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Just what is the difference between wisdom and knowledge? Practically for the entirety of my life I have heard this question debated. As someone who writes and speaks to the public, I have tried to distill this difference down to where it could be grasped easily. I think I found an answer last week in a pizzeria. I’ll share that answer with you and you can decide.

It was one of those “all you care to eat” buffets with a salad bar. They also offer the option to order from a menu, or pizza by the slice. Boiling it all down, almost anyone who likes pizza and salad could go there and eat a relatively nourishing meal regardless of the size of his or her appetite. I have been there before and have bought pizza by the slice as well as ordered the buffet. I went there last week with a full knowledge of what they had to offer. I also went there knowing that if I did not exercise self-control, I would overeat and be miserable for the rest of the evening.

I had good intentions; I really, really did! But, my good intentions did not override my instinct to get my money’s worth! That’s my trouble with a buffet; I just can’t seem to pay for a potentially gigantic meal and eat normally: I eat in gigantean proportions. Upon leaving the establishment in a state of overstuffed misery, it dawned on me that I wasn’t very wise to do what I had done. I knew better, but I did it in spite of my knowledge. This I decided is the difference between wisdom and knowledge. Knowledge is knowing what is on the menu; wisdom is knowing what you ought to order!

This simple differentiation applies in all aspects of life. A street-smart person is not necessarily a street-wise person. A highly educated person may know all that the book has to say about a particular subject but have little or no ability to make practical application of that knowledge. So, for me, I think the illustration of knowing what is on the menu as contrasted to knowing what to choose is an adequate illustration to grasp the difference between knowledge and wisdom.

By overlaying these thoughts with God’s word, it makes sense of what James wrote when he said, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” (James 1.5). God is the only source of the kind of wisdom of which James writes! Furthermore, He offers that wisdom to any and all who wish to receive it; He gives it liberally and will in no wise upbraid (KJV) any who seek it. The Bible was written for the express purpose of helping us to know what to choose from life’s menu. The writer of the book of Ecclesiastes sampled virtually everything that life had to offer, and yet he still found life full of vanity and trouble. At long last after a lifetime of trial and error, he drew a valid conclusion that is worthy of repeating. “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, Whether good or evil.” (Ecclesiastes 12.13-14).

We can know everything that God wants us to know about Him and also have the wisdom to apply that knowledge if we will but seek that wisdom through God’s way and not our own. “It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.” (Jeremiah 10.23). No man stands as tall in God’s sight as when he is on his knees praying for wisdom from above! That wisdom is “…first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.” (James 3.17). Like a man who goes through a buffet line, choose from life wisely and there will be no regrets afterward!

Questions:

1. How has God chosen to reveal His wisdom to mankind? Will He deny it to any earnest seeker?

2. What is one value of the book of Ecclesiastes? If one thinks he has to follow Solomon in sampling all of life’s vanities, of what value is the book to that person?

3. If it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps, then from whence does the answer come?

4. How can I know what I ought to choose from life’s buffet? What is the difference between knowing what to do and doing it? What is the difference between knowledge and wisdom?

"'Winging It" from Stan Smith

Moralism