Things Which Have The Appearance of Wisdom!

Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. Colossians 2:20-23 NIV

Just yesterday, a poster was circulated on social media proclaiming that knowledge speaks and wisdom listens and it was getting a lot of attention. Whoever originated the poster missed understanding the bible. "Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice?" (Proverbs 8:1) And there are other passages that extol the virtue of hearing wisdom. The thing is that we are told that "wisdom" is the principle thing to obtain and with wisdom, get knowledge. So, it would appear to me that wisdom speaks and knowledge is obtained by listening.

Perhaps, it is this kind of thinking--turning around the words in scripture that has led to our society being deceived by those things that appear to be acts of wisdom.

I'll attempt to break it down this way:

Wisdom (based upon God's intent for mankind) says marriage is between a man and woman in order to perpetuate the continuation of mankind. Man's knowledge claims that people should be whoever they want to be with regardless of what God says.

Wisdom says when it comes to acts of nature--women should use the bathroom for women and the men use the bathroom for men--exercising common sense which, regrettably is not so common anymore. Man's knowledge (yielding to the choices of the few) claims, "whatever a person feels they are, that's the bathroom they should use." Considering "feelings are fickle" and change frequently, how could anyone think this is anything more than a ploy of the enemy?

Wisdom says we should get knowledge and understanding of the knowledge we obtain. Man's knowledge (especially those in elected offices) seems to think that education is not important for all and allocate more funding for prisons and wars than education. And then we wonder why other countries outperform our students--hands down--when those countries place education as a priority.

Wisdom says if two people are doing the same job--regardless of gender or race or age--they should receive equal compensation. Man's knowledge--thinking men need more money than women--has managed to keep women underearning in the same position as men. There is no equality when things are obviously unequal.

Wisdom says parents should discipline (part of the training) a child while they are young so when they are older, they will have learned valuable lessons. Man's knowledge--utilizing court systems--has proclaimed that spanking a child leads them to being violent and mentally ill. Using small case studies--compared to the number of people who exercise discipline when needed--so-called researchers have convinced a foolish society that children should not be spanked and then we all sit back and wonder--what's wrong with the kids today.

There are efforts--influenced by the enemy--to change what is right by saying what God has said is wrong, that have an appearance of wisdom, but are not wise at all and in fact--oppose God's Word. So, here's the bottom line, when wisdom speaks, we better listen and then use what we hear to make this world a better place.