From Every Good Endeavor By Tim Keller 카테고리 없음2024. 5. 2. 15:33
책에 다른 좋은 내용들도 많지만. 오늘 읽은 이 부분을 기억하고 싶어서 옮긴다. 매일매일의 삶에서 성령님의 함꼐 하심과 인도하심을 경험하지 않아 온 것은 아니지만... 그래도 더 적극적으로 성령님의 지혜를 구해야겠구나.
A Different Source of Guidance
Most people think of faith and spirituality as consisting of doctrinal beliefs, moral behavior, and spiritual experience. So when thinking of God giving us a “moral compass,” they imagine a set of ethical rules and regulations, a kind of divine instruction manual from God for life. And it is certainly true that in the Bible Christians receive many practical ethical principles for how to live and many boundary markers showing us what behavior we must completely avoid. If that were all God provided us, it would be helpful, but insufficient. Because there is a whole category missing—wisdom.
According to the Bible, wisdom is more than just obeying God’s ethical norms; it is knowing the right thing to do in the 80 percent of life’s situations in which the moral rules don’t provide the clear answer. There is no biblical law that tells you what job to take, whether to go back to school, whom to marry and befriend, when to speak out or hold your peace, whether to make the deal or walk away—yet the wrong decisions can blow up your life.
How can we become wise so that we make good decisions? The Bible teaches that wisdom accumulates from several sources. First, we must not merely believe in God, but know him personally. When God’s gracious love becomes not an abstract doctrine but a living reality, it means our heart is less controlled by anxiety and pride, two powerful forces that constantly lead us to unwisely over- or underreact to situations. Second, we must know ourselves. Many bad decisions stem from an inability to know what we are and are not capable of accomplishing. The gospel keeps us from over- or underestimating our own abilities, because it shows us both our sin and God’s love for us in Christ. Third, we learn wisdom through experience. The foolish heart—blinded from reality because of its idols—does not learn from experience. In fact, the ups and downs of life can lead us to many false inferences. The proud person blames all failures on others, while the self-hater takes full blame for them even when others are responsible. Without the knowledge of God and self that the gospel brings, experience may teach us precious little; but if we know God and self, then time deepens our understanding of human nature, of the times we live in, of the power and use of words, of how human relationships work. All this leads to wisdom in decision-making.
In the Old Testament, the best place to understand wisdom is the book of Proverbs. Proverbs is a rich resource for handling anger, envy, pride, and discouragement; for resisting the temptations of beauty, money, and power; for wrestling with the problem of self-control; for making decisions; and for keeping relationships in good repair. And what does the New Testament teach? It assumes all the Old Testament teaches about the nature of wisdom, but it gives Christians a new and wonderful resource to do what Proverbs calls us to do. How can we move from merely knowing about God to knowing God? How can we get deep insight into our own heart and the hearts of others? The answer is through the Holy Spirit, given to us by Christ when we embrace him in faith.
The New Testament calls the Holy Spirit the “spirit of wisdom” (Ephesians 1:17) and “power” (1:19). Paul prays for his friends that God would fill them with “all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives” (Colossians 1:9). When he speaks in the famous Ephesians 5 passage about being filled with the Spirit he calls his readers to “be very careful . . . how you live—not as unwise but as wise” (Ephesians 5:15–16).200 To be wise is to know how to best use every moment strategically. And this insight comes from the influence of the Holy Spirit, who also strengthens us to live a life worthy of the Lord (Colossians 1:11) and is referred to as a “spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7).
But how does the Spirit come to give us wisdom? Are we to sit in silence and wait to hear a voice? Not at all. In Acts 15 we see the leaders of the early church embroiled in a controversy over whether Gentile converts were required to keep the Jewish dietary laws and other cultural customs. In effect, they were wrestling with an issue of organizational policy. The text shows us that they debated and discussed matters intensely until they came up with a solution. Then they made a decision and sent it out to the church with the fascinating words, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us that . . .” (Acts 15:28). In other words, they used their best thinking and reasoning, their knowledge and their experience, and came up with a sound decision that they attributed to the Holy Spirit.
Here then is how the Spirit makes us wise. On the night before he died, Jesus told his disciples that he would send the Holy Spirit and “when he, the Spirit of truth, comes . . . he will glorify me . . .” (John 16:13–14). The Spirit does not make us wise in some magical kind of way, giving us little nudges and insider tips to help us always choose the best stock to invest in. Rather, he makes Jesus Christ a living, bright reality, transforming our character, giving us new inner poise, clarity, humility, boldness, contentment, and courage. All of this leads to increasing wisdom as the years go by, and to better and better professional and personal decisions.
Keller, Timothy. Every Good Endeavor (pp. 210-212). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
