The Principal Thing – Part 5 – Wisdom Justified

We have said that wisdom is the principal thing, the main thing any man can pursue in this life if he wishes to have a full, satisfying, and productive life, one that benefits himself and his neighbors. This is the wisdom Solomon required, that he might govern the people of Israel well and bring prosperity to himself and his nation, and that he put into so many glorious metaphors and images in his writings.

Next, we saw that wisdom is personified in Jesus Christ, and that He, the Wisdom of God, is actually looking harder for us than we are for Him. Jesus calls to us from throughout the Scriptures; but He also reveals Himself in the creation all around us. We don’t have to climb some high mountain to know Wisdom. He’s right here, ready to hand. He’s more eager for us to be wise than we are, and knowing this should give us great hope that we can, in fact, attain to wisdom.

The purpose of gaining wisdom is that we might enjoy a full and fruitful life as God intended. The more Jesus increases in us, the more of His wisdom—which we can describe simply as skill in living for God—will be evident in our lives. Wisdom, as Solomon might have defined it, is living “under the heavens” rather than “under the sun”, living according to the Word of God in every aspect of our lives. As Marilynne Robinson put it recently, “the sphere of a life is a sacred landscape populated by holy creatures beloved of God, toward whom, in any circumstance, one must show honor and care befitting the sacred image that marks them all. Goodness is, so to speak, situational” (Hedgehog Review, Spring 2025).

And so is wisdom, as we explained in our last installment.

One more matter to observe, and it relates to a most enigmatic verse in the gospel of Matthew (Matt. 11.16-19). In a passage in which He decried the hard-heartedness of the generation who pooh-poohed both John the Baptist and Himself, Jesus said, “But to what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions, and saying:

‘We played the flute for you,
And you did not dance;
We mourned to you,
And you did not lament.’

For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by her children.”

It’s the last sentence we want to focus on: “But wisdom is justified by her children.” Here Jesus points to the role of those who live by wisdom in validating and justifying the work and claims of our Lord Jesus Christ.

First, let’s recall what we said in our opening segment about Wisdom being referred to in feminine terms. Jesus is merely doing the same here, using the feminine pronoun because, in the Greek, wisdom— ἡ σοφία, he sophia —is a feminine noun. But let’s not get confused: This has nothing to do with human gender and everything to do with a vast abstraction subsumed by our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus may as well have said that He and His claims and work would be justified by those who are begotten of Him, unto Him, and in Him—people like you and I who have been born again into the Wisdom of God and His household.

So, although we may live in a hard-hearted age, among a generation resolutely bent on living “under the sun”, a people who make light of the Bible and regard its teaching about God and Jesus optional if not entirely false, we are called by the Wisdom of God to justify His teaching, validate His work, and make His grace known to our age. And the way we do that is by showing ourselves to be true children of Wisdom. People whose lives of deep commitment and love for God and self-denying love for our neighbors are the proof—the justification—of the Wisdom of God, the life, death, resurrection, and reign of Jesus Christ.

Do we want our generation to consider the Good News of Jesus Christ? Then we must live as children of the Wisdom of God. Do we want our children to grow up believing the Gospel? Then we must live before them a life consistently oriented to our exalted King Jesus Christ and daily devoted, in even the smallest details of our lives, to live for His glory.

Our spoken witness to Jesus will resonate more effectually with the people in our life if it is communicated from one they have plainly and consistently observed to be wise in all matters. The wisdom we gain from Jesus will justify Him and create a greater openness to the Good News of His Kingdom if we who bear that message live the Wisdom we proclaim.

Wisdom is the principal thing. Get wisdom. For your own benefit but also for the good of your neighbors and loved ones, and for the vindication of the eternal Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

What will you do today to increase in the Wisdom of God?