Proverbs 23

Proverbs 23:23 "Buy wisdom and do not sell it; get wisdom, discipline and understanding."

Buy wisdom and do not sell it. I'm not sure that I do best with viewing wisdom as a commodity that I can purchase and control, but this brief phrase I get. We are instructed to work towards the gain of wisdom (and by extension discipline and understanding). That's no surprise, as wisdom does not come easily, nor is understanding "natural" to the human condition. And discipline just means work. That's the way it is, discipline is not the punishing of someone to correct bad behavior, it is the constant process of training up toward a goal of some kind. And as we work to pay the bills, we work to buy stuff, so we work to obtain wisdom.

And we never give it up for anything, we can't decide when wisdom is useful and when it just gets in the way. In a powerful movie (Kingdom of Heaven), the king of Jerusalem confronts a young knight as to his duties to be righteous in the face of corrupting influence, "But remember that, even when those who move you be kings or men of power, your soul is in your keeping alone. When you stand before God you cannot say 'but I was told by others to do thus' or that 'virtue was not convenient at the time.' This will not suffice. Remember that." It does not suffice for us to sell away the fruit of the Spirit for any price. I pray we remember that as we go into Holy Week.