[See today's Scripture in Matthew 7:24-29.]
Are
you familiar with the “knowing-doing gap”? It is a common phenomenon in which
people talk about an issue, perhaps learn a lot about it, but don’t do anything about it. Many meetings
close with participants somehow thinking that, by discussing an issue, they’ve
actually done something to address it, even though their contemplations never
even approached a resolution, let alone an action step!
Wisdom
has no knowing-doing gap. Knowing
what is best and not doing what is
best is really pretty silly. “Foolish,” we might say. It’s the opposite of
wisdom. Solomon knew this. When God told the king in a dream to ask for
whatever he wanted, Solomon requested “a discerning heart,”[i] for he needed
understanding and insight to distinguish between right and wrong as he governed
Israel. Wisdom to Solomon was for a purpose beyond mere knowledge; he knew
understanding as something to be applied.
Jesus
knew it, too. His Sermon on the Mount was wisdom from God concerning
forgiveness, enemies, fidelity, possessions, judgment, faith, and several other
life challenges. Then concluding his instruction, He specifically cautioned
against any knowing-doing gap: “Therefore everyone who hears these words of
mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the
rock. . . . But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them
into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.”[ii]
Wisdom
is both creed and deed; it is acting on what we know to be true. In fact, the apostle
James said that if we hear the word and don’t do the word, it eludes us. If, on
the other hand, we apply what we come to know, we are blessed.[iii] His simple advice? “Do
not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”[iv]
[Today's blog post is an excerpt from: Christ in Me. Copyright 2016. Paul Nordman. Used by permission. All rights reserved.]
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