Stay Salty: Wisdom From Above

What are the distinguishing marks that will make a salt and light in our culture today? What will both set us apart and make us attractive?

Photo by Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash

Salt is useful because it is distinct. It brings something different to the table, something that can’t be mimicked (I’ve got my eye on you Nu Salt). Jesus’ call for us to be salt in this world is an invitation to ask some important questions for our missional context.

What are the distinguishing marks that will make us salt and light in our culture today? What are the things that we will bring to the table that can't be duplicated or manufactured in a worldly context? What will both set us apart and make us attractive?

I’ve been considering these questions lately and have a few thoughts. Four, in fact. I’m going to be unpacking each of these “salt distinctives” over the next few articles. They are:

1. WISDOM FROM ABOVE

2. COMPASSION

3. PEACE-MAKING

4. TRUE LOVE

Let’s look at this first one, wisdom from above.

SALT DISTINCTIVE #1: WISDOM FROM ABOVE James writes:

Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. (James 3:13-17, NKJV)

Our world is filled to overflowing with information and starved for wisdom. We are a nation filled with narratives, but are not sure where we can find truth.

Our leaders and formerly trusted institutions are distrusted. The Covid19 crisis and the response to it unmasked many things in our society (even as we were told to mask up).

In a recent Newsweek article, author Kevin Bass included a frank admission

Labeling … speech "misinformation" and blaming it on "scientific illiteracy" and "ignorance," the government conspired with Big Tech to aggressively suppress it, erasing the valid political concerns of the government's opponents. And this despite the fact that pandemic policy was created by a razor-thin sliver of American society who anointed themselves to preside over the working class—members of academia, government, medicine, journalism, tech, and public health, who are highly educated and privileged….

My motivation for writing this is simple: It's clear to me that for public trust to be restored in science, scientists should publicly discuss what went right and what went wrong during the pandemic, and where we could have done better. It's OK to be wrong and admit where one was wrong and what one learned. That's a central part of the way science works. Yet I fear that many are too entrenched in groupthink—and too afraid to publicly take responsibility—to do this

Spirit-breathed wisdom will provide perspective that the world can't produce. It will not be ideology, or crafted narrative designed to control. It will be real truth that illuminates and enlightens.

Kingdom Christians must transcend the kind of speech that simply pits ideology against ideology (e.g. conservative vs. liberal). This kind of approach will not bear fruit in our polarized climate. People’s ears have been tuned to detect this kind of language and realize what it represents: An attempt to control.

For every fact we muster, a contrary fact will be pulled out, like a rabbit out of the hat. It will come complete with “expert” approval.

Of course, I’m not suggesting we can’t use facts. Sometimes, we’ll have to deliver some punchy, hard-hitting truth.

Fact-based arguments can and should be marshaled to shed light on the issues of the day. However, I believe we are at a point where such things will, for far too many people, be interpreted as little more than talking points in the mouth of people who, at best, want to win an argument and who, at worst, are trying to gain power over another person.

One sentence of heavenly wisdom will blow away the most slickly produced lie. Wisdom from Above is an atom bomb versus a candle.

Wisdom is much more than an arrangement of factually accurate statements. It is the right word, at the right time, revealed by Holy Spirit. When this Spirit-breathed truth is spoken at the right time, in the right way, it releases much more than an intellectual appeal. It unleashes living truth that touches people’s hearts.

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold In settings of silver. Like an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold Is a wise rebuker to an obedient ear. (Proverbs 25:11-12, NKJV)

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