Tag Archives: wisdom

Meaning of Life

What Is the Purpose of Life? Part 10

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OK, we’re down to the final two candidates now. The runner-up is goods of the soul. There are two primary goods of the soul: wisdom and virtue. Wisdom is the good of the mind and virtue is the good of the will. Wisdom is knowing the best means to get to the best ends. Put another way, wisdom is knowing the best way to accomplish the best goal.

Virtue is simply moral excellence. Love, kindness, courage, generosity. These are all virtues.

Likewise, wisdom encompasses all of the goods of the mind. The mind and the will are what make up our souls.

So, why would the goods of the soul be the best candidate for happiness? Well, it seems that we’ve excluded everything external to the human being, meaning wealth, honor, fame, and power. We’ve also excluded bodily health and pleasure. By the process of elimination, the soul must be it. The health of the soul must be the thing that makes us happy.

Indeed, this is the conclusion that many people come to. It is common for people to say that love and wisdom are our purpose in life. Even Monty Python said we should live in peace and harmony with others. John Lennon said “All you need is love.” Jimi Hendrix said, “When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.”

Wisdom is also a popular goal for many. Ralph Waldo Emerson said “Life is a festival only to the wise.” Wise people attract a crowd and nobody tires from spending time with them. King Solomon asked God for wisdom and he commended wisdom to his son: “Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or swerve from them. Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you. Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom” (Pr 4:5-7).

Surely the goods of the soul are the meaning of life, the thing that gets us to ultimate happiness. How can we do better than love and wisdom?

But alas, even though it is through the soul that we reach happiness, the soul itself cannot be the ultimate goal of human life. Why? The soul is like an arrow heading toward a bull’s-eye. The bull’s-eye is happiness. It doesn’t make sense to say that the arrow is flying toward itself. The arrow cannot be its own bull’s-eye, but to say that the soul seeks itself for ultimate happiness is saying that the arrow flies toward itself.

Our soul strives for our entire lives to reach happiness. We gain knowledge and wisdom, we learn to love others, but those things are all aimed at our ultimate goal. To say that our soul is that goal is to say that we are going in circles for our entire life, like a cat chasing its own tail. It may be true that we attain happiness with our souls, but our souls are not what gives us final happiness. What is it that our souls long for? What is the bullseye? What is our destination?

Bible Interpretation, Difficult Bible Passages

How Do Biblical Proverbs Operate?

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Post Author: Bill Pratt

The Bible contains numerous proverbial sayings (not just in the Book of Proverbs), and these sayings have some characteristics that must be kept in mind when reading them.  These characteristics can also be found in non-biblical proverbial literature.

Biblical scholar Walter Kaiser lists a few of these characteristics in his book The Uses of the Old Testament in the New.  Here is Kaiser’s list:

1.  Universal moral statements in proverbial literature may be limited to:

a. only a certain tendency of some thing(s) to produce a certain effect (e.g., Prov. 15:1 – though there are times when it may have no effect on wicked men)

b. only telling what generally or often takes place without making it an irreversible rule for any and all situations (e.g., Prov. 22:6 – though some children occasionally will refuse the best of parental leadership and help)

c. only noting what is the normal course of action without listing some implied or understood exceptions (e.g., Matt. 5:34 – though this does not forbid us from taking legitimate oaths in court)

2.  Universal moral truths in proverbial literature may often be stated as direct opposites when they are meant to be understood in terms of priorities or to be taken comparatively in such expressions as:

a. “I desire mercy, not sacrifices” (Hos. 6:6; Matt. 9:13; Matt 12:7)

b. “To obey is better than to sacrifice” (1 Sam 15:22; Ps. 51:17, 19; Jer. 7:22-23)

3.  Universal moral truths in proverbial literature often assume that the correspondingly proper circumstance is also understood, thus:

a. Prov. 26:4

b. Prov. 26:5

I hope these three points help you to better understand what’s going on when you read proverbs in the Bible.

Polls, Will of God

How Should We Determine God’s Will for Our Lives?

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Post Author: Bill Pratt

As Christians we all agree that we want to follow God’s will for our lives, but there are two general approaches to following God’s will that I’ve seen in evangelicalism.

The first approach operates under the premise that God has a specific will for each and every one of our actions and decisions, and that we are obligated to discover what that specific will is.

The second approach operates under the premise that God only specifically wills that we obey his commands as revealed in the Bible, and on issues where the Bible does not speak, we use wisdom.

A couple examples may illuminate.

Let’s say that you are a Christian man looking for a spouse.  You have come to know three wonderful and single Christian ladies and you are wondering which one you should pursue for marriage.

If you are a follower of the first approach, you believe that God has one, and only one, of these women chosen for you.  It is your duty to discover which one of these women he has chosen in order to stay in his perfect will for your life.  If you choose wrongly, you will be outside of his will for your life.

If you are a follower of the second approach, you feel free to pursue any of these three ladies for marriage.  You believe that God will be pleased with any of the three women, as long as you choose wisely.

A second example.  Let’s say that you are a looking for a new job.  You have job offers from three companies.  How should you decide?

If you are a follower of the first approach, you believe that God has one, and only one, of these jobs chosen for you.  It is your duty to discover which one of these three jobs he has chosen in order to stay in his perfect will for your life..  If you choose wrongly, you will be outside of his will for your life.

If you are a follower of the second approach, you feel free to pursue any of these three jobs, as long as there is nothing unbiblical about any of these companies (e.g., they produce pornography or something like that).  You believe that God will be pleased with any of the three jobs, as long as you choose wisely.

Now, which of these two approaches do you believe is more biblical?  I have been purposely vague about some terms because I don’t want to lead you to a specific answer.  Just choose the approach you believe is more biblical by completing the poll below.

Also, please, if you can, cite some Scripture to support your choice in the comment section of this blog post.  We are going to be teaching on this topic at our church in a few weeks, and we would like to know what people think about it.  Thanks!!