Wisdom a gift of God
I. TRUE WISDOM ORIGINATES IN DIVINE INSPIRATION. Prophets and apostles—teachers of the highest truths—claim to be delivering a message from heaven. The greater the thoughts declared to us in Scripture, the more emphatic is the ascription of them to a superhuman source. Surely this very fact—this conjunction of unique value in the thoughts with the confident assertion that they are from God—should go far in leading us to believe in the inspiration of them. But it is also urged by the men who bring these truths to us that we can only receive them when we are inspired by the Spirit of God; and experience shows that they who have most spirituality of life are able to drink most deeply of the fountains of revelation. Further, when once we admit this much, it follows that, if we recognize the constancy of God in all his methods of action, it is reasonable for us to feel that all truth must depend on a Divine illumination for its manifestation, and that all wisdom must be the outcome of some degree of inspiration. Nevertheless, it is not to be inferred that inspiration dispenses with natural channels of knowledge; on the contrary, it opens the eyes of men, who must then use their eyes to be seers of spiritual truth.
II. THE INSPIRATION OF WISDOM DEPENDS ON SPIRITUAL RELATIONS WITH GOD. If inspiration is the source, the questions arise—Who are privileged to drink of this fountain? and how do they gain access to it? Now, it is much to be assured that this is not reserved to any select class of men. Prophets have a special revelation to convey a special message, and apostles have a distinctive endowment for the accomplishment of a particular mission; but the inspiration of wisdom generally is not thus limited. On the contrary, it comes freely to all who rightly avail themselves of it. What, then, are the conditions for receiving it?
1. Prayer. "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gareth to all liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him" (James 1:5). Whosoever seeks shall find.
2. Purity. "The pure in heart shall see God," and the highest wisdom is in the beatific vision of him who dwells in the light of eternal truth.
3. Obedience. As we submit our wills to God's wilt, we open the channel through which his Spirit enters into us, and by fellowship illumines.
III. TRUE WISDOM, BEING INSPIRED BY GOD, WILL BEAR THE STAMP OF DIVINE CHARACTERISTICS. It will differ from mere human speculation; sometimes it will be so much in conflict with that speculation as to pass for foolishness (see 1 Corinthians 1:18). It will be distinctly opposed to the wisdom that is purely carnal, i.e. to that which takes account only of earthly facts and ignores spiritual principles, the wisdom of expediency, the cleverness of men of the world. Such wisdom is not only earthly; its low maxims and immoral devices proclaim it to be "sensual devilish" (James 3:15). Divinely inspired wisdom, on the contrary, is spiritual—taking account of the facts and laws of the higher order; pure—not ministering to selfish greed and degraded pleasure; wholesome—strengthening and elevating the soul; "peaceable, gentle, easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without variance, without hypocrisy" (James 3:17).
The antidote to temptation
I. WE NEED AN ANTIDOTE TO TEMPTATION. It is not enough to trust to our own spiritual health to throw off the poison. We are already diseased with sin, and have a predisposition to yield to temptation in the corruption of our own hearts. But if we were immaculate, we should still be liable to fall; the power of temptation is so fearful that the purest, strongest soul would be in danger of succumbing. The tempter can choose the moment of his attack. When we are most off our guard, when we are faint and weary, when we are suffering from spiritual depression, the mine may be suddenly sprung, and we may be lost before we have fully realized the situation. Like the dragon in Sponsor's 'Faery Queene,' which would have stifled the Red Cross Knight with the fiery fumes it belched forth unless he had fallen into the healing fountain, the tempter would destroy our spiritual life with an atmosphere of foul thoughts after more tangible attacks have failed, were it not that we have a supply of grace outside ourselves, equal to our need. Even Christ, when tempted, did not rest on his own purity and power, but appealed for support to the sacred wisdom of Scripture.
II. THE ANTIDOTE TO TEMPTATION MUST BE SOME FORM OF POSITIVE GOOD. Fire is quenched by water, not by opposing flames. Evil must be overcome with good. The way to keep sin out of the heart is to fill the heart with pure thoughts and affections till there is no room for anything else. The citadel entered most easily by the tempter is an empty heart.
III. TRUE WISDOM IS THE SUREST ANTIDOTE TO TEMPTATION. All knowledge tends in some degree to preserve from evil. Light makes for goodness. Both are from God, and therefore they must harmonize. Secular knowledge is morally useful. A very large proportion of the criminals in our jails can neither read nor write. Ignorant of wiser courses, they are led aside to the lowest pursuits. Sound intelligence and good information introduce men at least to the social conscience. But the schoolmaster is not the saviour of the world. Higher wisdom is needed to be the successful antidote to sin—that wisdom which, in the Book of Proverbs, is almost synonymous with religion—the knowledge of God and his laws, and the practical discernment of the application of this knowledge to conduct. We must know God's will and the way of the Christian life, the beauty of holiness and how to attain it, if we are to have a good safeguard against sin. Christ, the Wisdom of God, dwelling in our hearts, is the great security against temptation.
IV. TO BE EFFECTUAL AS AN ANTIDOTE TO TEMPTATION, WISDOM MUST BE RECEIVED WITH DELIGHT. Knowledge must be "pleasant." We are most influenced by that which we love most. There is a strength in the Divine joy. So long as religious truths are accepted in cold intellectual conviction, or submitted to through hard compulsions of duty, they will have little power over us. But happily God has joined the highest truth to the purest gladness. Wisdom is a pleasure to those who welcome it to their hearts. The acquisition of all knowledge is pleasurable, The knowledge of God is joined with peculiar spiritual delights. In rejoicing in this and in love to the incarnation of this wisdom in Christ, we have the strongest safeguard against temptation.