sunday JANUARY 18 Evidence Interpretation of Wisdom Prov. 8:13; John 1:1–3 “The history of the interpretation of Proverbs 8 embraces an astonishing array of ancient and modern perspectives in this passage, ranging from the Christological debates of the early Christian centuries to the almost universal rejection of Christological interpretations in the recent decades.”1 In addition to what commentators have said about Proverbs 8, we should also study for ourselves to see exactly what the word wisdom refers to in this chapter and what it means to each one of us personally. Wisdom is personified as a pure and principled person. Proverbs 8:13 explains that “to fear the Lord is to hate evil” (NIV). This takes us back to the Ten Commandments, which serve as a template to shape our relationship with God and our fellow human beings. God loves us, and the greatest demonstration of His love occurred when He sent Christ to this earth to show us how to live and to die on our behalf so we could be saved (John 3:16–18). Christ declared that instead of worrying, we should believe in Him and in God (John 14:1). While He was on earth, Christ was Gods mouthpiece, asking every man, woman, and child to shun evil and choose righteousness. Even after His ascension, Christ continued to “speak” through the apostles and the Holy Spirit. In the book of Proverbs, wisdom is personified as a pure and principled person who urges people to choose righteousness (Prov. 8:1–8). This personification of wisdom and a close analysis of Christs role in creation and salvation lead us to conclude that it is the voice of Christ addressing us in Proverbs 8. “That it is an intelligent and divine person that here speaks seems very plain, and that it is not meant of a mere essential property of the divine nature, for Wisdom here has personal properties and actions; and that intelligent divine person can be no other than the Son of God himself, to whom the principal things here spoken of wisdom are attributed in other scriptures, and we must explain scripture by itself.”2 REACT How would you explain to a nonbeliever the difference between the worldly view of wisdom and the godly view of wisdom?
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 20:18:33 +0000
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