A Necessary Understanding

To know wisdom, one must understand how to understand.  You must learn to understand before actually considering to understand.  The Bible says:

“To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive
the words of understanding;”
(Proverbs 1:2)

In the second part of Proverbs 1:2 it says, “To perceive the words of understanding.”  To interpret this is to say, “To understand the words of understanding.”  It shows that understanding is alive and also able to speak words that should or must be understood.

To truly understand something, you must know it in truth, and the only source of all truth is Jesus (John 14:6).  For example; an unsaved person could not understand the joy of Salvation in its truth and depth without Jesus.  Since understanding is alive recognize the source of life: Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.

That phrase, “To understand the words of understanding,” may seem so very difficult to discern, but it is simple.  It may seem so deep, but yet still so easy to grasp.  What makes this phrase seem to be so difficult to natural understanding is its power in the truth.

I once heard this expression; “You can fall in love with someone without understanding or knowing it.”  This is not true in the least!  It is simply impossible to go through life never knowing or having an idea of what love is.  The depth is most important is this matter.  One cannot comprehend the complete depth of love and its power unless they have accepted the Lord who is the Author of it.

With me speaking on love, I’m giving a clear example of the saying, “To know wisdom, one must understand how to understand.”

Now that you are in knowledge of these things, let’s go on to find out the depth of understanding and how it’s viewed from a Scriptural point of view.

People must be able to perceive, speculate, and be discrete in order to understand things and produce wisdom.  Understanding is a combination of both perception and speculation which is called discerning.  Perception is the ability to understand, realize, or become aware of through senses.  Speculation is thinking about things yet unknown: in other words; hope.

To discover something with the eyes or the mind means to comprehend new thoughts and senses, which are what you see and think about.  If a person can discern, a person can understand.  Accompanied by wisdom and knowledge, understanding does not stand alone.

Wisdom, knowledge, and understanding is a three-fold chord that cannot be broken.  A person cannot have one without the other (I speak as a Christian).  In order to have wisdom a person must be able to understand what wisdom is and also have knowledge of what understanding is.  Without the knowledge of one, the understanding of another, and the wisdom to discern the three, a mind could not have discretion (skillful judgment).  To say you have one without the other is like saying, “I can perceive, but I cannot discern: I can speculate, but I cannot understand.”  The truth is; if you have one you have all: there’s no way of bending the truth.

Wisdom, knowledge, and understanding are in the same manner as the Holy Trinity. Can there be God the Holy Spirit if there wasn’t God the Father?  There must be all three or there is none (I speak in respect of Christ’s redemptive work, the Holy Spirit’s work through Christ, and God the Father being the mastermind in the plan of redemption).  The reason for this is because one bears witness of another.  For example: the Holy Spirit bears witness of the Son, the Son bears witness of the Father, and they are all glorified in each other.  In the same manner, knowledge bears witness of understanding, understanding bears witness of wisdom, and wisdom bears witness of God.