Wisdom & Knowledge

“Knowledge puffs up but love builds up”, said Paul (1 Cor 8.1).  When someone thinks he knows he simply does not know (1 Cor 8.2). A famous Chinese saying writes, “知之为知之，不知为不知，是知也”. A true knowledge is to acknowledge what you know and what you are ignorant of. A wise man is someone who knows his own limitation to full knowledge on anything. 

Some people assume that Solomon had made a foolish decision asking for wisdom since it subsequently led Solomon astray - into worshiping idols. My question is, "Did wisdom lead Solomon astray or did it lead Solomon back to God?" If we read the book of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, we will find that it was wisdom that has eventually led Solomon back to God. Wisdom enables Solomon to rediscover himself. I am not proposing the worship of Sophia. Wisdom is not necessarily evil. Wisdom is from the Lord (Col 2.3). Paul adopted the word Sophia favored by the Greek philosophers and presented a new kind of Sophia from the Lord. The wisdom from the world is different from the wisdom from the Lord (1 Cor 2.6-7). The wisdom from the world is made foolish by God (1 Cor 1.20; 3.19). Wisdom is of paramount important to us to have full knowledge of Christ (Eph 1.17). We are advised to be wise in the way we act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity (Col 4.5)


Living in the age of information, the purpose of knowledge acquisition is often for the sake of boosting one's self-esteem. People seek to be knowledgeable, for a knowledgeable person is often well-respected. However, who is more knowledgeable than Google Search Engine and who owns more personal data than Facebook? Knowledge puffs up or it creates BIG HEADS. Unfortunately, education institutions plunge themselves into act of transferring knowledge. Well, there is nothing wrong with knowledge, for it is one of the tools for achieving well-being. But we live in a culture that idolize knowledge. Knowledge is most sought after and misused.

Technological advancement is a key feature of our fast growing world today. Hence, it is not surprising when Anthony Giddens, a British sociologist uses the term “run away world” to describe our present world. The speed of information travels has increased tremendously over the past two centuries. For we live in a world increasingly saturated by information. With such a huge data spinning around the globe, the capability to access, analyze and to appropriately use information is a key factor to manage information. Education should be able to create “information architect” who is capable of retrieving, analyzing and generating information for appropriate use. Paul Saffo in an essay for Wired Magazine in 1994 poignantly predicts the growing importance of point of view in an information saturated culture, he said,

The scarcest of context resources will be something utterly beyond the ken of cold algorithms - point of view. "Point of view" is that quintessentially - human solution to information overload, an intuitive process of reducing things to an essential relevant and manageable minimum.

http://www.curatormagazine.com/rebeccahorton/information-design-and-the-modern-world/

We should seek wisdom and make full use of knowledge, learning how to manage knowledge effectively - search, evaluate, use and create useful information in this digital world. A wise person does not seek fame nor to be remembered. A wise man does not show off his knowledge. "Knowledge speaks but wisdom listens". Let me end by quoting Ecclesiastes 9.13-17...

I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed me: There was once a small city with only a few people in it. And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it and built huge siege works against it. Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom. But nobody remembered the poor man. So I said, "Wisdom is better than strength." But the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are no longer heeded. The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded than the shouts of a ruler of fools.