Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered. Psalm 28:26 ESV
Teddy Scott is an Augusta National expert. Despite having already helped two PGA Tour pros win three Masters trophies between them, Teddy still walks and studies the course to learn more to help his player Scottie Scheffler during the tournament. Teddy walks in wisdom as a professional tour caddy.
To understand what it means to walk in wisdom, it’s beneficial to excavate and mine this phrase from a Hebraic perspective.
In Jesus’ first-century world, Jewish rabbis were teachers of the Torah (the first five books of the Bible). These teachers weren’t interested in passing around big ideas or new philosophies for the sake of debate. This was what the Greeks were known for…philosophy and acquiring knowledge to support their notion that “man is the measure of all things.”
Jewish rabbis, Jesus included, had a different worldview. Kristi Mclelland says, “For the Jews, the Lord is the Lord of all, and all things orient to Him. A rabbi’s teaching was crafted to show you how to halakh (walk) the halakha (way or path). A rabbi taught you how to walk out your life in the path or way of the Living God. It wasn’t merely about what you thought but about how you lived. It wasn’t what you knew – it was about how you walked the path of the Lord (Jesus and Women Bible Study).
Learning to walk in wisdom requires studying and learning Scripture and walking in fellowship with others. We don’t want to contain information for conversation, merely debate, or to feel good, however. To be like Jesus, we are to take our knowledge and put it into action. James tells us, “For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead (James 2:26).”
Walking in wisdom means we orient our lives toward God and actively put into practice what we know and how God wants us to conduct our lives. Walking in wisdom is for our own heart’s benefit and for the good of others too.
The Apostle Paul exhorts us to walk by the fruit of the Spirit…love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22). A few verses later, he states, “Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another (Galatians 5:26).” I believe we have continual room for improvement according to these two lists.
To the Ephesians, Paul urges all to walk (live) with humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another in love, and maintaining unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:1-3). This doesn’t mean we can’t have different opinions from others, but how we love and care for one another despite our differences.
As humans, we fall prey to playing in the pool of selfishness, pride, and hardness of heart. We must return to Rabbi Jesus daily, sit under his teachings, and learn from him how to walk out our lives in the path or way of the Living God.
Prayer: Lord, Father, help me to learn from you so that I can walk in wisdom and the path you have for me.