Knowing God: Chapter 10 - God's Wisdom and Ours

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Chapter 10 of Knowing God focuses in on how to receive the gift of wisdom from God. Dr. Packer notes that receiving wisdom is part of God’s work “to repair His ruined image” in the life of the Christian, part of being “renewed in the image of Christ (2 Cor 3:18) and of God (Col 3:10).”

There are two prerequisites to take hold of the gift of wisdom from God:

  1. We must learn to reverence God. (Psa 111:10; Prov 9:10; Job 28:28; Prov 1:7; 15:33) This is a necessary act of humility on our part, recognizing God for the great God He is. (Neh 1:5; 4:14; Deut 7:21; 10:17; Psa 99:3; Jer 20:11)
  2. We must learn to receive God’s word. (Psa 119:98-99; Col 3:16; 2 Tim 3:15-17)

Dr. Packer goes on to note that to live wisely “realism [is] needed...you have to be clear-sighted and realistic—ruthlessly so—in looking at life as it is.” And then he notes, “there is...one book in Scripture that is expressly designed to turn us into realists, and that is the book of Ecclesiastes.” (a timely observation for us as we walk through Ecclesiastes together at The Hills Church)


He finishes by reminding us that wisdom is not an end in itself. Godly wisdom produces godly fruit, the fruit of “Christlikeness—peace, and humility, and love (Jas 3:17)—and the root of it is faith in Christ (1 Cor 3:18; 2 Tim 3:15) as the manifested wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:24, 30).”

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