Wisdom chapter 1

[This chapter is in Orthodox and Catholic Bibles] Be singlehearted in seeking the LORD God. Wicked people are bent on destruction.

 


 

The Book of Wisdom is recognized as Deuterocanonical Scripture by the Orthodox and Catholic Churches

 


 

BE SINGLEHEARTED IN SEEKING THE LORD

 

VERSE 1. Love righteousness, all you who are judges of the earth. Think of the Lord with a good mind. Seek him in singleness of heart,

 

VERSE 2. because he is found by those who don’t tempt him, and is manifested to those who trust him.

found by those who don’t tempt him. Some people are constantly defying the Living God. That is not a recipe for success.

Do you defy the Living God?

manifested to those who trust him. We disciples are to trust the LORD God with all our heart. He offers us the path of true wisdom. Will you trust in him and act upon his leading? Read more »

 

VERSE 3. For crooked thoughts separate from God. His Power convicts when it is tested, and exposes the foolish.

crooked thoughts separate from God. Walking with the LORD God requires right thinking.

Unjust people do not have right thinking. As we will see in Wisdom 2:1, an absence of right thinking can lead to terribly abusive behavior.

 

VERSE 4. Because wisdom will not enter into a soul that devises evil, nor dwell in a body that is enslaved by sin.

 

VERSE 5. For a holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit, and will depart from thoughts that are without understanding, and will be ashamed when unrighteousness has come in.

 

VERSE 6. For wisdom is a spirit who loves man, and she will not hold a blasphemer guiltless for his lips; because God bears witness of his reins, and is a true overseer of his heart, and a hearer of his tongue:

NAB translation:

For wisdom is a kindly spirit, yet she does not acquit blasphemous lips; Because God is the witness of the inmost self and the sure observer of the heart and the listener to the tongue.

wisdom is a kindly spirit. Many people in church leadership are harsh individuals.

But actual godliness leads to kindliness.

 

VERSE 7. Because the spirit of the Lord has filled the world, and that which holds all things together knows what is said.

the spirit of the Lord. That is, the Holy Spirit.

has filled the world. The Holy Spirit is everywhere.

holds all things together. The Holy Spirit embraces all.

knows what is said. The Holy Spirit knows everything we say.

 

VERSE 8. Therefore no one who utters unrighteous things will be unseen; neither will Justice, when it convicts, pass him by.

 

VERSE 9. For in his counsels the ungodly will be searched out, and the sound of his words will come to the Lord to bring his lawless deeds to conviction;

 

VERSE 10. because a jealous ear listens to all things, and the noise of murmurings is not hidden.

 

VERSE 11. Beware then of unprofitable murmuring, and keep your tongue from slander; because no secret utterance will go on its way void, and a lying mouth destroys a soul.

 

VERSE 12. Don’t court death in the error of your life; and don’t draw destruction upon yourselves by the works of your hands,

 

VERSE 13. because God didn’t make death; neither does he delight when the living perish.

NAB translation: God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living.

God didn’t make death. God is the author of life, not death.

nor does he rejoice in the destruction. Some people conceive of the LORD God as being opposed to them.

This is a fundamental theological error. It makes for a very difficult-to-live-under concept of God.

What we believe about the LORD God affects how we live.

 

VERSE 14. For he created all things that they might have being. The generative powers of the world are wholesome, and there is no poison of destruction in them, nor has Hades royal dominion upon earth;

 

VERSE 15. For righteousness is immortal,

 

WICKED PEOPLE ARE BENT ON DESTRUCTION

 

VERSE 16. but ungodly men by their hands and their words summon death; deeming him a friend they pined away. They made a covenant with him, because they are worthy to belong with him.

 


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WISDOM

CHAPTERS: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19

RESOURCES: Summary, Outline, Memorize, Chronology

Unless otherwise noted, all Bible quotations on this page are from the World English Bible and the World Messianic Edition. These translations have no copyright restrictions. They are in the Public Domain.