Wisdom

I was a philosophy major in college. One of the interesting things I noticed while taking philosophy courses is that people generally fall into 4 different classes.

1. There are those who hear an argument or philosophy and embrace it depending on whether they like the person espousing it or not. If they like the person telling them whatever it is, they go for it. If they don’t, they don’t. The Cults are full of this kind of person. And the Cults know it. How many times have you seen Mormon missionaries smiling and talking and then actually listened to what they are saying? The Mormon theology and history make no sense, even to them. But Mormons are really nice people.
2. Another class of people hears an argument and knows that there is something wrong with it, but they don’t know what it is. They avoid the dangers of the discussion, but they can’t articulate why. These folks tend to be very emotional about why they are avoiding things. The hard thing about witnessing to these folks is that because they react emotionally to things they don’t understand, the evangelist must be much more patient with them until God opens their eyes. Because the Gospel makes no logical sense to the unbeliever, our arguments won’t help very much.
3. The third group of folks can see that there is something wrong with the argument and they can even tell you what it is that is wrong, but they can’t refute the argument and tell others what the right argument ought to be. Most of my fellow philosophy students fell into this group. I’m not sure how much of this was due to the fact that they were non-Christians and didn’t know the truth, or that they simply couldn’t correct an error in thinking, or living. I suspect a bit of both. Many people can see what is wrong, but can’t correct the error.
4. The last group is made up of folks who can listen to an argument, identify what is wrong, refute it, and then correct it. The Bible tells us that we are to have leaders in the church who fit into this last category. Paul tells us that an overseer “must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it” (Titus 1:9). When a young man comes into the congregation all full of himself and the new ideas he learned at the university, the elder must be able to identify the error, and gently correct the young man (cf. Gal. 6:1).

The question might arise as to the hardness of the boundaries of these four classes. I don’t think they are hard and fast. A person who is an expert in electrical things might be in the fourth class with regard to things electrical, but in the first class with regard to things philosophical and theological. While I do think some of it has to do with gifting in the body of Christ it also has a lot to do with wisdom and experience. This is one reason why young men are excluded from ministry. It isn’t that they don’t have the giftedness to be in the fourth class, but that they don’t have the life experience that needs to be there in order to correct many sins.

This is also why having a plurality of elders is a necessary ingredient in the life of the church. If one elder is in the fourth class in most cases, but isn’t in a particular one, another elder who is weaker in other places might be right on top of the current dilemma.

It’s amazing what you can learn in philosophy courses.