Exercising wisdom from the Word of God

I received an email from Clive today. Who’s Clive? I don’t know. But here’s what he wrote:

“I am Clive Morrison from First Gulf Bank, Dubai. I’m writing you this email in regards to the monetary deal I will like to discuss with you. Please, get back to me for proper info.”

Gee, do you think I should?

You will have noticed by now that the Bible is not a book of casuistry; it is not a manual of theoretical rules covering every possible situation that can and has ever arisen in the history of mankind. If it were, it would have Clive in there. It would have me sitting at my keyboard in America and Clive offering me a real estate deal, or an inheritance from a long lost relative in the United Arab Emirates. I would scroll down the page and find it, and have explicit instructions for how to answer ol’ Clive.

But it isn’t and I can’t. For whatever reason, the Lord has seen fit to not give us exhaustive pre-fab solutions to every particular issue that may arise. Furthermore, He knows full well that this is how He has put his Word together, and so He expects that we will exercise a thing He calls “wisdom.” The book of Proverbs talks about the practicability of wisdom when it says in its preamble:

“To know wisdom and instruction … to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity. … Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance …” (Proverbs 1:1-5).

So we see here that “wisdom” is never a useless theoretical abstraction but always connected to the real stuff of life: “righteousness, justice, and equity.”

In The Doctrine of the Christian Life, theologian John Frame speaks of a three-pronged necessity if we are to be wise and skilled in living:

“… knowledge of our situation, knowledge of our norm, and knowledge of our self are interdependent. You can’t understand the situation fully until you know what Scripture says about it and until you understand your own role in the situation. You can’t understand yourself fully, apart from Scripture or apart from the situation that is in your environment. And you don’t understand Scripture unless you can apply it to situations and to yourself.”

Three things, then: normative, situational, and existential perspectives. All three must be sharpened over a lifetime, for this is our rightful duty before God. We are to increasingly know the Scriptures (norm), increasingly know our world (situation), and increasingly know ourselves (existential).

As for Clive, then, from Scripture (normative), I know that not all men are righteous but that some are thieves (Obadiah 1:5; Matthew 24:43; John 12:6). As for myself, as well as Clive, I also know that “those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare” (1 Timothy 6:9).

From reading the newspapers and talking to other people who have been targeted for scams (situational), I know they often come from Africa or the Middle East.

From knowing human nature through an intimate knowledge of my own heart (existential), I know that men are capable of unrighteous schemes. I also know that if I love money it will be the “root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10).

So although I am not 100 percent certain of Clive, I think I shall go with my 90 percent certainty and delete his email.