Balancing Faith and Wisdom

A commentary by BJ Foster

Do you have a proper Christian balance between "faith" and "wisdom"? How can you know?

If you've been a Christian for any length of time at all, odds are you've heard these concepts discussed. Faith seems to spur you on to try new things and step out, while wisdom often makes you stop and take a second look at what you're doing.

The answer to achieving the correct balance is quite surprising!

Daniel, a young man who served several kings as a trusted adviser, faced this same predicament several times over the course of his life. One time he was given a powerful job in a new government, and it wasn't long before a plot to bring Daniel down was hatched by envious coworkers.

The plan was simple: They would appeal to the king's pride and get him to proclaim a decree that no one in the entire kingdom could ask anything of any god or man except for himself, on penalty of death. Daniel prayed several times a day, and these men knew that they could use this as an excuse to have him killed (Daniel 6:4-7).

Wisdom seemed to say that Daniel should either stop praying, or at least pray in secret rather than by his open window like he was used to. But faith told him to continue to serve God.

How did Daniel react? He kept doing what he knew he was supposed to do, stepping out on faith. It wasn't long before he was reported and sentenced to death (verses 10-15).

Wait a minute? What about the balance between wisdom and faith? Isn't this an unbalanced approach?

As it turns out, the apparent battle between these two concepts is based on a false view of what wisdom really is. The Bible speaks of two types of wisdom: God's wisdom and the wisdom of mankind. What does it say about each?

Godly wisdom is described in Psalm 111:10: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all those who do His commandments." Compare this to the description of human wisdom: "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death" (Proverbs 14:12).

According to God's inspired words, wisdom isn't a matter of analyzing things and arriving at your own conclusion of whether they look smart to you. What God desires for you is to have the wisdom to realize that you have the Creator of the entire universe on your side, to follow Him and not look to what is merely expedient.

How did this work out for Daniel? He was thrown into a den full of hungry lions, but God protected him through the night. His example of obedience was so profound that the king, upon bringing Daniel out and discovering him to be unhurt, had all of the envious coworkers tossed into the same den with very different results.

Daniel's wise faith didn't just preserve his life—his example led the king to make a decree that everyone "must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel" throughout the whole kingdom (Daniel 6:26). To learn more about Daniel's amazing example, read "Profiles in Faith: Daniel: God Is My Judge."

Don't let anyone fool you into "balancing" your faith and your wisdom. Your faith is wisdom. Nothing is wiser than relying on your Creator as you follow what He, in His unending love, asks of you. VT