Christian Philosophy: How Christ Fulfills Proverbs 10:13

Image Credit: Media from Wix

Proverbs 10:13 says: “In the lips of him that hath understanding wisdom is found: but a rod is for the back of him that is void of understanding.” What drawing of the Lord Jesus Christ has the Holy Spirit sketched for us here?

The first clause says that wisdom is found in the lips of Him who has understanding. Who has understanding but the One who created all things, and therefore understands all things? “Wait though,” you may say, “Christ is Wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:24), and the first clause of this text says that wisdom is found in the lips of the One with understanding. So, given all that, how can Christ be both wisdom and the One with understanding at the same time?” My answer to that question has two parts. One, is it not true that Christ possesses all understanding, given His omniscience (John 2:24-25)? Second, as Jonathan Edwards teaches in his sermon “The Excellency of Christ,” the Lord can, and does, have glorious attributes that, to the finite mind, are incompatible, but are, in reality, perfectly coexistent with each other. [1] And wisdom and understanding aren’t even contradictory or paradoxical characteristics; just distinct but overlapping ones. So, Christ is Wisdom. Yet, Christ is also the One who has understanding. And out of His lips comes the wisdom that characterizes His very being (Mark 6:2). In Christ, wisdom is found.

The second clause says that a rod is for the back of the one who lacks understanding. Since sin is lawlessness (1 John 3:4) and Christ embodies perfect obedience to God’s Law (Romans 5:18-19), [2] then sin is also christlessness. And since Christ is Understanding, what is a lack of understanding but christlessness. My point here is to establish that christlessness (and godlessness, given Christ’s Deity-John 1:1-18) is characterized by lack of understanding. The glory of Christ’s understanding shines all the more brilliantly against the shame of the lack of understanding that sin is. And a rod is for the back of one who is characterized by this lack!

Reader, do you have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16)? That is, do you understand things according to Christ’s own understanding, insofar as the Holy Spirit reveals His understanding in His Word? By examining your heart and mind according to this question, you will see which clause in this proverb is a picture of you!

[1] https://www.gracegems.org/SERMONS/The%20Excellency%20Of%20Christ.htm [2] https://www.gracegems.org/2017/04/Plato's%20wish.html