"I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths…The way of the wicked [is] as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.” (Pr 4:11, 19 AV)
Solomon is speaking to his adult children. They have received wisdom from their father. They have learned much. The book of Proverbs is as much a book to remind them of that which they already know as it is to share new wisdom they had never heard before. When Solomon states he has taught them in the way of wisdom, he is reminding them they already have a great deal of wisdom upon which they can build the rest of their lives. There comes a time when we have the majority of what we need in order to live godly lives. It isn’t information which we lack. It is discipline. A father can only teach in the way of wisdom. He cannot teach wisdom. Wisdom is the discipline to live according to the truths one has learned. At least that is how the word is primarily used in the book of Proverbs. Solomon’s children have watched their father as he was successful in governing a nation. The king has taught be example, both good and bad, the consequences of choices. It is this example that is the way. But I digress. There comes a time when we have enough light and it comes down to action.
There is nothing like learning by immersion. I have been trying to learn a foreign language. It is going ok. One drawback is most learning is visual. Words appear and you read those words. What is lacking is audio learning. There is little active listening. I can learn verbs. I can learn nouns. I can learn grammar. But until I have actual conversations with people who speak my target language, then there is something seriously lacking. I have a son who is a foreign missionary. He had to learn a foreign language. He went to language school. I tried to learn with books and classroom time. It was not until he was forced to survive on his own that he could begin to grasp what he had learned. One drill my app encourages me to do is active translation. Or, trying to speak in the foreign language even if it to yourself. So, when I think of some sentence in my head, I try to speak it in another language. There are different levels of speaking. There are A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2. In order to be considered fluent for normal everyday conversations, B2 is where you want to be. This takes practice. This takes putting into practice what one has learned from the books. This takes speaking as those who have taught you speak. There comes a time when what we have learned has to be put into use.
We are the most educated of all generations. Information is at our fingertips. If we don’t know a word, we can click a couple of times and find it. If we cannot remember where something is, then we can use AI to find it. If we want to know any opinion regarding any doctrine, it is a simple search away. We have all this knowledge, but our churches are declining, falling into sin, and Christ is becoming irrelevant. The social gospel has taken over. Why? Because of wisdom. We do not lack knowledge. We do not lack understanding. What we lack is the discipline to live the principles of the word of God. Solomon did all he could do. All he could do was to remind his children of principles, which they have observed all their lives. All he could do was to encourage them to live godlier than he did. All he could to was to challenge them to live out what they learned. For must of us, it is not a matter of learning something new. It is a matter of living what we already know.
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