Well, after Saturday night’s service and Pastor Craig’s sermon, I was a bit surprised to hear him say the Greek word for “knowledge” used in II Peter 1:5-6 is gnosis (practical knowledge) vs. sophia (philosophical knowledge). I had always thought of the word sophia as meaning wisdom … and yet, as the message continued, Craig ended up wrapping wisdom into the ultimate meaning of the text. That was a little confusing.
I think we have a different view of wisdom in the all together anyway. When I first started doing bible studies in my home last year, I called the group “Wisdom Seekers” and blogged our meetings (a practice I have continued although the meetings have moved to the church). In any event, for some weeks we did a free-form study of wisdom as it is discussed in Proverbs, the early chapters.
In that study, I made some discoveries about the differences between the terms knowledge, understanding & wisdom. I don’t believe they are quite the same and I’d like to revisit some of these topics this week while pursuing knowledge. For a little preview, visit one of these earlier blog postings: Wisdom Promises and Wisdom Calling.
In essence, I believe wisdom is a gift, yes, but given in response to knowledge & understanding. Oh, there may be times when people are supernaturally gifted wisdom, but I don’t believe that’s the norm. There are other foundations that must be there … among them, knowledge & understanding, but also faith (which we have already discussed) and virtue (which we discussed last week but is also touched upon in Proverbs as prudence).
Meditations from Zion 