My child, if you accept my words
and treasure up my commandments within
you,
making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding;
if you indeed cry out for insight,
and raise your voice for understanding;
if you seek it like silver,
and search for it as for hidden treasures
—
then you will understand the fear of the
LORD
and find the knowledge of God.
For the LORD gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and
understanding;
he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
he is a shield to those who walk blamelessly,
guarding the paths of justice
and preserving the way of his faithful ones.
Proverbs 2:1-8
My child, do not forget my teaching,
but let your heart keep my commandments;
for length of days and years of life
and abundant welfare they will give you.
Do not let loyalty and faithfulness forsake
you;
bind them around your neck,
write them on the tablet of your heart.
So you will find favor and good repute
in the sight of God and of people.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not rely on your own insight.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
Do not be wise in your own eyes;
fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.
It will be a healing for your flesh
and a refreshment for your body.
Honor the LORD with your substance
and with the first fruits of all your produce;
then your barns will be filled with plenty,
and your vats will be bursting with wine.
My child, do not despise the LORD's
discipline
or be weary of his reproof,
for the LORD reproves the one he loves,
as a father the son in whom he delights.
Happy are those who find wisdom,
and those who get understanding,
for her income is better than silver,
and her revenue better than gold.
She is more precious than jewels,
and nothing you desire can compare with her.
Long life is in her right hand;
in her left hand are riches and honor.
Her ways are ways of pleasantness,
and all her paths are peace.
She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of
her;
those who hold her fast are called happy.
Proverbs 3:1-18
Listen, children, to a father's instruction,
and be attentive, that you may now insight;
for I give you good precepts:
do not forsake my teaching.
When I was a son with my father,
tender, and my mother's favorite,
he taught me, and said to me,
"Let your heart hold fast my words;
keep my commandments, and live.
Get wisdom; get insight: do not forget, nor
turn away
from the words of my mouth.
Do not forsake her, and she will keep you;
love her, and she will guard you.
The beginning of wisdom is this: Get
wisdom,
and whatever else you get, get insight.
Prize her highly, and she will exalt you;
she will honor you if you embrace her.
She will place on your head a fair garland;
she will bestow on you a beautiful
crown."
Hear, my child, and accept my words,
that the years of your life may be many.
I have taught you the way of wisdom;
I have led you in the paths of uprightness.
When you walk, your step will not be
hampered;
and if you run, you will not stumble.
Keep hold of instruction; do not let go;
guard her, for she is your life.
Do not enter the path of the wicked,
and do not walk in the way of evildoers.
Avoid it; do not go on it;
turn away from it and pass on.
For they cannot sleep unless they have done
wrong;
they are robbed of sleep unless they have made
someone stumble.
For they eat the bread of wickedness
and drink the wine of violence.
But the path of the righteous is like the light
of dawn,
which shines brighter and brighter until full
day.
The way of the wicked is like deep darkness;
they do not know what they stumble over.
My child, be attentive to my words;
incline your ear to my sayings.
Do not let them escape from your sight;
keep them within your heart.
For they are life to those who find them,
and healing to all their flesh.
Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.
Put away from you crooked speech,
and put devious talk far from you.
Let your eyes look directly forward,
and your gaze be straight before you.
Keep straight the path of your feet,
and all your ways will be sure.
Do not swerve to the right or to the left;
turn your foot away from evil.
Proverbs 4:1-27
Apply your mind to instruction
and your ear to words of knowledge.
Proverbs 23:12
There is therefore now no condemnation for
those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in
Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For
God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by
sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with
sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of
the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh
but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the
flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live
according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the
Spirit is life and peace. For this reason the mind that is set on the
flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law —
indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
But you are not in the flesh; you are in the
Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not
have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in
you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life
because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from
the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give
life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.
So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors,
not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh — for if you
live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you
put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are
led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive
a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a
spirit of adoption. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is that
very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of
God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with
Christ — if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be
glorified with him.
Romans 8:1-17
For the message about the cross is foolishness
to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the
power of God. For it is written,
"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will
thwart."
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish
the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world
did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness
of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs
and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a
stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who
are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the
wisdom of God. For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and
God's weakness is stronger than human strength.
Consider your own call, brothers and sisters:
not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful,
not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the
world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame
the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things
that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one
might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in
Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written,
"Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
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