by Simon Davies

Created on: March 14, 2007   Last Updated: May 11, 2007

Bible Wisdom

One of the questions that come into everyone's mind every so often is: Is there a best way of acting in this situation? What principles do I need to take into account?
We all have to make decisions every day. Sometimes they are important decisions. Often they are less important decisions which can have unforeseen results further down the line. But what guides our decision-making process? We all use principles to help us take decisions. Sometimes they are just subconscious or feeling-orientated. We also have our own views of what is right and wrong for us or those around us.

Principles
The principles we use to make decisions could be called our wisdom. Wisdom comes from experience which is why traditionally older people are considered wise. It is considered a good thing to have wisdom to make the "right decisions" and it is sought after by some.

Other Influences
There are, however, other influences. People who we spend time with or people we respect can influence us. Books we read, television or films that we watch, all these things also affect our world-view and decision-making processes.
Religious books are well known for presenting wise sayings and in the past they have guided the thinking of whole societies. In our post-Christian European culture, however, the Bible has been relegated to nothing more than a collection of interesting stories. It has been almost forgotten, even in the Church, that the Bible contains a large amount of proverbs and other types of wisdom writing.

Biblical World View
There is such a thing as a Biblical World-view, which can be developed from reading certain books of the Old and New Testaments. This world-view is broad in its extent but also personal in its content. It can help us see how humankind in general works. It can give us principles for living in the world. It can even help us deal with the often confusing and perplexing difficulties that often befall us.

Wisdom Literature
The wisdom books in the Old Testament are Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Job. There are wisdom principles in other parts of the Bible but these three books lay a good foundation. Their primary function is to set out guidelines to help us understand the world and make sensible decisions.
A study of these books reveals that while each is aimed at giving us these guidelines for living, they approach that purpose from different angles. The book of Proverbs is taken up with short pithy sayings, the majority of which contrast a wise attitude with a foolish one. The book of Ecclesiastes takes a different approach; it is the collected musings of a man who has tried every kind of approach to life. His conclusion is that whatever you do is meaningless without a spiritual aspect to your thinking. Finally the book of Job looks at life's disasters and the way we respond to them.

The study of these books, and the development of a biblical world-view based on that study, will at least give some idea of how a world-view could be constructed. Even if you disagree with the biblical one, maybe you will see that there is a lot of sense in these long-neglected writings.

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