chan's new book Forgotten God: Reversing A Tragic Neglect For The Holy Spirit and even though I've only read a chapter I can tell you that book is powerful. We need the Holy Spirit. For a number of reasons, wisdom being one of them. Wisdom from the earth is demonic. Those are strong words. Spiritual wisdom comes from above, from the Holy Spirit.

John 14:16

¹⁶And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,

How can we receive spiritual wisdom and everything that goes along with it if we are forgetting about the Holy Spirit? If we pray for wisdom above shouldn't we also pray and lean on the Holy Spirit that is with us forever for that wisdom.

When I was looking at the characteristics of spiritual wisdom in James I was convicted. How often does my life display this sort of attitude? Oddly enough this is the chapter that starts out warning about stricter judgement for teachers. The true definition of wisdom is something I forget far too often, and that is why I am writing this. To remind us of wisdom from above so that we can rely on God.

Colossians 3:2

² Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.