According to the Bible, wisdom “is the knowledge and the ability to make right choices at the opportune time. The consistency of making the right choice is an indication of maturity and development” (H2451). It says of Jesus in Luke 2:40, “the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.” Before Jesus, the only person in the Bible described as being filled with wisdom was King Solomon, the son of King David. It says in 1 Kings 3:5 that the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night and said, “Ask what I shall give you.” Solomon’s request to be given an understanding mind (1 Kings 3:9) resulted in him becoming the wisest man on earth (1 Kings 4:31). First Kings 3:10-12 tells us:

It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. And God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you.

Solomon’s subsequent decision in a case where two prostitutes were contending for the custody of a child (1 Kings 3:16-27) was thought to be brilliant. It says in 1 Kings 3:28, “And all Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered, and they stood in awe of the king because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice.”

First Kings 4:29-34 tells us that “God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore, so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser that all other men, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol, and his fame was in all the surrounding nations…And people of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom.” One of the people who came to hear the wisdom of Solomon was the queen of Sheba (1 Kings 10:1-13). At the conclusion of her visit, she told Solomon, “The report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and wisdom, but I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it. And behold, the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report that I heard. Happy are your men! Happy are your servants, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom!” (1 Kings 10:6-8). Jesus mentioned the queen of Sheba’s visit to King Solomon when he rebuked the scribes and Pharisees for their unbelief. Jesus said, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. The queen of Sheba will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here” (Matthew 12:39-42).

Jesus told the scribes and Pharisees that something greater than Jonah and something greater than Solomon was there (Matthew 12:42). Jesus wasn’t referring to himself, but the wisdom of God that was within him. Jesus explained to one of the lawyers, who was insulted by his condemnation of the Pharisees legalism, that the Wisdom of God had been manifested in God’s messages to unbelievers throughout history. Jesus said:

“Woe to you lawyers also! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs. Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.” (Luke 11:46-52)

Jesus said that the lawyers had taken away the key of knowledge. Jesus was talking about the “knowledge of the revealed will of God, by which men entered into the life that pleases God” (G2807). Jesus may have been referring to the misguided efforts of the people of Israel to be witnesses to the nations around them of God’s love and faithfulness. The Jews thought that they were supposed to distinguish themselves by rigorously following the Mosaic Law, but God’s intention was for them to reflect his grace and his forgiveness of sinners.

Paul touched on the topic of believers using God’s wisdom verses legal disputes to resolve their differences with each other in his first letter to the Corinthians. Paul argued:

When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers! (1 Corinthians 6:1-8).

The Greek word that is translated wise in 1 Corinthians 6:5, sophos (sof-osˊ) is “spoken of God as surpassing all others in wisdom, being infinite in skill, insight, knowledge, purity (Romans 16:27; 1 Timothy 1:17; Jude 1:25)” (G4680). Paul’s reference to believers being wise enough to settle a dispute had to do with their reliance upon the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to discern God’s will in specific matters. Paul said that “to have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you” and he asked, “Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?”

The point that Paul wanted to make with his statement about lawsuits being a defeat for believers was that it was evidence that they didn’t have spiritual discernment. The Greek word sophia (sof-eeˊ-ah), which is derived from sophos, “stands for divine wisdom, the ability to regulate one’s relationship with God (Luke 2:40; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2:6, 7; 12:8; Ephesians 1:17; Colossians 1:9; James 1:5; 3:13, 15, 17; 2 Peter 3:15). The wisdom of God means the divine wisdom, including the ideas of infinite skill, insight, knowledge, purity” (G4678). Sophia is used in Luke 2:40 in reference to Jesus being filled with wisdom and in 1 Corinthians 1:30 where Paul said, “And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God.”

Paul went on to talk about wisdom from the Spirit in the context of God’s thoughts being revealed to us. Paul said:

Paul said that no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God in order to make it clear that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit was the only means a believer had of discerning the will of God.

Paul shared in his letter to the Ephesians that he had been praying for believers, “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened” (Ephesians 1:17-18). Paul’s use of the phrase having the eyes of your hearts enlightened was meant to convey the fact that spiritual darkness was not immediately dispelled when a person accepted Christ as his or her Savior. James indicated that believes should ask God for wisdom, but said that faith was necessary for it to be received. James said, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (James 1:5-8). James compared a person who doubts the wisdom of God to a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. This illustration suggests that the doubter is being led by the Holy Spirit, but he has decided to do things his own way. James indicated that this will result in the person being tempted by sin. James said, “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it is conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:14-15).