There were two men nailing siding onto a house. The senior partner noticed the other man pull a nail from his pouch, throw it away and get a new one to hammer the board into place. He stood amazed for a few minutes as the partner repeated the process. Getting down from his ladder he went to inspect the discarded nails to find nothing wrong with them. He called up to his partner, “Why are you throwing these nails away?” “The head of those nails were on the wrong end,” came the answer.
Wisdom means knowing what to do with the knowledge you have.
Sometimes as Christians we are like the ignorant construction worker. We don’t use wisdom in applying what we know. We have a tendency to brow beat others with the truth, or we soft peddle love so that there is no call to repentance. We may steep ourselves in rules and bondages, or give ourselves so much grace that Christ can no longer be seen in us.
The Holy Spirit admonishes us in Colossians 3: 16 to allow the word of Christ to dwell in us richly in all wisdom. We are to teach and admonish one another, but note it is with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. We are to be making music with one another, not hammer away.
