Prov 2:6 says, “For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.” In the Bible, the Lord has given you everything you need to live as a Christian. The words in the Bible are God’s words. He gave us his words out of his mouth.
Christians Grow When They Believe and Obey God’s Words
When Christians are first saved, we pray for their spiritual growth. Frankly, Christians grow when they believe the words of God and obey them. 1 Pet 2:2 says, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.” In Acts 20:32 Paul said, “I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.”
If you are not growing or if you are having trouble growing in your Christian life, you can be sure that a big part of the problem stems from not believing and not obeying God’s words. You don’t have the God-given knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, mentioned in Prov 2:6, to live.
God Gives Knowledge, Understanding, and Wisdom
Look at our text. From his words, God gives you knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, Prov 1:7; the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, Prov 9:10. And the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding, Job 28:28.
Knowledge is the what. It is the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity through experience or association, or thorough having information.
Understanding is the why. It is the power of comprehending, or of comprehension.
Wisdom is the how. It is the discernment, judgment, or insight.
Compare these three in your salvation. You received the knowledge that God created everything out of nothing by his word. He gave the living things that he made the power to reproduce. Then, sin entered and brought death to every living thing. So, everything dies. We know this from the Bible and see it in nature.
You received the understanding that you are alive because you are a product of God’s creation through reproduction. Therefore, you didn’t evolve. And you, like your ancestors before you, are going to die. And you understand that the reason you’re going to die is that you have sin in you, too. You’re a sinner; I’m a sinner. In order to remedy the problem with my sin and death, Jesus came to this earth in a body, died, and rose again to live for ever. If I receive him and his eternal life I will live forever.
With the wisdom you received from God’s words, you received Jesus Christ and his eternal life and now you will live forever. I received him, as well, and I will live forever, too.
All This Knowledge, Understanding, and Wisdom Is In the Bible
You learned all of this from the Bible. And everything you need to know and understand after you’re saved you will learn from the Bible, as well. God, through the Holy Spirit, will teach you, Jn 14:26; and guide you into all truth, Jn 16:13. He will give you the words of God by inspiration so that they will be profitable to you and throughly furnish you, 2 Tim 3:16-17. By them you will know what to do to live, you will understand why, and you will know how.
Therefore, you can deal with everything in your life through the words in the Bible. As an example, the Bible says that bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things, 1 Tim 4:8. 1 Tim 4:7 says, Exercise thyself rather unto godliness. So, godliness is certainly more profitable than exercise. But exercise certainly has some benefits.
Believing and Obeying God’s Words Can Help:
Your Health
You can often deal with some health related problems by profitable exercise. When we pray for folks with health problems, we pray for several things including their physical health. We pray that you’ll know what exercise is profitable, and that you’ll have the discipline to do it, and that God will make provision for you to do it.
For my own health, after being directed by the Lord, several times, to 1 Tim 4:7-8, I have added physical exercise, with a trainer, to my routine. This exercise has been very helpful in dealing with back and hip pain. Knowledge: I need to exercise. Understanding: the exercise must be profitable. Wisdom: start exercising correctly and consistently. To fulfill these three conditions, I work with a trainer.
Your Marriage
Here’s another example. We offer premarital instruction to help young couples know what the Bible says about marriage. We help them understand how to apply this knowledge to their lives. And then we encourage them to wisely do what they’ve learned so that they can have strong, enjoyable, God-honoring marriages. The testimonies from these couples are uniformly encouraging.
Currently, I’m praying for four couples who are experiencing marital difficulties. The fact is that they can go to the Bible and know the responsibility each has in marriage. They can apply this knowledge to understand what changes they need to make in themselves to improve their relationship. And by wisdom, they can follow these instructions and completely turn their marriages around.
Your Child-Rearing
The same is true in child rearing. In my office, I have over two dozen Sunday school lessons on the home taught by Pastor Ron Ralph nearly 20 years ago. These lessons are straight from the Bible. They are built on the same principle we are studying today. From the words of God, know, understand, and by wisdom do. Today, he has a church full of young families living for God.
And So Forth
The same is true for teens and children. They can learn from the words of God how to live and why to live the Bible way. Sadly, there are many late teens and young adults who have rejected the knowledge, understanding, and wisdom of the Bible to chart their own lives. The results are disastrous, every time. How much better they would be if they would simply follow God’s knowledge, understanding and wisdom.
The same is true for single parents. The trouble here is that they are often looking for direction with their specific problems, but they are not willing to follow the plain directions God has for them in the words of God. Without following God’s knowledge, understanding, and wisdom revealed in his words, they are hopeless to get their lives on track.
To Receive God’s Knowledge, Understanding, and Wisdom Believe and Obey God’s Words
God desires that his children believe his words and obey them. He wants us to live by his knowledge, by his understanding, and by his wisdom. You can only do this by believing and obeying what he said.