March 11, 2026 -- Proverbs 5:1-2 -- What are wisdom, understanding, and discretion?

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My son, be attentive to my wisdom;
incline your ear to my understanding.
that you may keep discretion,
and your lips may guard knowledge.
Proverbs 5:1-2 ESV
 
Wisdom. It can also be translated as “a spirit of skill”, as it is in Exodus 28:3. There wisdom is the ability to make the garments for Aaron the priest. Wisdom is gained from years of attentiveness to the word of God. Wisdom is not gained through a study guide (like “wisdom for dummies”); it is the skill gained through a lifetime of practice, honing, obedience. The father teaches his son out of the abundance of his experience interacting with Scriptures and then following through with what he’s read in daily life, walking with God, in learning submission through trials and discipline.
 
When wisdom and understanding are combined, taught with persistence through godly instructors, the one who hears it gains discretion. Discretion carries the sense of knowing one’s purpose. Discretion is employing both wisdom and understanding so that one’s words and deeds line up in godly action. Discretion is that sense of purpose one has in life. Wisdom and understanding teach me, I am made by God. I am made for God’s glory. My life has meaning and I exercise the fullness of the purposes for which I was made when I live for God.
 
The work of Jesus was to live out all righteousness. He fulfilled the requirements of God for a holy, godly life. Jesus’ every word, deed, and ambition combined to serve God. He lived with holy discretion—learning from the wisdom of His earthly father, living in obedience to the teaching of His mother so that His life was acceptable as the sacrifice which takes away our sin. At the cross of Jesus Christ, all our failures in wisdom, in understanding, in discretion, in knowledge are placed on Jesus, the spotless lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world. God the Father punished Him in our place. All His righteousness (His fulfilment of the law’s demands) is credited to us. He paid for our sins: past, present, and future.
 
In view of Jesus’ great act of life-long, willing obedience to His Father and then, in our place taking on the full weight of God’s punishment against our sins, we dedicate ourselves to wisdom, and understanding, so that we can keep discretion. Having been instructed in the vast love of God shown to us in Christ, our purpose is to pour out our lives in thankfulness to the Father, for the gift of Jesus and this in the power of the Holy Spirit. When you mess up, fess up. When you struggle, know that you are in most important battle of your life—being drained of the poison of evil and filled to the full measure of purity in Christ.
 
Father in heaven, help me to seek Your kingdom and the righteousness of Jesus Christ. May my spiritual health be upper most in my mind and guide my actions. I confess I know this is the right thing to pray for, but even as I pray it, I don’t desire it as much as I ought to desire it. Merciful Father, by the purifying work of Your Spirit, lead me to Jesus, and thoroughly cleanse me from the inside out. Lead me, Spirit of God, so that instruction becomes tested and refined and ultimately becomes mature, true, godly wisdom. Amen.
 
https://youtu.be/vCcGqMHndxo?si=migq74_zKbQaDd_G Worthy is the Lamb that was Slain
 

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