Questions and Answers | God Wise
What does the Bible mean when it calls God wise?
Not only is God the all-knowing God, but He is also the only wise God (Rom. 16:27). The identification of God as the only wise God means that God alone is essentially and originally wise. Angels and human beings have wisdom because wisdom is God’s gift to them (Prov. 2:1–8). Wisdom is one of God’s eternal perfections (Job 9:4).
God is wise in that He sets the best and perfect goals for His glory and our good. He has established the best plans and means to achieve His glorious ends in ways that are inscrutable. His wisdom is pure and holy. He shows His wisdom in Creation, in the governance of the universe (Ps. 104:24), and in His eternal plan of salvation through the death, burial, and bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead (1 Cor. 1:20 31). It is encouraging to know that not only the omniscient God but also the all-wise God desires to lead and guide us in our daily lives (Prov. 1:20–33). If we are wise, we will renounce our folly, and embrace God’s wisdom revealed in the Bible for our lives today.
God’s omniscience is His total, perfect, and complete knowledge of all things from all eternity, whereas His wisdom is the application of His omniscience to achieve His eternal plan and purpose of redemption for His own glory and for the highest good of the redeemed.
BY Dr. Winfred O. Neely
Dr. Winfred Neely is Vice President and Dean of Moody Theological Seminary and Graduate School. An ordained minister, Winfred has served churches across the city of Chicago, the near west suburbs, and Senegal, West Africa. He is the author of How to Overcome Worry (Moody Publishers) and a contributor to the Moody Bible Commentary and Moody Handbook of Preaching. Winfred and his wife Stephne have been married for forty years and have four adult children and nine grandchildren.