Chapter 4: Where To
So you are a Christian. Where are you going to is one obvious question with a partly obvious answer. The obvious part of the answer is: to be with Jesus in the second life after this life and after death. We will leave thinking about that to the end of these studies – the most obvious place for it to be. The less obvious answer is to the question: where to in this life? And that is much more difficult to talk about for several reasons. Perhaps the most important is that listeners and readers to this will come from all sorts of countries, societies and cultures all round the world. The dominant word in the Old Testament relating to all this is ‘wisdom’, being wise, but it scarcely figures in the New Testament for the individual believer. However let’s use it and, to some extent, add our own particular twist to what it means.
‘Wisdom’ is the art of living wisely and well. It is not about being clever, or intellectual in a worldly sense. It is perhaps about being wise and intellectual in a Spiritual sense, but not in a way that excludes anybody for what they are. The cleverest person in our fellowship may be full of wisdom, or may not. Some old person who never got far at school at all may be every bit as wise in the way he or she deals with the situations and the people they live in and among as anybody.
But before we get too far in to the subject let’s see what the Old Testament says about it. The book of Job is a good place to start. Not that he knew it all. He asks the very important question: “But where can wisdom be found?” and then goes on in his wonderful chapter 28 to puzzle over it.
“Where does understanding dwell?” he says,
“No mortal comprehends its worth;
it cannot be found in the land of the living.
The deep says, “It is not in me”;
the sea says, “It is not with me.”
It cannot be bought with the finest gold,
nor can its price be weighed out in silver.
It cannot be bought with the gold of Ophir,
with precious onyx or lapis lazuli.
Neither gold nor crystal can compare with it,
nor can it be had for jewels of gold.
Coral and jasper are not worthy of mention;
the price of wisdom is beyond rubies.
The topaz of Cush cannot compare with it;
it cannot be bought with pure gold.
Where then does wisdom come from?
Where does understanding dwell?”
A few verses later he says: “God understands the way to it
and he alone knows where it dwells,
for he views the ends of the earth
and sees everything under the heavens.
When he established the force of the wind
and measured out the waters,
when he made a decree for the rain
and a path for the thunderstorm,
then he looked at wisdom and appraised it;
he confirmed it and tested it.”
At which point we might be tempted to think that Job did not know anything much of what we call science and that we have gained a huge amount of that sort of wisdom since. But he goes on:
“The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.”
And now he is talking about the sort of Spiritual wisdom that is our birthright as Christians and is the purpose for which we live.
This is Old Testament truth and not quite what we find in the New Testament. Probably the most outstanding verse of the NT on the subject does not even have either of the words ‘wisdom’ or ‘wise’ in it. It is something Jesus said. Can you guess what it is I am thinking about? Here it is: “I am the way and the truth and the life.” In that one simple phrase Jesus answers all the puzzles of Job and the rest of the Old Testament. Let’s look at it in detail.
Jesus says he is the way, thus emphasizing that the Christian life is a journey, not a single event once in one’s life. Most people don’t think of their lives as a journey; they are only concerned with the next few weeks or months, or just possibly years in front of, them. They do not look far ahead and ask the question where am I going? What is my purpose in life? But, as I suggested previously, one of the main reasons for becoming a Christian is the desire to have a purpose in life and a goal to look ahead to. Those who have a purpose to their lives, at least a good purpose, tend to flourish a great deal more than those who just drift along, wondering always what tomorrow will bring but making no real attempt to fashion their tomorrow. There is no better purpose, better way, than following Jesus, than letting Jesus be our way. Which immediately raises the further question: how can Jesus be the way?
We can follow him. Not in everything since he went on to the Cross and the Resurrection. But in our own very small ways we can endeavor to follow the examples he set: reliance on God the Father, deep concern for our own progress in Spiritual matters particularly holiness and love, care and concern for other people particularly his people, and that integration into a web of relationships which can be the glory of our lives in this world.
Two things are necessary for us to progress in these matters: the first is to know Jesus as the Truth of God, using the written word to learn ever more of him as the Living Word; the second is to learn how to do this by reliance on Jesus as the true Life, the Life which alone can teach us the deep spiritual things we need to learn.
If we put all these things together holding Jesus in front of us as the Way, the Truth and the Life then indeed we shall be able to gain true Wisdom and to move far further forward than any of the Old Testament people were ever able to do.
So what?
Once again there are no further specific things we need to do beyond what I have already tried to describe. Read again that crucial verse John 14: 6, think about it, study it, meditate on it, and you will be starting well on the journey of faith, leaning on Jesus, walking in step with the Spirit, moving towards the day when you will see the Lord God and His Son, Jesus, in glory.
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