CHRIST “the WISDOM of GOD”: “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God” (1 Cor 1:24, 30). Paul writes that “the world through wisdom did not know God” (v 21). James adds that earthly wisdom is “sensual, demonic” and manifests itself in envy, self-seeking, confusion and every evil thing (see Jas 3:15-16). But his description of “the wisdom that is from above” is a portrait of Christ Himself: “first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy” (v 17). Man’s wisdom led to questions without answers (skepticism), knowledge without hope (despair) and religion without God (idolatry). The best they could offer was an altar to an unknown god whom they ignorantly worshipped. But Christ is the personification of wisdom, the embodiment of truth, the revelation of divine knowledge, the unfolding of heaven’s secrets. Knowing Him is to know all (see 1 Jn 2:20)! —J.B.N.