Proverbs 1: Absolute Correlation
by J. Michael Strawn
From the Proverbs 1:1-7.
ABSOLUTE CORRELATION.
PART 1: SPIRITUAL ACQUISITION.
#1. “A wise man will hear and increase in learning, and a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel”, v.5.
#2. To “hear” is a means to an end; it is, as well, a precondition to that end. CORRELATION: a mutual relation between two or more things.
#3. Proverbs asserts that “learning” is CORRELATED to hearing. Learning is a form of behavior. Hearing without CORRELATED LEARNING does not result in the acquisition of “wisdom” & “wise counsel”.
#4. The CORRELATION between hearing–>& learning produces an outcome, & that is a particular STATE OF REASONING.
#5. “To give prudence to the naive, to the youth knowledge and discretion”, v.4.
#6. Upon the arrival of the “youth” (of whatever age) into the temporal order, they are confronted by an IMMEDIATE UNIFORM PROBLEM.
#7. Which is this; their ignorance of spiritual terms & revealed spiritual meanings. The young person does not know them & does not know that he/she does not know them.
#8. The AXIS OF KNOWING is revelation. Therefore, hearing the word of God is how we acquire “wisdom”, “instruction”, “prudence”, “knowledge”, & “understanding”.
#9. “To understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their riddles”, v.6.
#10. Proverbs insists, that behind the symbolism of wisdom, one finds, what we may, call DEEP KNOWLEDGE. Hardly arbitrary or subjective, DEEP KNOWLEDGE is rooted in the eternal absolutes. DEEP KNOWLEDGE is a door of access to the ULTIMATE & FINAL REALITY beyond the temporal veil.
From the Proverbs 1:1-7.
ABSOLUTE CORRELATION.
PART 2: SETTING PARAMETERS.
#1. God sends–>the revelation–>hearing correlates–>learning correlates–>acquisition of wisdom, results.
#2. “Wisdom”, “instruction”, “understanding”, “prudence”, “wise counsel” set SUPERNATURAL PARAMETERS upon human thought, speech & behavior. There is nothing natural about any of that, nor is it experience based.
#3. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction”, v.7.
#4. Proverbs addresses a kind of reciprocal. Revealed truth–>generates the learning of special case understanding–>which is FORMALIZED IN “THE FEAR OF THE LORD”.
#5. Any reading or understanding of Scripture that doesn’t produce the fear of God is useless, worthless, incompetent, intellectual vanity & faithless.
#6. “The fear of the Lord” registers as subordination of personal will to revealed wisdom. This is the “beginning of knowledge”. In consequence, the fear of God acts ISOTROPICALLY (same affects through time).
#7. It brings the same understanding into the past, because it challenges the previous ignorance; it affects the present, in terms of approved behavior & it determines parameters for the future. It’s effects are ISOTROPIC.
#8. How one grows in wisdom & understanding is CORRELATED to the learned fear of God. The mind has been CORRELATED to revelation, therefore, the mind can acquire wisdom. The visible is CORRELATED to the invisible; the temporal to the eternal.
#9. Proverbs puts into evidence a created relation that we may call ABSOLUTE CORRELATION. We have been built to believe.
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