Geoff's Miscellany

Miscellaneous Musings

wisdom

On the sissyness of Christian advice.

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Often, advice from successful Christian men and women boils down to platitudes that sound spiritual, but reflect neither wisdom nor what those very people did to become successful.

Here are things I heard in sermons to college students when I was in college or that I heard when I asked for advice:

  1. Ask God for guidance.
  2. Listen and see what God tells you to do.
  3. Your early twenties is a good time to spend yourself on volunteer work (usually the mission cause of the agency represented by the preacher) because you won’t have time when you’re older.
  4. Just wait on God.
  5. Don’t worry about that kind of thing, God will provide.

When somebody reads that list, they are likely to think, “Of course that makes sense, it’s all good advice.”

I call foul.

I think evangelical Christianity is so influenced by this very language that we often cannot even tell that what we’re saying makes no sense.

If a young Christian man asks an older Christian man a question like, “How can I make more friends?” He’s obeying Scripture when it says, “with many counselors there is victory.” He’s probably asking because he feels lonely or gets picked on often and he sees the man he asks as successful and likable. But many people, instead of giving advice based on their own experience say the silly nonsense I mentioned above, even though the man who was asked does things like dresses well, makes interesting conversations, listens to others, and has masculine body language.

Similarly, somebody who is wondering what to major in is often told to pray about it and listen to the Lord to find his calling, even though the Bible never says that God will tell you what to major in, in college. The Bible does say, to “pray for wisdom” (James 1:5) and to gain skill in order to be successful (Proverbs 22:29).

Anyway, Christianese is usually not biblical and is almost never helpful. Don’t give it and don’t believe it when you hear it. Also, try asking better questions like, “what did you do to get ‘x'” or “if you were me, what would you do differently to achieve ‘y’.”

The soul of the sluggard

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The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied. (Pro 13:4)

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”(Exo 20:17)

In our Bibles coveting is an interesting concept, but itself it simply sounds like desire. But in the contexts the word appears, it clearly means desire out of proportion and intention to have/take what one cannot have.

At its core, to covet is to entertain the desire to seize upon something which rightly belongs to another. Another way to say it is “to intend to have what belongs to another.” James says that sin, in general, starts with a desire that is then mismanaged. Covetousness can start with a desire to have fruit brought on by seeing a tree covered in tasty but prohibited fruit. And instead of getting fruit one is allowed, one obsesses over the other.

I’ve come to think that of the keys to overcoming covetousness is to become productive. Proverbs 13:4 above implies this (it does not use the Hebrew word for covet, but the idea is similar). The sluggard craves but does not get. James makes this observation about the source of quarrelling: “You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask [in prayer or perhaps of a brother when in genuine need]. (Jas 4:2)” Interestingly, if somebody desires something, even if that desire is spurred on by a neighbor’s goods, it would appear that if you are diligent you soul will be richly supplied insofar as your diligence is for pursuing the good.

The cure for coveting is probably not turning off one’s desire to have a house, a wife, or property in general. Instead, to cure covetousness we should exercise diligence in pursuing and accomplishing good. And, when you do have a need that is not met by diligence or that is too pressing, then ask [God or neighbor].

Don’t Retire to Watch T.V. and Wish You’d Lived Differently

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Don’t retire, if you retire from your career, pursue your calling as soon as you clock out on your last day.

Watch this video. This woman is one hundred years old:

Proverbs 24:10 says:

“If you faint in days of adversity, your strength is small.”

I hope to follow this woman’s advice and I hope you do to.

Here’s an article at ergo-log.com describing a study which tried to determine if the phrase “he worked himself to death” describes a real phenomena: Hard Workers Live Longer

ht to Gary North for finding the video.

Be Wise For Yourself

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One of the most interesting features of the book of Proverbs is that despite the fact that the Proverbs themselves try to help the individual to be oriented toward others, the book appeals primarily to self-interest. This is very important. I’ll probably write more about it later (I still need to finish my series on the common topics). But when our self-interest is appealed to, our desire to survive, thrive, and experience happiness Christians often feel embarrassed or feel the need to correct the Bible with comments like, “Jesus offers these gifts, but really we should be self-less.” Check out the Prologue to Proverbs:

Proverbs 9:10-12 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. (11) For by me your days will be multiplied, and years will be added to your life. (12) If you are wise, you are wise for yourself; if you scoff, you alone will bear it.

If you become a scoffer, ultimately that falls on you. But similarly, if you become wise, it falls on you. Therefore, become wise. Other people cannot do it for you and you cannot do it for other people. Other people and things can be motivations for gaining wisdom, of course. If you want to be wise in order to have a longer life, Proverbs offers that as well. But, again, it’s on you to become wise and there is no guarantee that it will help other people, that they will appreciate it, or that they will support you. Similarly, if you become a scoffer, there is no guarantee that anybody else will be hurt, but there is a guarantee that you’ll bear the result of scoffing because you’ve become a scoffer.

Here are some thoughts:

  1. Seek wisdom in order to have the good life for yourself.
  2. Part of wisdom is loving God and loving neighbor and wisdom will help you do these better and indeed, loving God and neighbor has a volitional (will) component and an affective (enjoyment) component.
  3. The motivation for loving God and neighbor is given in the Sermon on the Mount. If you participate in God’s kingdom, the benefits, if real, are staggering (Matthew 5:3-10).
  4. The motivation for glorifying God is obtaining glory (see Romans 3:23 and 5:1-5 and all of chapter 8). In other words, God doesn’t need us to glorify him, God calls us to glorify him because it benefits us.
  5. It is unwise to be selfish, but true wisdom is self-interested and still loving to others.

Wisdom Wednesday: The Wisdom of Solomon 8:7

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One of the most interesting pieces of ancient literature (in my mind) is the Wisdom of Solomon. If you’re Roman Catholic or Greek Orthodox, it will appear in your Bible. If you’re Protestant some Bibles include it, some do not. It represents an attempt to express Jewish wisdom in relationship to Platonism, Aristotelianism, and Stoicism. I find the book to be intriguing and in many ways compelling. One of my favorite parts is where the author, using the voice of Solomon says this of wisdom:

2 I loved her and sought her from my youth,

and I desired to take her for my bride,

and I became enamored of her beauty. 3 She glorifies her noble birth by living with God,

and the Lord of all loves her. 4 For she is an initiate in the knowledge of God,

and an associate in his works. 5 If riches are a desirable possession in life,

what is richer than wisdom who effects all things? 6 And if understanding is effective,

who more than she is fashioner of what exists? 7 And if any one loves righteousness,

her labors are virtues;

for she teaches self-control and prudence,

justice and courage;

nothing in life is more profitable for men than these. 8 And if any one longs for wide experience,

she knows the things of old, and infers the things to come;

she understands turns of speech and the solutions of riddles;

she has foreknowledge of signs and wonders

and of the outcome of seasons and times. 9 [1]

Note the bolded text. If anybody loves righteousness/justice, then wisdom will teach that person self-control, prudence, justice (righteousness), and courage. If one is truly concerned with being right with God and man, then wisdom (no longer merely a word for skill or cunning in this book) will provide its adherent with all of the other virtues.

Why does this matter?

  1. New Testament Interpretation
    I think that the presence of the four cardinal virtues in this book is important to the modern Christian because in 2 Peter 1:3-11, Peter refers to virtue as a trait of Jesus that attracts us to the gospel and as a trait that brings us into conformity to his will. So, Jesus excellence (perhaps in terms of these four traits) is part of what makes the gospel appealing and is part and parcel of Christian character (as Teddy Roosevelt once said, “Unless we keep the barbarian virtues, gaining the civilized ones will be of little avail.” One might rephrase it thus, “If we cannot manage the pagan virtues like courage and cleverness, the Christian ones like innocence and meekness will be of little avail.”
  2. Old Testament Interpretation
    An ancient Jewish interpreter of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job, Song of Solomon, and of the whole Old Testament found that wisdom as a way of life ultimately taught what was best in paganism. In other words, an ancient Jewish Bible scholar thought that self-control, prudence, justice, and courage were important virtues exemplified or shown by counter example in the Old Testament.
  3. Christian Life
    If we use the four cardinal virtues as lens (not the only or the main one) for reading the Bible, they can help us learn which Biblical characters should be treated as exemplars and which would be shameful to emulate. And if we treat the Bible as a legitimate repository of wisdom that is part of the pathway to a life of fully orbed character and joy in God and his creation, then I suspect it will help us on that path. Indeed, Paul says that the Old Testament is inspired for training in righteousness in a passage where he says that it also makes us wise for salvation (2 Timothy 3:14-17). The connection between righteousness, wisdom, and virtue is very important in our Bibles, far more than certain reductive readings of our Bible have led us to believe.

[1] The Revised Standard Version (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1971), Wis 8:2–9.

Wisdom Wednesday: Faithfulness to Good Routines

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Don’t You Hate It When
I’m a routine guy. I love routines. Routines, in my mind, are exactly what makes spontaneity pleasant. Now, interestingly, if you love routines, spontaneity can also become a no-go. But that isn’t the topic. The topic is veering off from routine for no good reason.

Example
Most mornings I wake up, do some reading, work on some writing, do my exercises, and get ready for my day.  This morning I woke up and decided I would send an email, first thing. When I checked, I had an email from my boss which he wouldn’t have expected to receive a response to for days. But, many of the questions contained in the email were interesting and pertained to something I’d been thinking about for a few months. So, I spent about an hour writing him back. Basically, what happened is that I missed my routine almost entirely. I am writing my Wisdom Wednesday post where I reflect on the Bible’s wisdom literature, but most of my routine was missed.

A Topical Proverb
I had a different post in mind that maybe I’ll write tonight (broken routine), but I was reminded of this Proverb:

Proverbs 20:9 ESV  Who can say, “I have made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin”

The easy way to respond to breaking one’s routine is to give up on it for any number of reasons:

  1. Too hard
  2. It got boring
  3. Too easily distracted
  4. I missed it a few times so it wasn’t right for me

But this Proverb reminded me that people do wrong things on a much more important scale (the moral one). We plan for evil, we fail to plan for good, we give up on our good plans, we pursue the good with evil intent, we pursue the good with bad methods, and so-on. So, the Proverb asks all of us, “Who can say, ‘I have made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin?’ To whom is the question addressed?

  1. The self-righteous and judgmental fellow
  2. The person on a permanent diet from sin who has a cheat day every day of the week
  3. The Christian who still struggles with anger/lust/laziness/idolatry after decades of discipleship
  4. The person who thinks that God owes him/her

Now the wrong response to the Proverb is, “Screw it, who can stop sinning? Not this guy!” Instead the idea is to be gracious with oneself and others and get immediately back on the right path. Our routines (for basic self-discipline or for following Christ) are always going to be human and therefore puny. The human will is so wussy (try moving something with your will but not your body). The earth in its circuit is difficult to move out of routine. A human being can be moved off of the path by an email. But, like a parenting tactic I learned from a friend, “You put the kid back in bed until he’s too tired to fight it and goes to sleep.” This process is similar to routines: “You break it Monday, you do it again Tuesday through Friday” until it becomes easier (or it doesn’t, what’s wrong with hard?). Then you can adapt it to your needs. If you fall of the wagon every other day, keep the routine every other day (better than no days). If the routine break involves falling (or running excitedly) into sin, do the same. Quitting some sinful habit every other day is better than doing it every day.

I suppose it is important to remember this as well:

Ecclesiastes 7:20 “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.”

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