7 Bible Verses That Will Make You Wiser explores Proverbs 1:7’s absolute truth in morality, James 3:17’s wisdom as gentleness, and Colossians 3:16’s gratitude through suffering. It warns against Proverbs 17:28’s unkind speech, Psalm 90:12’s fleeting life awareness, and 1 Corinthians 3:18’s self-deception, while linking Proverbs 15:12-13 to emotional honesty. Daily Bible reading emerges as a tool for humility and insight, blending ancient wisdom with modern relevance. [Automatically generated summary]
All right, the last time we did one of these, instead of looking at stupid TikTok videos, we're left to say stupid things in their stupid ways with stupid rings in their noses and their stupid smiles on their faces.
Let's do something a little smarter by turning to the Bible, which is going to be exponentially smart.
I mean, infinitely smarter.
We're going to take a look at some quotes from the Bible and talk about what it teaches in terms of wisdom.
I didn't pick these quotes because I just wanted to see them off the top of my head.
This is the first time I'm seeing them, and I will talk about what they have said to me, and hopefully that's helpful to you as well.
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All right, from Proverbs.
I love Proverbs.
It's like condensed wisdom.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
What does that mean?
The fear of the Lord is the beginning.
Some people say the beginning of wisdom.
And I think the reason is this is one of the things that led me to belief was that I came to believe very young that there are some things that are right and there are some things that are wrong, even if every single person thinks otherwise.
Every person on earth, every animal, every book you read tells you that abortion is right or genocide is right or conquest by the sword is great.
It doesn't matter.
Slavery, it doesn't matter.
It's wrong.
Now, I may have absolute understanding and forgiveness for people who grew up in a culture where they thought it was right, they thought it was fine, they hadn't advanced or they hadn't realized that it was not fine.
I understand in different times people think different things, but that is a lack of knowledge in the same way that the Pharaohs had everything they needed to make a light bulb, but they just didn't know how to put it together or that it could be put together or what it even was, right?
So we advance in our knowledge.
And it begins with the fear of the Lord, because without God, everybody will tell you, so many intellectuals will tell you, well, this game theory will give us morality, or because we'll understand it's good for everybody.
It's just not true.
You have to know, you have to have faith, you have to believe axiomatically, which means without proof, you have to know that it is better to give a beggar bread than to beat a child to death for your own personal pleasure.
I'm sorry, but there is no place where that's right.
There is no place where all the votes in the world will make that right.
And people get this wrong because human beings don't have an absolute knowledge of absolute truth.
We see through a glass darkly.
It's very important to remember that.
So people think, well, then there is no truth.
But that's ridiculous.
Once you understand that there is a God and there is, and all science now points to this as well as the Bible, but once you understand that's true, then you understand that there is a moral order and you can begin to search for it.
But fools despise wisdom and instruction.
All right, let's look at another Bible quote, James 3:17.
But the wisdom from above is first of all pure.
It is also peace-loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others.
It is full of mercy and good deeds.
Well, this, I think, goes without saying, but still, the one thing that's kind of flashes out at me is it's peace-loving and gentle at all times.
You know, I think that that is true in intent, that we are always, should always be peace-loving.
There is nothing, violence, the only good thing you can say about violence is that it stops other people from being violent.
It stops bad people from being violent against good people.
And then you can say, well, the violence was justified, but it doesn't mean that it's good.
Peace is always better than violence, always, unless you have to commit acts of violence to stop other acts of violence.
And gentleness, too.
And this is hard for men.
I think men are not naturally gentle.
I think women have more gentleness in them.
Becoming not just a gentleman, but a gentleman is something that you should cultivate.
I strive for it every day because I'm a naturally hard character and I strive to be more gentle with the people around me and the people I love because I cannot be very easily.
And I think it improves my life, it improves their life, it improves life.
Mercy and good deeds.
I think this is a straightforward, simple one.
All right, let's move to another one.
Colossians 3:16.
Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.
Well, there's a lot in that to unpack.
I can't unpack it all, but the idea that you can't be a Christian alone.
I really believe this.
And in the old days and medieval times, the hermit was a character, and they would talk about hermits as being especially holy men.
And I can understand why you would say that, because a hermit has time to meditate, think, and study, and dedicate his whole life and his whole body to God.
But I think ultimately the point of being a hermit is to come out and be with others and radiate the wisdom of Christ that is in you.
And I think that this one of the things that that comes from is the gratitude in your heart.
And it is so easy to forget that you don't have to be alive at all.
Bible as a Guide00:08:06
You know what I mean?
That you are here every day is a day.
I know that some people have incredibly miserable, tough situations.
But if you can find that gratitude, if you can find that joy essentially in living life, I think that you will become closer to God.
I sometimes compare it to going to a movie.
In a movie, you see something horrible.
Somebody dies in a movie and you cry and you weep and you're absolutely racked and you walk out and people say, How was the movie?
You say, it was great.
It's really powerful.
I really love that movie.
If you can treat life a little bit like that and understand that the sorrows and griefs of life are part of the essential nature of life, then you can have that gratitude, which will lift you up and you can express that upliftingness to others around you.
And I think that's where a lot of the work of the Spirit is done is between human beings, not inside one human being.
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Proverbs, even fools are thought-wise if they keep silent and discerning if they hold their tongues.
Well, this is good advice, right?
Proverbs is full of good advice.
And I think that, you know, that old expression, which I mean is basically a translation of this, better to keep your mouth shut and people think you're a fool than to open it and let them know you're a fool.
And I think that's, you know, it's especially hard today with the internet, with that kind of lure, like, come on, say it, say it, let it out, let it out.
You know, not everything deserves a comment.
I frequently, when going through my ex-file, I frequently see something and I immediately come up with just the cleverest, funniest response.
And then I stop and I think, well, first of all, does the world need this response?
Second of all, is it unkind to this person who is a real person on the other side of this?
Does it belittle them?
Does it make fun of them?
You know, so we're always being cajoled into speaking too quickly, not just from without, but from within by anger, by, you know, a sense of vulnerability that makes us speak out.
Always, always, always a good idea to at least ask yourself if maybe it wouldn't be better if you just put a sock in it.
All right.
That doesn't say that.
I don't know why they didn't say it.
Maybe they didn't have socks.
They had sandal.
Put a sandal in it.
All right.
Psalm 90, 12.
Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Boy, I'll tell you something.
At my age, when my days are distinctly numbered, you really do learn this.
You really learn that the day matters.
A day matters.
The air, the taste of the air matters.
The look of the clouds matter.
The look of the trees matter.
All of this matters.
If you can find this out, the younger you find this out, the better your life will be.
Number your days because they are numbered.
Nothing is going to happen to change this.
People think they're going to find eternal life.
I don't believe it.
I think that we will, you know, and even if you had, even if you lived for 300 years, you'd still die and death is still forever, right?
I mean, if there's another life, but it's not this life.
And this life is the one you have now and the one that you know will be here.
And I think it is a good thing.
You know, whenever they show you Mary Magdalene in paintings, she's always looking at a skull to remember that at some point you're going to have to face God.
At some point, you're going to have to face death.
And it's good to keep that in mind all the time so you know what life is.
All right, next.
1 Corinthians 3.18.
Do not deceive yourselves.
If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise.
Boy, oh boy, that's great stuff.
It is great stuff.
First of all, do not deceive yourself.
We should all have that printed on our forehead.
I mean, you can't see it because it'd be on your forehead, but we should have it carved into our forehead.
Do not deceive yourself.
It is the easiest thing in the world to do.
It is easy to think that you're incredibly wise.
I know so many people who think so.
I know so many people who think that they have more of an effect on the world than they do.
The first, the beginning of wisdom, Socrates taught this, is to know that you know nothing.
Uncertainty, I call it, John Keats called it negative capability.
It is the ability to act and operate not knowing, not being able to solve some of the mysteries of life, knowing that there are mysteries that you cannot solve.
It is amazing.
When I started doing this, when I started talking on the air, anytime I would make a theological point, someone would write to me and say, no, that's not, every time, every single time, I would say, you know, the Bible believes this or Jesus preached this.
No, that's not what he was saying.
No, that's not.
And I would just think like, hey, you know, I'm telling you my best information.
I'm telling you with humility, try to develop a little of that humility on your own.
If you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you are simply this age's fool.
You should become fools, knowing, in other words, that you don't know.
And that way, you may be a path to wisdom.
All right, next.
Another proverb from 15, 12 and 13.
A scoffer does not love one who reproves him.
He will not go to the wise.
A joyful heart makes a cheerful face, but when the heart is sad, the spirit is broken.
Well, those are actually two sayings there.
I'll take the second one, I think.
A joyful heart makes a cheerful face, but when the heart is sad, the spirit is broken.
know, this is obviously something that Jesus talks about all the time.
He talks about the fact that it's not the words that come out of your mouth.
It's the fact that those words are coming from your heart.
So that if you hear blasphemy, if you hear ugliness, if you hear cruelty, those aren't just words.
It's not words, words, words that don't mean anything.
Those are expressing something that's in your heart.
And that is so important about language.
It doesn't mean that I can silence people who says evil things.
It means that I know something about his heart.
And if he is listening to himself, then he will learn something about his heart as well.
A joyful heart makes a cheerful face.
You know, if you are really feeling it, you can see.
I mean, you can see.
Have you ever seen old people who just look like they're wreathed in smiles, like the smiles are carved into their faces?
And you can also see old people who have something else carved into their face.
And that's a really, it's really true that that is a sign of their heart.
And you should remember it when you are saying the things that you're saying.
And maybe take care.
You don't have to take care not to say them.
You have to take care to look at what it is in your heart that is producing those words.
And that's why someone who scoffs, I suppose, an unbeliever, doesn't want to be reproved.
He doesn't want to see those things.
And so he will not go to the wise.
All right.
Nothing better than reading the Bible.
The Bible, just like you can, you can read the Bible.
I do read the Bible every day.
You always get something out of it.
It's always got something to say.
And this time, I got to say something, which is a privilege.