Bible Verses About Wisdom: Living Life Well Under the Sun

Looking for Bible verses about wisdom? If so, this article is for you.

Have you ever heard the expression “You’re so smart you’re stupid?” It seems to communicate the idea that some people are intelligent by every measure, but their intelligence trips them up and they wind up making silly, rudimentary mistakes, and they get in their own way. Sometimes, in situations that require common sense, a smart person can overthink things to the point they sound dumb.

As an article in Forbes Magazine put it, “Smart people are more prone to silly mistakes because of blind spots in how they use logic. These blind spots exist because smart people tend to be overconfident in their reasoning abilities.

That is, they’re so used to being right and having quick answers that they don’t even realize when they’re blowing it by answering without thinking things through.” (Bradberry)

Now, there is a difference between what the Bible calls wisdom and how we typically speak about intelligence. Many people that we might call smart are called foolish in the Bible, and that’s because wisdom in the Bible is not a mental faculty, but a spiritual and practical one. Wisdom is about how one lives their life, understanding that there is a God, and recognizing that we are not God.

Bible Verses About Wisdom

Consider the following Scripture passages and Bible verses about wisdom from the Old Testament as well as the New Testament.

Old Testament passages about wisdom

One of the first places where most people turn when considering the meaning of wisdom is the book of Proverbs, and that’s with good cause. The book of Proverbs is part of ancient Israel’s wisdom literature, and this includes Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job.

Together, these three books try to answer the question of what wisdom is, and what it means to live a good life in a world like ours. The books have three different but complementary answers to these questions. This helps readers arrive at a nuanced appreciation of what it means to be wise.

The book of Proverbs announces at its beginning that it is a collection of the proverbs of Solomon, the son of King David. Solomon is famous for several things, one of them being how wise he was (1 Kings 4:29).

The Proverbs are “for gaining wisdom and instruction; for understanding words of insight,” (Proverbs 1:2, NIV) and the whole book expresses what it means to be wise in the area of relationships, business, work, and every other area of life.

Before the book of Proverbs lays out this wisdom, it says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” (Proverbs 1:7, ESV) This is echoed by another passage that says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” (Proverbs 9:10, NIV) The way to wisdom is to revere God and understand that God is God, and we are not.

We must recognize the nature of reality, which includes our limits and the limits of our perception and understanding. Additionally, we must also recognize that we are accountable to God for our lives. If God is God and I am not, then I shall have to give an account of how I lived my life one day.

The book of Proverbs is chock-full of verses about wisdom, but some of the richer veins include the following:

My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding – indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, 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. – Proverbs 2:1-6, NIV

These verses remind us that the pursuit of wisdom is a lifelong pursuit of something utterly precious. Understanding how to live life well is an ongoing pursuit we must apply ourselves to. From these verses, we learn that it’s ultimately God who grants us wisdom, and it’s to Him we must turn if we desire to have a right understanding of our world and how to live well in it.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.– Proverbs 3:5-8, NIV

Can we trust our instincts and our insights into the world around us? God in His grace has given us many gifts, including our intelligence through which we can understand a lot of things. However, what this verse suggests is that our understanding cannot take us all the way. If ever a choice comes up between my instincts and what God is saying, I should trust what God is saying rather than myself.

Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies; 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 pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her; those who hold her fast will be blessed.– Proverbs 3:13-18, NIV

In the book of Proverbs, Wisdom is personified as a woman. She calls out in the street, desiring for people to find her and learn from her (Proverbs 8). At the same time, Folly is also personified, and she too is calling out for people to follow her, and she finds her fair share whom she ensnares (Proverbs 9). If you find wisdom, you are blessed, because you will conduct your relationships, business, and other affairs in a way that brings flourishing to your life.

The book of Proverbs envisions a world where honest, hardworking, and honorable behaviors lead to success and long life. The book of Ecclesiastes complicates this a bit, suggesting that life is more complex.

Things like death, chance, and time often mean that there is no guarantee of anything in this life (Ecclesiastes 9:11). A wise person can die just as easily as a foolish one, and just because you are wise doesn’t mean that your children or successors will be, or that you will even be remembered by future generations. Life doesn’t always have a discernable pattern that it follows.

After laying out his case, the Teacher often says that everything is ‘meaningless’ (Ecclesiastes 12:8). For us modern readers, we might understand that to mean that life is pointless and wisdom is pointless too. The word translated as ‘meaningless’ is the Hebrew word for vapor, mist, or smoke. The Teacher is saying that the meaning of life is hard to grasp or make sense of, not that it’s pointless.

If we’re honest, we too can see that the good guys don’t always seem to win, and evil often seems to get rewarded with success. Life doesn’t always make sense. The Teacher is complicating our understanding of wisdom from Proverbs, but at the end of everything, even after considering how confusing or hard life is to grasp and understand, the Teacher still charges people to seek wisdom and remember the Creator (Ecclesiastes 12:1-7).

“The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded than the shouts of a ruler of fools. Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.” (Ecclesiastes 9:17-18, NIV) This reminds us of wisdom’s power and how it can affect the outcomes of our daily interactions. It also reminds us how even our best decisions may be frustrated by someone else’s foolish actions.

New Testament passages about wisdom

In the New Testament Bible verses about wisdom, there is a contrast between what the world considers wisdom and what God considers wise. One of the reasons for this is because of the cross of Jesus. On the face of it, how can the shameful death of a Jewish rabbi at the hands of Roman authorities be a way of saving humanity? It seems ludicrous, not only to 21^st-century minds but to 1^st-century minds as well.

The Old Testament exodus in which God unleashed plagues against Egypt to rescue His people from slavery looks more like a rescue than Jesus’ death on the cross does. Jesus’ death looks like a defeat. It doesn’t exactly look like the way to build a kingdom and challenge the power of Rome and other empires.

The world of the New Testament had its fill of various philosophies, scholars, and different forms of supposed wisdom. Just as we do today, the people then listened to people that were clever with their words and that were powerful in their speech. The Christians in the cosmopolitan city of Corinth were becoming enamored with the philosophy and understanding of their peers more than God’s wisdom.

Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.

Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.– 1 Corinthians 1:20-25, NIV

God’s way toward life in abundance, God’s wisdom, in other words, doesn’t look like how our world sees it. Our human wisdom is that those who are strong, and beautiful, who get ahead of others, who work hard to keep what’s theirs – these are the ones who are blessed and have the cheat code for what life is about. Our wisdom, the pattern of life that we think leads to the good life, looks little like God’s wisdom and path toward the good life.

God’s way of bringing us peace and healing was through the cross, but to us, that may seem foolish. The entire Christian way of life, of loving and serving others, including our enemies, seems foolish in a world where the pursuit of happiness is king.

My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.– Colossians 2:2-3, NIV

These verses echo 1 Corinthians, but they also form an important twist to what the Old Testament says. It firmly puts all wisdom in Christ. If we want to understand what wisdom is and what it looks like, we ought to look at Jesus – how He lived His life, the words He spoke, and what He calls us to do. Following Him is the pursuit of wisdom, and in Him are we blessed.

Your life may be crisscrossed with life choices that have led you into pain, or you may have been a casualty of the cruelty that abounds in this world. We need wisdom to navigate these realities, and sometimes other people can guide us into God’s wisdom for our lives.

If you’re looking for additional support beyond these Bible verses about wisdom, consider reaching out and spending time with a Christian counselor in Orange County to unpack your life choices and the circumstances you’re currently in. Contact Orange County Christian Counseling today for help.